Firs, please note that everything you can see behind Jim and his students are things your bought for the school, the plastic bins, the games, the books, the buckets and pencils and pens and brushes and learning software. None of that was there two weeks ago.

When the refugee children come to America, it is usually an abrupt and chaotic experience, they are torn from everything they know, and have to learn a staggering amount of new things – English, culture, clothes, food, social rules and rituals.

Most of the RISSE teachers are volunteers, RISSE doesn’t have the money to hire the staff they need. Your gifts have given the teachers so much in the way of new tools, and the kids so much in the way of learning in a safe and comfortable environment.

Jim here is teaching the students about computing, how to work a laptop. In many cases, these children will have to show their parents what they have learned, few refugees arrive with computing skills. These kids come from Yemen, Algeria, Afghanistan, Syria, Myanmar, Burma, Thailand and all over Africa. See what you have done with the RISSE Amazon Wish List.