Children of Rural Africa is a US-based 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to providing quality education to rural children in Africa, starting with the Ogoja region of Nigeria. We have the following aims and objectives:

*Building community education centers that offer quality education and scholarships for rural children and youths.
*Health-related awareness and improvement for children and their caregivers through the use of clinics, hospitals and health centers.
*Credit building and economic security for impoverished families based on the philosophy that poor people are credit worthy.
*Agricultural training in the formal school system for both children and adults.
*Working Vacations for volunteers to come to Nigeria to help build our community education centers from the ground up.
*Sending US scholars to Nigeria to complete internship programs related to our specific causes.

Children of Rural Africa's United States Scholars Program
With the ongoing partnership of CORAfrica and SUNY International Programs, a program to support capacity building efforts through exchange opportunities has become operative since 2006-2008. This program will enable SUNY scholars to travel to Nigeria for working vacations, while Nigerians will have an opportunity to travel to the US for training courses.

This exchange program is named after its goals, 5 x 5 x 5 x 1 by 2008:
*5 Nigerian SUNY Scholars: Identify and support 5 Nigerian students for 1-2 year graduate degree exchange programs within the SUNY system. 
*5 Faculty-led Initiatives: Identify 5 key faculty within the SUNY system who are excited and invested in developing a service (and/or research) based educational program that will provide SUNY students with the opportunity to receive credit for short courses (4-6 weeks) during winter or summer breaks based on travel to St. Joseph’s Orphanage and School.
*5 SUNY Exchange Students to Nigeria: For Fall 2008, after using the faculty-led initiatives as reconnaissance, we hope to bring five SUNY students to Nigeria for one semester to work on various projects of their choosing and design.
*1 Large Grant Initiative: Combining the knowledge and experience of the CORAfrica and SUNY IP staff, to develop a large grant proposal (Ford, Gates, tc.) for developing more extensive exchange capacity and opportunity for both Nigerian and SUNY students.


Working Vacations Program

Have you ever wanted a rewarding travel experience? CORAfrica provides working vacations in which volunteers can come to Nigeria to help build our community education centers from the ground up. Visit our Working Vacations section of our website to learn more, including a sample itinerary.