For millions of children, education has been interrupted by circumstances they did not choose.
A child may be displaced from home.
A refugee family may cross a border and discover that language, documentation, poverty, or an unfamiliar school system stands between their child and a classroom.
A family in Iran may struggle with poverty, geographic isolation, limited educational access, or persecution.
And in Afghanistan, the crisis has reached an extraordinary scale. More than 2.13 million primary-school-age children remain out of school, while approximately 2.2 million adolescent girls are barred from secondary education.
The crisis extends far beyond Afghanistan. UNHCR estimates that 12.4 million refugee children worldwide are of school age, and approximately 46%—about 5.7 million children—are not in school.
These numbers are enormous.
But United Glow begins with something much smaller:
one child.
One child who still wants to learn.
One family still hoping for a different future.
One opportunity that can be restored.
When education is interrupted for months or years, a child does not simply miss lessons.
The child begins falling behind in reading, mathematics, language, and other foundational skills. Returning to formal education becomes increasingly difficult. Refugee children may have to begin again in another language or another curriculum. Some families cannot afford the technology or internet connection required for online learning. Others are dealing simultaneously with displacement, economic hardship, instability, persecution, or serious family pressures.
For some children, the problem is not that they do not want to learn.
The path to learning has been broken.
United Glow was created to help rebuild that path.
Our mission focuses on Christian children affected by persecution, Iranian and Afghan refugee children, and other underserved students whose access to consistent education has been disrupted by displacement, migration, poverty, persecution, or limited educational opportunities.
The root of the problem is rarely one thing.
A vulnerable child may face several barriers at the same time:
Interrupted schooling
Migration, displacement, persecution, economic hardship, or instability can remove a child from education for months or years.
Poverty
A family struggling to meet basic needs may not be able to afford educational materials, technology, or reliable internet access.
Digital exclusion
Online education cannot reach a child who has no appropriate device or connection.
Language and academic gaps
Refugee students may enter a new educational system after missing significant periods of schooling and may need both language and academic support.
Limited teacher support
Access to videos or websites alone is not education. Children need teachers, feedback, assessment, encouragement, and someone who notices when they begin to fall behind.
Safety and privacy concerns
For vulnerable children—including some affected by persecution—education must be delivered with careful attention to safeguarding, confidentiality, and responsible handling of personal information.
Uncertain educational pathways
Children need more than temporary activities. Their learning should be documented and designed to support future education and continued academic progress.
This is why United Glow is not simply creating another collection of online lessons.
We are building an educational pathway around the child.
United Glow Foundation is developing a structured, faith-based digital education program for Christian, refugee, and underserved Iranian and Afghan children whose learning has been disrupted or limited.
For the 2026–2027 academic year, our first goal is intentionally focused:
The initial cohort is planned to include:
35 Christian children affected by persecution inside Iran
and
65 vulnerable Iranian and Afghan children, including refugees and children from underserved communities.
Rather than expanding too quickly, United Glow intends to begin with a measurable 100-student program, evaluate educational outcomes, strengthen safeguarding and operational systems, and grow responsibly as funding and organizational capacity allow.
What Will a Student Receive?
Structured Academic Education
The initial program serves students academically appropriate for Preschool through Grade 5.
Core learning includes areas such as:
Persian (Farsi) is the primary language of academic instruction, while English is taught as a dedicated academic subject.
Academic Assessment and Individual Placement
Children who have experienced interrupted education may not fit neatly into a grade based only on age.
Each student therefore begins with a baseline assessment.
United Glow uses the student’s prior educational experience, current academic readiness, learning gaps, and individual needs to determine appropriate placement and support.
Live and Flexible Digital Learning
Students receive a combination of:
This flexibility is particularly important for children whose circumstances make traditional schooling difficult.
Qualified Teachers and Mentoring
Technology is only the delivery mechanism.
Teachers make education possible.
United Glow plans to use qualified educators who provide structured instruction, assessment, feedback, mentoring, and continuing academic support.
A Learning Device When Needed
A child cannot enter a digital classroom without the technology to reach it.
Eligible students who do not have adequate technology may receive device assistance based on documented need, available funding, and applicable legal and operational requirements.
Internet and Connectivity Support
A tablet without internet is still a closed classroom.
Where feasible and legally permissible, United Glow plans to provide connectivity assistance to eligible students whose participation would otherwise be limited by insufficient internet access.
Family Partnership
Education does not happen only between a student and a teacher.
Parents and caregivers receive communication, progress information, and practical guidance so they can help their children participate consistently.
Student and Family Support
Educational disruption often affects more than academics.
United Glow’s model includes appropriate psychosocial support, family case support, mentoring, and referrals when barriers outside the classroom interfere with learning.
Christian Formation
As a Christian organization, United Glow integrates age-appropriate biblical teaching, Christian mentoring, character formation, dignity, compassion, and care within its faith-based mission.
