Welcome to our Kafunjo Letter Drives!

(Already a seasoned letter writer? Skip down to the Participation Guidelines below!)

For those new to our letter drives, once a year, I (Ashley Shrader, President) coordinate a large letter drive for the ~400 children we serve at The Kafunjo Community Project in rural Uganda, sending them extra love and encouragement. Our Project serves as both a school and an orphanage. While these drives can be very fun to participate in, they carry a deep purpose. The children at our Project have endured heartbreaking things at very young ages including but not limited to poverty, neglect, starvation, progressive yet treatable illnesses, unsafe living conditions, all forms of abuse, threats of child marriages, and suicidal thoughts. My goal in these drives is for us to communicate to each child just how loved, valued, and precious they are - a message many had never heard before joining the Project.

Scroll down to the bottom of this page to see photos of the children opening their letters and gifts from previous letter drives!

how do the letter drives work?

• Although I’m the President of our nonprofit and a main advocate for Kafunjo, I want to assure you that this is purely a letter drive - there will never be any hidden requests for general donations or unsolicited Project updates, now or in the future. The only request is for contributions to help cover the shipping costs for the letters and gifts sent during this drive, though this is completely optional.

• There is no long-term commitment required - join us for as many or as few drives as you'd like.

• This is not a pen pal project as the children are unable to write back.

• My letter writers simply write a letter to their assigned child(ren) and mail it to me (Ashley). Once I’ve gathered letters for each of the ~400 children at the Project, I ship them all out to Kafunjo together. Once they arrive, their ‘Letter Day’ is a big event all the children greatly look forward to!

• If you’d like to participate, please read the Participation Guidelines below then contact me via email or Facebook Messenger. I personally prefer Facebook Messenger, as it’s easier for sharing multiple photos, but email works too (my email address is: ashley@kafunjoprojectus.org)! I can assign anywhere from 1 to 5 children at a time, but you are ultimately welcome to write as many children as you’d like until the end of the letter drive. Feel free to request specific genders/ages if you have a preference (it is VERY easy for me to accommodate that) and I’ll send you your child(ren)’s name, age, and photo!

• Lastly, if you enjoy participating and would like to be a part of future letter drives, feel more than welcome to join my Letter Drives for The Kafunjo Community Project Facebook group where I keep everyone updated on current drives and post pictures of the children opening their letters on their Letter Days! Please know that joining this group does not commit you to any future participation.

Please note that I also have some young adults aged 18-23 to assign who are still supported by the Project. Please let me know if you are willing to write any of them! While some are pursuing a college education, most of these adults are still working hard to finish secondary school (high school). The main reason these adults are behind in school is because the Project (and their families prior to joining the Project) struggles to consistently afford their school fees. People are usually less excited to write to these young adults, but they are sometimes the ones who get the most out of these letters. I just love them all too much to leave them out!

Thank you so much in advance for participating. Coordinating these drives is one of my favorite things to do and it wouldn’t be possible without the help of all my letter writers!

-Ashley Shrader

Participation Guidelines:

1. Please wait to request to be assigned your child(ren) until you’re sure you can mail your letter(s) to the address below within two weeks after I send you their information. This helps my workflow run much more smoothly, and I really appreciate your help with this!

Ashley Shrader
6980 N Village View Dr
Tucson, AZ 85741 

2. An adult needs to write the main letters (no cursive please). Typed letters are also okay. However, if you have children or teens who would also like to participate, I’d absolutely love for them to write additional letters to send with yours - the more the merrier!

3. Please write both your name and your child's name somewhere on either the envelope or letter. This helps me keep track of your letter(s) when they arrive.

4. Sending Gifts:

• Please know gifts are completely optional - a letter is more than enough!

• All gifts must fit inside a #10 or standard card-sized envelope. Gift suggestions loved by all ages and genders include toothbrushes, washcloths, pictures of you and your family, socks, jewelry, and colored pencils. For a more detailed list of ideas, click here!

• To minimize shipping costs, our goal is to focus on quality over quantity in gift giving. However, please know a NICE gift doesn’t have to cost $20+. Each of the suggested gifts listed above is considered a nice gift by the children.

• If you'd like to help supply extra gifts for children who receive none, these are always appreciated and welcome: stickers, balloons, fun pencils, colorful socks, toothbrushes, men’s/boy’s ties, fabric headbands, and jewelry. Amazon is a great way to ship these directly to me and save on shipping costs. Thank you SO much!

• Please do not send any food items, cash, coins, seeds, used clothes, pocket knives, or any items containing batteries, glue, paint, or alcohol for your child as restrictions have been placed on these.

5. Lastly, while this is not a requirement, we encourage you to please consider making a small contribution to help us cover the shipping costs for all letters sent to the Project. We would greatly appreciate this. It costs $3,200+ to ship out all the letters/gifts from these drives and contributions toward this amount are the main things that keep these drives possible. Cash or checks sent with your letters are always welcome. Checks should be made out to The Kafunjo Community Project - US, Inc.. We also accept donations for shipping costs through our donation page (please be sure to select “Letter Drive Shipping Contributions” under the designation drop down while filling out the donation form).

*As a federally recognized 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, all donations from the US made towards shipping costs (or otherwise) are tax-deductible.