The students of Ibn Khaldoun Academy, located in Alexandria, Virginia, kicked off a year of service with a tree planting event held on school grounds on October 31, 2009.\u00a0 The Moroccan owned academy offers instruction in Arabic, French, and Islamic studies to students from elementary school to adults.<\/p>\n
Students, teachers, and parents came together on Halloween to give back to their own community and plant a symbolic \u201csister tree\u201d for the ones that are planted in HAF\u2019s nurseries in Morocco.\u00a0 HAF Board Member, Sir Charles Dahan, was present to help the students understand the dramatic impact a tree can have on the lives of families living in rural Morocco whose household incomes will at least double when they sell fruit from their new trees at the local markets.\u00a0 Other programs from the foundation benefitting these villages include clean drinking water and women\u2019s cooperatives.<\/p>\n
Approximately 50 students and their families raised $200 through a small change fundraiser throughout the month of October and secured a $400 matching grant from a corporate sponsor, to plant 600 fruit tree saplings in a High Atlas Foundation tree nursery.\u00a0\u00a0 Twelve families will receive trees as a result of this one event.\u00a0 Following in the tradition of HAF\u2019s pilot program of the newly launched\u00a0Teacher Toolkit<\/a>\u00a0a\u00a0\u201cPenny Can Truly Make a Difference\u201d<\/a>\u00a0in the lives of others.<\/p>\n