Safeguarding and Privacy
Children affected by persecution, migration, displacement, or economic vulnerability can face heightened privacy and safety risks.
United Glow’s model therefore includes child-safeguarding procedures, parental consent, data privacy, controlled access to student information, and special protection of sensitive information.
Getting a child’s name onto a registration list is not enough.
We want to know whether the child is actually learning.
For the first year, United Glow plans to measure:
Our first-year targets include:
100 students enrolled
90% student retention
85% average attendance
80% parent participation
100% verified minimum digital access
and baseline and end-of-year academic assessment for students.
Partners should be able to see not only where resources went, but what those resources helped accomplish.
Not every partner needs to fund the entire program.
One person may provide a device.
Another may provide internet access.
A family may help supply educational materials.
A church may sponsor a student.
A business may support technology.
A foundation may fund an entire cohort.
A teacher may volunteer professional expertise.
Different partners can carry different pieces of the same mission.
United Glow’s current first-year budget is $155,000 for 100 students.
That means the average total program investment is approximately:
This includes much more than tuition. It supports the educational ecosystem required to serve the student: teaching, learning technology, internet access, curriculum, student and family support, safeguarding, administration, assessment, and program accountability.
Here are several concrete ways a partner can participate:
The current program budget allocates approximately $100 per student for curriculum development and educational materials. Your gift can help place appropriate learning resources into a child’s educational program.
The current budget provides $150 per student for internet support for the academic year. For a child without reliable connectivity, this can mean the difference between having a school and simply knowing that one exists somewhere online.
United Glow’s current budget estimates approximately $180 for an appropriate student learning device. For a vulnerable student, that device can become a classroom, textbook, assignment center, communication channel, and connection to a teacher.
Combine: $180 learning device + $150 academic-year internet support. $330 can help provide the basic digital access needed for one student to participate. A teacher may be ready. A lesson may be ready. A child may be ready. Your partnership can help create the connection between them.
A contribution at this level corresponds to the current budgeted cost of:
Based on United Glow’s current first-year budget of $155,000 for 100 students, approximately $1,550 represents the average full-program cost per student for the academic year. This supports a complete educational model—not simply access to a website—including teachers, curriculum, technology, connectivity, student support, family engagement, assessment, safeguarding, administration, and monitoring. One student. One academic year. One opportunity to keep learning.
Financial giving is only one form of partnership.
Education requires continuity.
Teachers cannot be hired one lesson at a time. Internet access cannot disappear halfway through a semester. Children need to know that their classroom will still be there tomorrow.
Recurring monthly giving helps United Glow build the stability required for consistent education.
Churches can participate by:
A congregation can help make education possible for a congregation of children it may never physically meet.
Companies can contribute through:
For technology companies in particular, partnership can address one of the most basic realities of digital education: without access, there is no digital classroom.
Foundations, nonprofits, educational institutions, and humanitarian organizations can help United Glow strengthen and scale the model through:
United Glow is pursuing growth based on measurable student outcomes, safeguarding readiness, sustainable funding, qualified teaching capacity, and educational quality—not enrollment numbers alone.
Because United Glow is not asking you simply to fund technology.
We are asking you to help connect the essential pieces of education.
A device without a teacher is not a school.
Internet without curriculum is not an education.
Lessons without assessment do not tell us whether a child is progressing.
A student without encouragement can quietly disappear from a virtual classroom.
United Glow brings those pieces together:
Education
Structured learning with defined objectives.
Teachers
Human relationships, instruction, feedback, and mentoring.
Technology
The tools required to reach the classroom.
Connectivity
The bridge between the child and the teacher.
Family
Parents and caregivers involved in the learning journey.
Support
Academic, social, and psychosocial assistance when barriers arise.
Accountability
Student progress measured and resources managed responsibly.
That is the difference between simply placing content online and building an educational pathway.
Because childhood does not wait.
A child who loses one year of education does not get that year back automatically.
A refugee child continues growing while a family waits for stability.
A girl excluded from school continues getting older while the classroom remains closed.
A child living in poverty cannot postpone childhood until circumstances improve.
United Glow cannot solve the entire global education crisis.
But we can help one child at a time—and we can build a model capable of reaching more children responsibly as partners join us.
For 2026–2027, that begins with 100 students.
100 children whose education matters.
100 opportunities to keep learning.
100 stories that do not have to end with, “I had to stop school.”
Perhaps you cannot change the circumstances that displaced a family.
You may not be able to reopen a school that has closed.
You may not be able to remove every economic, political, geographic, or social barrier facing a child.
But you can help make sure that those barriers do not have the final word over that child’s education.
You can help provide the teacher.
You can help provide the internet.
You can help provide the device.
You can help provide the learning materials.
You can help provide the opportunity.
SUPPORT OUR MISSION
Your contribution helps us continue making a meaningful impact.
Secure payment via PayPal
