The first wave of crackers has been delivered to the Albany International Center for refugee children who need to learn to speak and write English. We can keep it coming for a few days.
One of the teachers contacted me asking for help getting afternoon snacks for the younger kids and helping the teachers buy them with their own money. They specifically requested Graham Crackers, Animal Crackers, and Gold Fish Crackers, all inexpensive and available wherever food is sold.
The children need them not only for energy but often out of hunger.
(If you can help, the address to which to send the crackers is The Albany International Center, 50 Lark Street, Albany, New York, 12210, c/o Agija Van Derwiel, the teacher in the above photograph.
If you need the school’s Amazon phone number, it’s 518 475 6000. Please do not send me crackers or cash to buy these items; crackers should go directly to the school.)
These kids have had rough lives, driven from their homes and living in refugee camps in America to build and rebuild new lives. Several hundred of them are in a remarkable school founded to help them learn English so they can continue their educations.
They are hard workers, but the public schools are not well-equipped to help them, and many are afraid of the violence in those schools – many have experienced some.
These children often live in homes where only one meal is served daily. Their parents usually have two or three jobs, most of which involve cleaning malls and hospitals—snacks matter.
The teachers spend their meager salaries on afternoon snacks for the kids, who are often hungry. Their parents are the people you see cleaning hotel rooms and hospital floors and stocking shelves at Walmart. They work hard, often in two or three jobs.
I’m going to the school this coming week to take a photo or two and figure out what they need. I also hope to meet one or two older students the teachers rave about but may need our help. The work goes on and on. Helping others, I believe, is our salvation.
The request is for Graham, Animal, and Goldfish crackers; nothing expensive. I hope to encourage them to put up a Wish List for the teachers shortly, but I’d love to get them some crackers. So this is something of a test.
The center accepts and helps students from K to 12; they have a one-year program funded by the Albany Public School System. The kids have suffered from war and genocide, and most have lived in refugee camps for much of their lives.
The public schools are known for violence, and many of these newcomers are frightened to go back.
The crackers above came the day after we asked for help. I’m sure more are on the way, and the teachers – paid notoriously poorly – were running out of money to buy the crackers.
To me, this is what life is about. This morning’s news from teacher Cathy Soso made me very happy. Life is about this, not the frightening alarms pouring out of our “news” media.
The very dedicated teachers would greatly appreciate any help you can send with the crackers they need for their students.
(If you can help, the address to which to send the crackers is The Albany International Center, 50 Lark Street, Albany, New York, 12210, c/o Agija Van Derwiel, the teacher in the above photograph.)
