Adopt a school is a campaign designed to foster and build a relationship between Minnesota public schools and ARAHA. Through the campaign, the school will get an opportunity to connect to the Horn of Africa region through different projects.

Premise:
Many schools have service-learning projects that their students take as a requirement or as an optional course. This is a great opportunity to engage students on a project that will show them that they can make an impact not just on a community level, but on a global scale.

Opportunity for the school:
These campaigns will provide the school students, teachers, and staff an opportunity to learn about cultures from the Horn of Africa, raise awareness about different issues pertaining to the region, or raise funds. The school and students will be able to choose the focus of their campaign; In the end, the feeling the students get from a sense of accomplishment, inspiration, motivation, knowledge, teamwork, and an increase in cultural competence far weights any funds they generate.

Some Benefits:

• Sense of accomplishment for students and staff participating; knowing that their efforts will make an impact in the Horn of Africa, no matter how small or large it may be.
• Opportunity for students to get their credit for service-learning projects.
• Students and staff will gain a better understanding, and knowledge of these countries where many students in Minnesota public schools come from. Thus, building bridges of understanding and care.
• Based on the campaign, students will be able to unite and rally behind a cause.

The Concept:
As you know, school meals play a large role in keeping students in school, fighting malnutrition, and keeping them focused. For many students across the world, school lunch will be the only wholesome meal of the day that they will have. And in many places in the Horn of Africa region where poverty is the norm, most schools can’t afford to provide meals for their students. 
Our goal is to partner with your school to provide lunches for students in schools in the Horn of Africa, Specially from schools in rural, IDP, or refugee camps. Where students in that part of the world don’t have the privilege, we have here of having a healthy, nutritional meal for breakfast or lunch while they are at the school. Most of the children come to school without a decent breakfast, if they have one at all. ARAHA initiated a pilot project to help change the situation by providing lunch or breakfast to students, especially in the remote areas in the Horn of Africa. We are hoping that together we can help more schools to start providing healthy breakfast or lunches to their students. 

Objectives:
Donors will adopt a school in the Horn of Africa to provide daily breakfast or lunches in schools where none of these two meals are provided. 

This will help the students focus on schooling and follow their teachers during lectures, increase retention and attendance in the school and improve the academic achievements of each student.
 
If done within a school, we are hoping each student can save 50 cents a day, up to $10 a month to help a fellow student in the Horn of Africa to have breakfast/lunch while in school like him or her. 

Action plan: 
ARAHA will Make a 5 minutes presentation about the lunch program including a short video in the cafeteria during the students’ lunchtime.

The Appeal:

• For only 50 cents a day, you can help a student not to go hungry for the entire day while he/she is in school.
• A school with 200 students needs only $100 a day. Each student in the sponsoring school brings $ 2.50 a week or $10.00 a month. It works on an honor system.
• ARAHA’s Representative empties the box once a month and shares the collected amount with the administration.

ARAHA Will:

• Place a donation box in the cafeteria (in a convenient location)
• Clearly display the adopted school name,
• Number of students in the adopted school
• The city and the country

The Adopted School Will:

• Display the name and information of the adoptive school
• Students will send Thank you letters to their peers in the adopted school
• Exchanged letters between students of the two schools
• Can exchange civic/cultural information

The Achievements:

• This will improve the student’s health by giving them a daily nutritious meal.
• Increase the enrollment of students from many poor families whose children are deprived of education due to malnutrition.
• Enhance academic performance by preventing children from being stunned.
• Reduce the dropout rate.
• Make the teacher's job relatively easier.
• Children stay where they belong in the classroom, not on the streets
• Creating a more positive community and educated youth.
• Provide ongoing employment to some of the poor families as well.
• Your students will feel the sense of accomplishment of helping and connecting with other fellow students like them in other parts of the world, especially in the Horn of Africa. 

ARAHA was established in the year 2000 as a not-for-profit organization in Minnesota with tax-exempt No. 41-1989714. ARAHA has 5 field offices (2 in Somalia, 1 in Kenya, 1 in Ethiopia, and 1 in Sudan). Each office is fully staffed. In addition, the highly acclaimed Charity Navigator rated ARAHA among the top 8% of US charities in transparency and accountability. The Charities Review Council also awarded ARAHA their prestigious “Meet the Standards” seal for accountability and transparency.

We are hoping to partner with your organization on this healthy and educational effort to help the new generations in the Horn of Africa region to gain a quality education and turn their lives, as well as the lives of their families, around. In a generation, we can move a population from being reliant on aid to providing for themselves, their families, communities, towns and villages, and their country.