Ehdiesoe is 14, he is a member of the RISSE soccer  team, and he is now in a special Albany school for refugees. He has been held back a year and hopes to graduate and go on to high school next year. But he is struggling to learn English and I am seeking to raise a small amount of money to arrange for private tutoring for him from graduate students at St. Rose College, just down the block from RISSE in Albany.

I have a plan for helping six members of the RISSE soccer team who urgently need some one-on-one tutoring.

I hoping to raise enough money for  Ehdiesoe, to get a private tutor for $10 an hour, one hour a week. Ali has identified six members of the soccer team that need this tutoring to improve their English speaking and language skills. Like Ehdiesoe, these children have only been in the United States a short time, and English is rarely spoken at home.

They need help to progress through the public school system and on to college. This is an inexpensive but profoundly important way for us to help them adjust to their new country, they are our brothers and sisters. There are no longer federal funds available to help with literacy and language programs or tuition support.

I am speaking with St. Rose officials in Albany and hope to negotiate a structured tutoring plan for these six children. I will be taking photos of them one at a time. Ehdiesoe came to America as an immigrant, not a refugee, his father became ill shortly after arriving in the United States and could not walk for six months.

I think this tutoring plan could be a godsend for Ehdiesoe and five other members of the RISSE soccer team. You can help – I think I can do this for just a few hundred dollars – by sending a contribution to The Gus Fund, c/o Jon Katz, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 2816 or via me at Paypal, [email protected]

Thank you so much.