Thursday, October 7, 2010

We were afraid of you

“Mrs., we were afraid of you.” That is what an 8th grade girl told me (Stephanie) after the second day of class. “We were afraid of you, but now we see that you are good.” I think she was talking about their difficulty understanding my American accent. I didn’t tell her, but I could say the same thing to them. At first, I was afraid of them. I was afraid they would misbehave, they wouldn’t understand me, and they wouldn’t be interested.  Now I see that they are good.

This is what I have been doing with my time. I have begun volunteering at St. Andrew’s Refugee Services (StARS). StARS is a nonprofit organization run by the church (St. Andrew’s United Church of Cairo) that serves refugees in the area. A word about the organization:
St. Andrew’s Refugee Services was founded over 30 years ago. Today StARS provides programming to refugees from 32 different countries, inluding Sudan, Iraq, and Somalia.  Services provided include education for children and adults, legal assistance for those seeking resettlement, and fair trade products made by the refugee community. StARS programming today serves almost 1,200 refugees each week.
To see pictures and read more about us, visit http://standrewsrefugeeservices.org/ 
So what do I do? I help with the children’s education program. Refugee children usually cannot attend public schools in Cairo, so we run a complete school at the St. Andrew’s campus spanning from 1st grade through high school. Since most of our students are from Sudan, we teach the Sudanese curriculum. I am teaching 8th grade Nutrition and Health, 7th grade Science, and 7th grade Nutrition and Health. As I teach, Paul continues to learn about leading the church, and we grow more and more confident in our new life.

2 comments:

  1. It's spelled StARS. I named it that, with approval from the Advisory Board. Hope you enjoy the very special students there! Kathy Kamp

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  2. You are amazing and so is this program! Thanks for the update!!

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