A few days ago, I asked for help in supporting Lisa, a 27-year-old Afghan refugee whose husband was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan while driving food to American soldiers at an airbase. In danger herself, she fled with  her brother and two sons to Pakistan, she got a visa to come to the United States in 2016.

Because her brother, who is 17, never went to school a single day in Afghanistan, he couldn’t handle high school here, and because he couldn’t go to school, local welfare officials took away her rent subsidy. She faces life in a homeless shelter.

As of this morning, I received just under $3,000 in donations sent to help Lisa, and also other refugees. People are so good given the chance.

Ali and I will be meeting tomorrow and talking with Lisa to decide how this money can be used to stabilize her life while she learns English and looks for work. She was devastated by her husband’s death, she said all of the happiness in her seemed to die with him. She has the saddest eyes.

I can see a path for her now, thanks to you. With this money, we can help her get a new apartment – she is planning to move to one in September, hers is filled with mice and roaches. We found a housing authority program that has accepted her, brother and all.

We can pay the difference between what the housing authority will give her and what the rent is – about $250 a month – for a year. We can pay for one-on-one English classes to help her get the kind of job she wants. We can help her brother get some English language tutoring so he can finish his education or, if he prefers, go to work.

Our philosophy is to be thoughtful and bounded. We can’t pay for her life, but can get her to what I call an “open field,” a level playing field where she can find security and freedom in America, for herself, her brother and her two small children.

Lisa must learn to live on her own here, something she very much wants to do.

She is a very sweet and kind and intelligent woman, she also is in need of personal things like toiletries and deodorant and toothpaste and groceries. Her children urgently need new clothes. We can now  get all of those things for her and her family.

She will have all of those personal things for her by Thursday. Thanks once more to the Army Of Good. I always hold my breath when I ask for money, you never let me down. More importantly, you never let the refugees or the Mansion residents down. You are keeping good alive.

Thank you, thank you. People who wish to support this program – tomorrow we meet with a refugee from Africa who lost more than one husband there. She has a  good job, drug dealers just moved in below  her, she needs a small amount of money to help with rent for six months. Her sons are on the soccer team.

People who wish to help can send their contributions to Jon Katz, Post Office Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or via Paypal, [email protected].

If there are additional contributions coming in for Lisa, they will be set aside for her. If they are specified for “refugees” or “Mansion” I will make sure they go to help people in one place or another. Every dollar will be used well. Thank you, it is so much better to do good than arguing about good.

You’ve given Lisa a wonderful chance.

As I meet these  refugee children and immigrants, and watch the news about the children being separated from their parents, i think of the soccer team, and give thanks these boys did not suffer that fate. I believe we are fighting not only for individual lives, but for the soul of our country, and the many wonderful things it stands for. Thanks, a million times, you lift up my heart every day.