AMERICAN RELIEF AGENCY FOR THE HORN OF AFRICA ARAHA
Delivering Essentials, Developing Opportunities
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Disaster Relief
ARAHA's emergency relief programs respond to crisis situations in the Horn of Africa including drought, famine, disease outbreaks, water shortages, food shortages, floods, destruction of shelters, etc.
Self Reliance
Our self-reliance projects help families stand on their feet by providing supplemental food and income. Examples of projects include animals like dairy cows and goats and vehicles such as water tankers and donkey carts.
Water Development
In our water programs we strive to provide open access to clean drinking water for families and their livestock in villages where free water is not available. We provide emergency water trucking barrels in times of drought and we work to construct deep boreholes for long term community use.
Orphan Sponsorship
ARAHA's orphan sponsorship program provides economic support to children who have lost one or both parents. The support covers education, food, clothing and other supplies. All sponsored orphans must be enrolled in school and provide status reports every six months to demonstrate their progress.
Education
We provide educational opportunities to combat illiteracy and provide brighter futures to students. We fund several schools throughout the region, including the Shagarab refugee camp school, the only access to education that these displaced children have.
Health
Focus on diseases outbreaks intervention, restoring sights, and Malaria prevention.
Food
Distribution of food baskets during famine and areas with food supply shortage. We also support over 3,000 students in 8 schools through our school lunch program. We provide daily meals to vulnerable children who often don't have access to proper nutrition at home.
Where we work
Affiliations & memberships
InterAction - Member 2013
Alliance to End Hunger 2022
External reviews
Photos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of water projects built
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Economically disadvantaged people, Refugees and displaced people, Nomadic people
Related Program
Water Development
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of people with improved water access
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Extremely poor people, Low-income people, Immigrants and migrants, Victims and oppressed people
Related Program
Water Development
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Number of people within the organization's service area accessing food aid
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Economically disadvantaged people, Immigrants and migrants, Nomadic people, Victims and oppressed people
Related Program
Food
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of orphanages supported
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Orphans, At-risk youth
Related Program
Orphan Sponsorship
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Our numbers reflect individual children, not whole orphanages but there was no option to choose that for a metric.
Number of academic scholarships awarded
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Refugees and displaced people, At-risk youth, Young women, Children and youth, Students
Related Program
Education
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Total pounds of food rescued
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Refugees and displaced people, Economically disadvantaged people, Nomadic people, Victims and oppressed people, At-risk youth
Related Program
Food
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
We ship manna rice packs fortified with nutrients and vegetables to the Horn of Africa. These numbers reflect the total pounds of food shipped each year.
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
- Develop sustainable pathways to economic opportunity for families in the Horn of Africa
- Deliver essential relief in situations of extraordinary need to allow affected families in the Horn of Africa an opportunity to craft viable resiliency plans for the future
- Support the East African community in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area in maintaining a sense of connection to and awareness of current challenges in the Horn of Africa
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
- Focus on projects that nurture opportunity and self-reliance through access to education and support for entrepreneurial strategies
- Engage community members and leaders in dialogue with ARAHA experts to surface relevant needs and viable projects that address them in a sustainable manner
- Ensure projects are directed toward families in greatest need of assistance – specifically refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and residents of underserved rural areas
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
- ARAHA is present in the Horn not just to serve communities in need, but rather to make an impact on its supporters’ and founders’ own communities in need. Staff of the organization speak the languages of the region, understand the cultural context, know the challenges at stake, and are passionate about empowering and sustaining their brothers and sisters in the Horn.
- From deep roots in the region, ARAHA has grown a strong and robust network of field offices. In Isiolo, Kenya; Khartoum, Sudan; and Mogadishu and Hargeisa, Somalia the organization has talented and dedicated teams who go out into the field to forge the relationships with communities that make ARAHA programs so successful. At all levels of the organization, ARAHA is intimately aware of the diverse needs present throughout the Horn. This means that the organization is able to tailor projects to best suit the specific context of targeted areas and populations. ARAHA is better connected to the local populations.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Our organization aims to bring immediate relief to those in need throughout the Horn, while at the same time seeking to create the conditions for sustainable opportunity and self-reliance. In all programs ARAHA pursues, it seeks to responsibly enact its mission and build a stable, sustainable, thriving Horn of Africa.
In the last year, ARAHA has served over 100,000 beneficiaries. We built 71 water wells in communities so thousands of people have access to fresh water. Our individual donors sponsor 356 orphans and our organization covers 1300, for a total of 1,646 vulnerable children that are being cared for. We run a school lunch program for 8 schools with over 1,500 students total. We also maintain the Shagarab refugee camp high school, the only school in the camp, where we provide salaries for teachers and scholarships for students. We distributed meat to 14,600 people in need last year. We are currently combating drought and famine in the Horn by providing monthly food baskets to families. We have already supplied these baskets to over 800 families. We have run several successful vocational training programs, specifically for solar energy and veterinary technology. This training provides opportunities for many students who could not afford education. We also built sustainable homes for 11 families in Sudan.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, We don’t have the right technology to collect and aggregate feedback efficiently
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
AMERICAN RELIEF AGENCY FOR THE HORN OF AFRICA ARAHA
Board of directorsas of 08/12/2022
Mahmoud Al-Gamam
Mahmoud Al-Gamam
St. Mary's University
Mohamed Idris
ARAHA (American Relief Agency for the Horn of Africa)
Qudbi Murasal
No Affiliation
Jaylani Hussein
No Affiliation
Adam AlAmin
No Affiliation
Halima Wako
No Affiliation
Dido Kotile
Muath Asamarai
Abdulla Mamdani
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
Equity strategies
Last updated: 08/11/2022GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.