We wish you and your family are safe and sound in this difficult time. Amidst the COVID-19 crisis, we must continue to provide aid to the most vulnerable in our community and around the world.

Over the years we have helped to empower hundreds of orphans across the Horn of Africa region (East Africa) with the support of our donors and partners. The orphan program has long been a fundamental component of our organization. We proudly provided sponsorship, general support, holiday gifts and much more.

Our approach of taking care of sponsored orphans at ARAHA is simple; it is to have the orphan live with an immediate family or relatives. Also, we make sure if there is more than one orphan from the same family – brothers and sisters – that they stay together with the same guardian. Where they live in a healthy family atmosphere and do not have to suffer another emotional trauma of separation after the loss of their parents or one of them.

Through small monthly contributions, donors can choose to make a lasting impact by becoming sponsors. The sponsorship covers the basic cost of food, shelter, and education. Each donor receives personalized information about the orphan they sponsor and semi-annual reports on the child’s wellbeing.

The donor-orphan relationship is a special one in which an orphan feels empowered, and the donor feels a sense of humanity. Over the years, many children who have gone through our program become productive citizens who attend university, have careers and start families of their own.

But we have also come to realize that sometimes the basic orphan sponsorship package is not enough to cover additional needs of some orphans. Take, for example, an orphan who struggles in school and needs a tutor, an orphan who requires special surgery to treat a condition, or a young girl who can’t attend school because she can’t afford sanitary pads…We are doing our best to supplement these additional needs with our general orphan fund, and additional support from sponsors, but additional support will be more than welcomed.

Furthermore, our orphan sponsorship program ends once the orphan reaches adulthood (18), but unfortunately, not all orphans have access to opportunities or financial support to go forth and pursue their scholastic dreams. Thus, their progress in life comes to a standstill, and you potentially have the same cycle of poverty repeating.

For the above-mentioned reason, we must rise to the occasion and be the knight in shining armor for these orphans–to go beyond basic and dramatically improve the orphan’s lives, we must go beyond the ordinary.

It is vital to provide the necessary support the sponsored orphans need and deserve to be successful in school, healthy, safe and productive. We must also continue to support orphans who have completed our program and are venturing into adult life. They will be the next fathers, mothers, and members of society– could use all the help they can get to achieve their dreams and allow them to take the next steps in life.

So, join us this year in empowering orphans across the Horn of Africa region.