A call out to the Army of Good.

I’ve been writing about Devota Nyiraneza for several days now, in 1994 she fled the Rwandan genocide and walked 2, 485 miles across Central Africa with no food or shoes carrying her daughter on her back.

It took her nearly a year to get to a United Nations refugee camp, and then to America.

It took her nearly 13 years to get here.

Along the way, she faced starvation, rape, extreme heat and cold, she hid in forests in the daytime and stole food from farms along the way. Eight of her companions were killed by farmers with poison darts.

She is now an American citizen, she works two jobs, one working with the disabled for Catholic Charities, the second cleaning rooms and floors at the Albany Medical Center. Like so many of the refugees and immigrants at RISSE, the refugee and immigrant support center in Albany, she is overwhelmed trying to navigate the complexities of life in America.

When her son – her children were the result of rape – was accepted to Buffalo State University, she applied for what she thought was financial aid, and her request was accepted. But she had really applied for a loan, and didn’t understand the difference.

So her son had to leave school and is working to repay his own loan, and she has a $10,000 loan to repay. She sends the bank $125 a month. I offered to try to raise money to pay back the loan or reduce. In the 48 hours after I wrote the piece, I received nearly $3,000 in donations for Devota, and I hadn’t even requested funds or set up a fund.

I am seeking donations now, I hope to give her a check for the entire loan so she can resume her normal life – she just moved to a smaller apartment because the $1,400 monthly rent is now too much. Whatever we collect will help her, and I am optimistic about raising the entire amount from the blog.

Devota is a person of warmth and grace, soft-spoken, uncomplaining, generous of spirit. It seems miraculous to me that she has survived and she embodies the very best of the American ethos – taking responsibility, working hard, hoping to go to school herself once her son finishes his education. She has three other children to care for.

On her journey, her skin peeled off and her bones were exposed. Her worst memories are the children abandoned by their families because they couldn’t care for them, they died along the road. And the rapes by soldiers and militia members who threatened to kill her and her daughter if she didn’t submit.

It is very difficult for newly arrived refugees to navigate the very complicated world of American finance and documents and taxes. RISSE is working to expand their educational programs in order to help refugees like Devota. But she needs help now.

I think this is a person very much worth helping, and I am determined to try.

She is working hard and has a great heart,  she deserves help climbing out of this burdensome situation.

If you wish to contribute, you can do so by sending a check addressed to me at my post office box: Jon Katz, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816. Please mark the check “Devota Fund.” You can also donate via Paypal, send the donations to [email protected]. Please remember to mention “Devota Fund” in the message. All of these donations are kept in a separate account I use for helping the refugees and the Mansion residents.

There are many ways to look at the world, and I do not hate anyone who disagrees with me. The immigration system in America is a frightful mess, and certainly needs fixing, but Devota represents to me the best of the American experience: offering refuge to the vulnerable, and giving them a chance to save the lives of their families, and to pull themselves up in the land of freedom and opportunity.

You can read more about Devota here.

Thanks for considering this: P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or Paypal: [email protected]. Please make  checks out to me, Jon Katz. Thanks.