Helping Choko

As a community college professor, I often see talented people who are in very difficult circumstances due in no fault of their own. Choko is in something of a unique category.

Choko was born in Liberia and became a refugee as a result of the civil war. He spent almost 17 years in a refugee camp in Ghana. Use your imagination to picture 17 years in a refugee camp in Ghana and you still won't have an inkling of what that really means.

Then, in 2014, he wins the "lottery" and gets a Green Card to the US.

I met him shortly thereafter. He took my basic skills writing class. The man was a flurry of activity. He was taking a full load of classes and working three jobs, like 18 hours a day, because he had the dream of bringing some of his family to the US.

This spring, he was in my Advanced Comp & Critical Thinking class, the last English class students need before they transfer to a four-year college. It was the last class he needed. He was still a flurry of activity, but I could tell there was something wrong. And then he got very sick. I mean very sick.

And then coronavirus happened.

He lost his jobs. He lost his apartment. He was living in his car. He found new jobs. And then his car caught on fire on the highway and he barely escaped with his life. That was like two weeks ago.  He has been living in his car that is burnt up since then.

Yesterday, the car got towed. Now he is truly on the streets.

I was going to move him into my house, but my family is going through some pretty extreme stuff at the moment and I don't think we have the bandwidth to take on more than we are doing right now.

Please help me raise some money so we can get Choko off the streets, into an apartment, and driving a functional vehicle. His dream is to be a social worker and motivational speaker, and believe me, he'll be great at both. He just needs to catch a break. Let's help him catch that break.