One of the many challenges of working with the refugee children is that they never ask for help, and their needs are enormous. So I try to pick and choose, Ali and I agonize sometimes over what we can do and for whom. We cant fix everything. But we can fix a lot.

Yesterday, we brought the refugee children to the Powell House Quaker Youth Retreat, they will be there for two days and nights in May, and hopefully for a week-long camping visit in the summer. They fell in love with the place, as so many kids have before them.

While they were playing ping-pong, two of the kids on the soccer team came over to me and asked if we could talk privately. I knew what this meant.  Someone on the team needed help. If the kids never ask for anything for themselves, they are quick to ask for help for one of their “brothers,” as they call them, on the team. Ali is always telling them they are brothers for life, they need to watch out for one another. And they do.

We walked into another room and closed the door. They were shy to talk to me directly, I’m not sure I had ever spoken with either one directly, but they were brave and determined.

“Mr. Jon,” said the tall one, (that’s what most of the kids call me)  “we might need  your help..”

They told me the story of D—-, who is from Burma, was at the soccer table.  I knew him, he was afraid of Red at first, and they have become friends. He is a sweet and polite person.

They said he is in high school In Albany. They said he is being mercilessly teased and taunted – because his English is imperfect, because he is a refugee, because he has clothes that are few and unfashionable. His shoes are falling apart and he only has one or two pairs of paints, and one or two shirts.

They said the kids would stop taunting him if he had some new clothes, his mother, who fled her country, but D—  lost his father there. His mother cleans hotel rooms around Albany, she works long hours for minimum wage, she can’t afford to buy him new clothes, and speaks poor English.

I talked with Ali this morning, and we both agreed that this was a small thing, but an urgent one, it takes precedence over other things. This is in our category of things that just must be done.

Tomorrow, I’m going to Albany to take photos of the library and music room taking shape, thanks to your generous gifts of chairs and lights from the RISSE Amazon Wish List.  I want you to see what you have done.

I’ll also bring a check for $300 so Ali can take D—  shopping for clothes and buy what he wants tomorrow night. This is something we can make better, one of those small acts of kindness that are really quite large.

And this is not something I can bear to do later.

Going on the list has become a bit addictive for me, it is my way of beginning the day. And feeling hopeful. I think I’ll get the electric pencil sharpener today, they need eight and have already gotten seven, I love to make items disappear from the list.

Thanks for your support. If you wish to contribute to the refugee work, you can send money to my post office Box, Jon Katz, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or via Paypal, [email protected] Please mark the check or payment “refugee fund,” or if you wish to help D—, “clothes for D.”  Thanks much.