Tomorrow, I’m going to spend the day in Albany, I’m going to meet an old man from Iraq, Ali says he needs my help.

Ali and I have this understanding, he looks for refugees and immigrants who need help and have nowhere else to go. We have small resources, but sometimes they can bring great help.

This is a time of great need for the refugees. The state and federal and city governments have no money they are cutting back their programs. The old man from Iraq is taking a language class at RISSE, the refugee and immigrant support center.

They can help the old man learn English, but they can’t give him the money he needs to put a deposit down on an apartment. As a non-profit, they can’t give people cash.

I don’t know the old name’s name, Ali called and asked me if I can help him.

Ali guesses he is in his 60’s but he looks much older.  He was in a refugee camp for some years.

He came from Iraq a year or two ago, but he is sick with heart disease and can’t work many hours. He has no surviving family, he  has a horror story from Iraq, he came to Los Angeles, but he could not afford to live there, it was more expensive than he ever imagined.

He came to Albany because he heard it was less expensive. He has been living with several other refugees who offered him shelter in the cold,  but now he must find his own place to live.

The city says it cannot help him unless he finds work, but no one will hire him, they say he is too old and too frail. He owns nothing.

If he cannot find the money for a deposit, he will have nowhere to live and nowhere to turn. Ali has a big heart and he asked if I could meet this man and see if there is any way we could help him. I will find out if I can.

This is what I started doing this work to do, to commit small acts of great kindness. The refugees are beginning to hear of the Army of Good, Ali says they sometimes whisper to one another about it, they aren’t sure of what it is.

I know to stay small, we are not a huge organization, we don’t have a lot of money, we can’t work miracles or alter destinies.

But we can fill the small holes and help. We got a young woman enough money to buy some car insurance, and get a job. We helped a mother pay off college loans. We brought groceries to a half-dozen families who were hungry. We are bringing a used Ipad to Ali tomorrow, and paying the last of the cost of the van.

I’m hoping there is a way to help this old man (I bet he is younger than me, some of the refugees get old fast). I hope there is a small way to give him comfort and support. Then, he is on his own. There are a lot of people in this world who need help.

But this is the kind of work I wanted to do, and Ali’s roots run deep in this community. I love us, a Jew and a Muslim joining together to do some good. There is hope in the world. This is what I set out to do a year ago. It has taken this long to truly get there. I’m bringing my camera.