Ten miles away from the nearest proper road, sixty families share a wellin a village where the houses are patched up with plastic. Sanitation barelyexists and disease goes untreated with little or no medical support. This isthe situation right now in Europe in the forgotten village of BahnaArini in the remote northeast part of Romania.

FARA Shops will be fundraising throughout the year to contribute to help transform the lives of this community in our 2015 Appeal.FARA will #RaiseTheRoof on poverty with every penny given by our customers and through the fundraising effort of our staff.

During 2015 FARA Shops have raised money through a charity parachute jump, individual shop funding raising from our 48 shops, corporate sponsorship and an eBay charity auction. Our shop customers have been very generous with giving money to donation tins too. We have reached our target of £15,000 to facilitate a revolutionary change in the village of Bahna Arini and exceeded it by raising an amazing  £17,141.49.

Why FARA Shops' is Raising The Roof OnPoverty
The village  of Bahna Arini is in Suceava District in the very rural andremote northeast of Romania where economic opportunities and infrastructure arelimited. Many families, and children in particular, are affected by highunemployment, alcoholism, domestic violence and family breakup caused by workmigration. The families are isolated and live under terrible conditions - withlittle access to services that even one of Europe's poorest countries take forgranted. With no transport to schools and many of them don't even haveshoes. FARA has been working to change this and has provided support tocommunities  in this region for nearly 25 years and is deeplycommitted to its rural development programmes.

FARA will Raise The Roof On Poverty by:
Lifting the chances of the kids in these areas, breaking the poverty cycle bygetting them to stay in school -  tackling poverty through education.  Schooldropout rates, beginning at primary school level, are very high.  Everyyear of education achieved, the chances of a child ending up in poverty reduceby 5%. FARA will continue to provide targeted support to the families of thesechildren. We organise after-school classes where some of the children aregiven extra tuition and help with their homework. FARA's incentives toeducation are in the form of food (a daily nutritious hot meal – for most ofthe children this is their only meal that day. )FARA will expand this provisionto a wider number of children in 2015 including those of nursery/ receptionage.

FARA will literally raise the roof on poverty by helping families to improvetheir homes (houses may lack a proper roof, windows, or heating. )Or bysupplying them with essential equipment to improve their quality of living fromstarter packs of seeds to cooking utensils.

It's simple  FARA aims to provide support to this village community where it has been lacking. Deprivation is a vicious cycle. Lack of work creates family poverty which undermines education... Which hinders employability. The challenge for FARA is to break the cycle. But while we are at it a hot meal is a good start to lift community morale.