Educate!
Educate! isa Boulder and Uganda-based organization that was started in 2002 by then 17-year-old Fairview high school student, Eric Glustrom.
He wanted to film a documentary to help his peers learn about the lives and suffering of the refugees in Uganda. While he was in Kyangwali Refugee Settlement he met a young man his same age, Benson Olivier, and asked him what he could do to help. Benson Olivier told Eric that he wanted an education so he could work to solve the problems in his community and homeland. From these words, Educate! was born.
Today Educate! equips and mobilizes 415 students to find local solutions to local problems and address the most fundamental challenge facing Africa: the lack of socially responsible leadership across diverse sectors of society. Educate! teaches a social change curriculum, provides long-term mentoring and creates a powerful, nation-wide network of youth to support young leaders across Uganda as
they create sustainable change.
Educate! believes that empowering one individual creates an impact that spreads exponentially as that individual goes on to empower others. This is best said by an Educate! student, Benson Wereje: “Just one match can spark a wildfire.”
Educate!’s model has been recognized internationally by Echoing Green, DoSomething, Entrepreneur Magazine, Fast Company and others who see the crucial importance of empowering the next generation of youth in Africa.
