Dear Friends,
We’re grateful for your past support of Friends Ugandan Safe Transport Fund and Friends Ugandan Skills Training Fund, projects of Olympia (WA) Friends Meeting (Quakers) since 2014.
The donations given by you, our supporters, between 2014 and 2023 to the Safe Transport Fund financed over 3,000 LGBTQI folks to escape to safer countries so they could survive.
Now, since transitioning to the Skills Training Fund, we have some new challenges.
This project has been very successful, training many LGBTQ Ugandans with literacy, life and work skills so that they can survive and be self-supporting in this difficult, hostile environment.
First this involved setting up the program: acquiring the campus and equipment, establishing residence quarters, hiring instructors and counselors.
The first students were admitted into nine months of training, and as of July 2026 twenty-three students have graduated and were certified. Skills included carpentry, coding, cosmetology and tailoring – and literacy and math as needed.
Right now we have an urgent situation with the water supply at the training center.
There is no water and hasn’t been in over six weeks. Climate change is making it unlikely that this situation will change.
As a result, our project director and staff have had to drive to where they can purchase it. The cost for the water and transportation is a significant expense. It is $450 a month on top of the expenses to run the program.
The proposal they have asked us to support involves digging and installing an underground water pump system which will be a one-time cost of $3,480. They would like to install this now.
This one-time expense we are asking for your help with now is in addition to the $2,060 a month it costs to run the program.
Any donations you can make to support this project’s water emergency and the monthly costs will be greatly appreciated.
To direct questions to us and make a donation, see below below.
Thank you,
Kathleen O’Shaunessy
Gabi Clayton
Friends Ugandan Skills Training Fund
Olympia Friends Meeting
https://friendsugandanskillstraining.org/
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Olympia Friends Meeting
3201 Boston Harbor Road NE
Olympia, WA 98506-2800
Note: Contributions to Friends Ugandan Skills Training Fund through Olympia Monthly Meeting (Olympia Friends Meeting) are tax-deductible. Olympia Monthly Meeting is recognized by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization. Cash and non-cash contributions are tax-deductible to the full extent of applicable law.
Our Employer Identification Number (EIN) is: 94-3145171.
Our registered name is: Olympia Monthly Meeting Of The N Paci Yly Metg Of Religious Soc Frn.