Adopt A School
Each day, students in Gaza face the negative effects of poverty, prolonged conflict, and the ongoing blockade. For this reason, AFU developed the Adopt a School Campaign as a way to increase the quality of and access to education at UNRWA schools in Gaza. Through the generosity of individual donors and foundations, including the Moriah Fund and the ALO Cultural Foundation, AFU was able to sponsor 225 students at Beach Elementary Co-ed School during the 2010-2011 academic year. In sponsoring these students, AFU provided them with book bags, school supplies, school uniforms, hygiene kits, daily lunches, meal parcels (to be taken home) and supplementary courses, including health and human rights courses, and special education for those in need.
For the 2011-2012 academic year, AFU will focus on providing school meals and meal parcels to students at the Khan Younis Elementary Co-ed School in Northern Gaza. School meals are part of UNRWA’s Emergency School Feeding Program (ESF), a critically-needed program for the students of Gaza. Sadly, due to unprecedented Agency shortfalls in funding, this program is under threat of being cut completely.
If adequate funding for Emergency School Feeding isn’t received soon, school meals will be eliminated from UNRWA schools in Gaza on January 1.
Khan Younis Elementary Co-ed School
The Khan Younis School serves 849 UNRWA refugee students in grades 1-5.The school’s students face the highest rate of abject poverty in the Gaza Strip, and many students are malnourished.
Hunger has become a serious problem with one school principal reporting that 1-2 students pass out daily because they have not had enough to eat before school. Other students complain of headaches and trouble concentrating.
For many students school feeding provides their single largest source of calories daily, and without it they are at risk for health and developmental problems. For some students, school feeding provides an incentive to attend class, without it, many students skip school to spend their days scavenging for scrap metal or anything else they can find to sell to help provide for their families.
American Friends of UNRWA believes that no child should have to go to school hungry and no child should have to choose between an education and food.
For just $121.00, you can feed a hungry student at Khan Younis School for an entire year, giving that child hope for the future.
Students at Khan Younis Elementary Co-ed School
