Members of Global Women Empowerment, a student-run organization based at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional, recently coordinated a series of fundraising initiatives benefiting sponsored students in Africa, in addition to several domestic and international nonprofits. 

Press release from Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School

Global Women Empowerment, a student organization at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School, recently completed a highly successful fundraiser in support of Change A Life Uganda’s program Tuition for Tots-to-Teens.

The fundraising effort, which included the sale of handmade Ugandan bracelets as well as lollipops, raised over $2,000. The collected funds will allow two girls to attend school in Uganda.

Last year, during its first year as an RFH organization, Global Women Empowerment sold bracelets with the message “Education Is Empowerment” and raised $1,000. This allowed Daisy, an 18-year-old who began her formal schooling at a boarding school 19 miles from her home at the age of six, to attend one year of high school. With the funds raised through the recent bracelet and lollipop sale, Daisy will be able to finish her last two years of high school. Daisy, who wants to become a nurse and says that she would most likely be married if she were not attending school right now, plans to attend a four-year university after completing high school.

The recent fundraiser also allowed Global Women Empowerment to sponsor another young girl named Patricia. An eight-year-old who dreams of becoming a doctor, Patricia lives with her grandmother because her parents — who sell roasted cassava along a highway and sometimes earn as little as one dollar a day — live so far from the school. With the money raised by Global Women Empowerment, Patricia will be able to attend three years of primary school.

Additional fundraisers held the past fall by Global Women Empowerment included a bake sale that resulted in a donation of over $100 to benefit the Women’s Fund of the Blue Ridge, as well as a screening of the film Honor Diaries. The screening of the documentary exploring violence against women in honor-based Middle Eastern societies raised over $350. The funds were split equally between St. Joseph’s Indian School and Heifer International. The donation to Heifer International, a charity working to end hunger around the world by providing livestock and training to struggling communities, enabled the founding of a women’s self-help group as well as the purchase of a Biogas wood-burning stove.

Global Women Empowerment Officers are RFH students Hope Haywood, Annie O’Brien, Alexanda Siwulec, Shoshana Swell, Sarah Turi, and Payton Wall. RFH Social Studies teacher Christie Ferraris serves as Club Advisor.