Show your support for PALS by attending The Cornell Alternative Gift Fair and the Ithaca Alternative Gift Fair! These events show an alternative to the stress of regular Christmas shopping, and offers people the choice to donate to various causes as a gift. This is a gift not only to the person whose name the donation is made in, but to donators themselves for making the world a better place.

PALS will have a booth set up at both these events, so be sure to stop by and show your support for the kids of Mbaka Oromo!

The links below are links to the Ithaca gift fair website, the Ithaca gift fair facebook page, the PALS Page of the Ithaca gift fair site, and the Cornell Alternative Gift fair facebook page.
http://www.ithacaaltgiftfair.org/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/BOLD-Cornell/115240198497487?v=app_2344061033#!/group.php?gid=47529210768
http://www.ithacaaltgiftfair.org/2010/PartnershipofAfricanandLansingSchools2010.htm.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/BOLD-Cornell/115240198497487?v=app_2344061033#!/event.php?eid=114141645318777.

What does PALS do?

PALS has identified Mbaka Oromo Primary School (Grades 1-8, with 600 students) in western Kenya as a partner school. Forty percent of the students at Mbaka Oromo are orphans that need support for uniforms, lunches, and school fees. Partnership activities involve fundraising, cultural awareness events, joint classroom activities, and student/teacher exchanges.

Why a school partnership?

PALS builds on the United Nations Millennium Development goal for universal primary education. It establishes direct connections between Lansing and Kenyan schools, in which financial aid is coupled with personal, cultural, and educational ties between the schools. As the students learn about each other, this community-to-community approach allows all participating schools to be both a donor and a recipient.