Paw Gaw is a Karen Burmese student who arrived in the United States just four short years ago at the age of 13 after living for 11 years in a Thai refugee camp with her family. In the camp, Paw Gaw attended school for six years, completing the U.S. equivalent of about 4th grade. It’s a huge adjustment for refugee students to find them shelves in American schools and Paw Gaw was no exception.

After arriving in Georgia, Paw Gaw spent a year in intensive study of English at the DeKalb School System’s International Student Center and then a year at Clarkston High School (CHS). Overwhelmed by the adjustment to school in America and still struggling to learn English, Paw Gaw had the opportunity to attend the Global Village School (GVS) for Refugee Girls for the 2010-2011 school year for continued studies in  English and instruction geared towards helping her catch up in school to her American peers.

Paw Gaw, back at Clarkston High School this year with continuing support by her GVS Mentor and attending LSG’s ASAP After School Academic/Arts Program, is taking on the rigors of high school with great success. In her first semester back at CHS, Paw Gaw was one of 2 students in her math class to pass the Math I “End of Course Test”! But Paw Gaw has much more success ahead of her! She is a hard-working and self-motivated student who continues to improve her English skills and plans to graduate from high school and attend college to become a nurse.

Sibling Success 

Welcome Divine and Innocent! Powerful names for two outstanding students from Africa who have been in Lutheran Services’s ASAP After School Academic/Arts Program at Indian Creek Elementary School in Clarkston since January 10, 2012. Neither sibling knew any English upon arrival to the states. Divine Uwineza and Innocent Mfitumukiza are now writing and spelling their names and recognize many of the alphabet letters and sounds.

Divine and Innocent have perfect attendance, exemplary citizenship, and a strong desire to learn.  They are truly a joy to teach and tutor! They look forward to working in the Computer Lab.  Websites such as starfall.com enables them to hear the sounds of the alphabet and listen to a variety of alliteration, which increases phonemic awareness.  We are proud of how much progress these students have shown in such a short amount of time. Kudos to Divine and Innocent!

Children participate in enriching activities at the ASAP afterschool program at Indian Creek Elementary School in Clarkston.

Thanks to a grant awarded by the 21^st Century Community Learning Centers, Lutheran Services of Georgia has started two exciting afterschool programs at Indian Creek Elementary School in Clarkston and Clarkston High School.

The Afterschool Academic/Arts Program (ASAP) strives to improve academic achievement through a variety of fun, hands-on activities.  Enrichment activities will include homework help, reading and vocabulary development, journal writing, a book club, music and art classes, field trips, and other activities.

The program will run during the DeKalb County School System’s calendar year Mondays through Thursdays from 3:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Indian Creek Elementary School, and 3:15 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. at Clarkston High School.  On Fridays, Indian Creek students will meet from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Clarkston High Schoolstudents will meet from 3:15 p.m. to 5:15 p.m.

For more information about participating in this program, please contact ASAP Site Coordinators Deborah Blythwood (dbythwood@lsga.org) for Indian Creek Elementary School and Gail Harper ( gharper@lsga.org) for Clarkston High School.  If you are interested in volunteering as a tutor, please contact Melanie Johnson, Volunteer Coordinator for Refugee Services, at mjohnson@lsga.org or 678-686-9619.

Nouraldin Abdalla is from Sudan.  One day the rest of his family went to work at their farm, but Nouraldin stayed home.  That was the day that war broke out in Sudan.  Nouraldin was 16 years old.  Separated from his family and not knowing if they were safe, he had to flee for his safety to another city in Sudan and then to Libya.  From Libya, he fled with other Sudanese in a boat hoping to go to Italy, but arrived in Malta instead.

In Malta, he was in detention for six months, which is typical for refugees.  Detention was hard for him.  He was terribly lonely having lost his family and lifelong best friends. The food was unfamiliar and he lost a lot of weight.  He had difficulty communicating with others and felt isolated.  Even though many other detainees were from Africa, they were from many different countries and cultures that were unfamiliar to Nouraldin.

After six months, he received permission to stay in Malta for one year.  He renewed this status for three years, until he eventually received refugee status and was resettled by LSG in the U.S. in 2010.  It was only when he arrived in the U.S.that Nouraldin learned that his family (his parents and six siblings) was safe inSudan.  When the war started, they had lived for a time in a refugee camp and now they are in a city in South Darfur, safe but unable to leave the city. Nouraldin communicates with them by phone.

Now that he’s been in the U.S. for almost a year, Nouraldin is hopeful.  He works as a banquet server at the Georgia Dome.  He likes his job a lot, especially the chance to improve his English as he meets new people through his job.  He’s attending an ESL class at the Clarkston Community Center that is preparing him to take the GED.  He hopes to educate himself so that he can help people.  He wants to see his family again and for his family to one day join him in the U.S.   But most of all, he hopes that he, and someday is family too, can always live in peace.