United World Schools (UWS) is a UK-registered charity that aims to 'teach the unreached' by building and developing community schools for out-of-school children in Southeast Asia. The charity operates schools in

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailan ...

Myanmar (Burma), and

Nepal Nepal (; ne, :ne:नेपाल, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in S ...

. The charity also twins some of the community schools it develops with other schools in more affluent parts of the world. These schools help fund UWS schools and use the school partnership in curriculum areas such as

global citizenship Global citizenship is the idea that one's identity transcends geography or political borders and that responsibilities or rights are derived from membership in a broader class: "humanity". This does not mean that such a person denounces or waives ...

and

International Baccalaureate The International Baccalaureate (IB), formerly known as the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), is a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and founded in 1968. It offers four educational programmes: the IB D ...

studies. Some schools also provide volunteers for the schools and visit their UWS School. The schools are also funded by donations from individuals and organisations. To date, United World Schools has opened a total of 250 new schools, trained over 1,200 teachers, and given educational opportunities to more than 43,000 previously out-of-school children across Cambodia, Myanmar and Nepal.

History

Chris Howarth, together with his family, founded UWS in 2008 after working as a volunteer teacher in Cambodia with VSO. While in Cambodia, Chris saw a need and opportunity to work with the under-resourced local authorities of Ratanakiri, NE Cambodia. Working with Cambodian volunteer Nan Sitha, Chris's daughter Anna Smuts, and colleagues from Portsmouth Grammar and

Guildford Grammar school Guildford Grammar School, informally known as Guildford Grammar, Guildford or GGS, is an independent Anglican coeducational primary and secondary day and boarding school, located in Guildford, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia. Initial ...

, UWS ran community engagement projects to connect the schools, uniting young people from the UK and Cambodia. The first UWS school opened in Kong Nork School, Vernsai, Ratanakiri in 2008 and educated more than 250 ethnic minority students. Since then, the charity has expanded its operations to more remote and marginalized areas of Cambodia, as well as parts of Myanmar and Nepal, reaching over 43,000 children across all three countries. UWS was founded in 2008 and registered with the Charity Commission of England and Wales in May 2009. In 2020, United World Schools launched UWS USA Inc, a 501(c)3 registered organization, to develop their supporter base and organizational capacity in the United States. UWS is working towards their next objective to reach a total of 250,000 out of school children by 2030.

Countries operating

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

References

{{Reflist Educational charities based in the United Kingdom Foreign charities operating in Cambodia Foreign charities operating in Myanmar Foreign charities operating in Nepal