FOYA's Founding
FOYA Uganda began in 2009 when our founder and director, Dr. Diane Ross, traveled to Uganda. Diane found her way to Uganda through her students, now friends, whom she taught at a peace academy in Austria. At the start, their goal was to build libraries and provide access to literacy.​
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In 2010 FOYA made its first visit to Uganda. Through intense fundraising and the generous contributions, Diane and a team of volunteers worked at the Naguru Parents’ School building a playground, putting in a garden, painting the facility, starting a technology lab, building a first aid clinic, starting a library, and modeling lessons for teachers. This work continued with new teams until 2013.​​
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In the summers of '14, '15, and '16 we expanded our efforts in partnership with Naguru's headmistress. Our team worked at her new school in the village of Nakosi, and traveled to the village of Oluvu. We started a community library at both sites providing over 3,000 books to each library with the help of Good Steward Global Initiatives.
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After five years of working on literacy projects, we realized that girls were missing school because of menstruation. In 2016 we piloted our menstrual health initiative. We worked with girls who had dropped out of school; and collaborated with schools and communities to design, implement, and assess programs in menstrual hygiene management and sexual reproductive health education (MHM/SRHE). We purchased supplies from Days for Girls International, and conducted sexual reproductive health workshops with 300+ girls, and distributed 400 reusable sanitary napkin kits between 2016 and 2019.
Following a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19, our 2022 team of eight people collaborated with the rural, indigenous Bukonjo village led by Dr. Heidi Ballard. The team was highly successful, serving over 60 girls through MHM/SRHE projects, establishing a community library, and recording climate change stories.
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The 2023 team worked in three villages continuing to build libraries and completing MHM/SRHE projects. This was also a special year because we made this trip with Ben Zirzow’s (a past volunteer who had passed away) brother and sister in his honor. We started the George and Ben’s Library in Arua and planted trees in Mukono in his name.​
In 2024 we worked on two different projects; In Adjumani we worked with a past partner, Janet Mundua, at Oligo Primary School teaching MHM/SRHE curriculum and distributing reusable pads. Here we also reorganized their book room to make a better functioning school library. In Arua, worked with the George and Ben’s library to add technology access, and continued the MHS/SRHE projects started in 2023.
From the beginning, our focus has always been on partnering with communities in Uganda. Every year, FOYA provides opportunities through its projects in education, public health, gender equity, and community engagement.