Holiday Backpack Party

HOLIDAY BACK PACK PARTY ON SATURDAY JANUARY 13, 2017

We are soliciting money to host a Holiday Backpack Party with a dual purpose: First, to provide warm coats (holiday gifts) to fifty youth whose parents live in abject poverty, Second, to assess students’ true language skills.  We hope to tailor the content of the Read to Excel tutoring program to their specific needs.

We also hope to turn the information we collect over to the City of Albuquerque and to related nonprofits in order to help instigate wider institutional change. The assessments, adjusted from standard TESL evaluations and customized for our students, will be low-pressure, conversation-driven, and administered by our volunteers.

After the assessments, there will be food, music, and dancing. We’re also incentivizing the students’ attendance and willingness to participate in the assessment with $15 gift cards and a new coat.

Ultimately, working with the city, resettling organizations, other nonprofits, churches, and community members, we endeavor to establish a charter school that takes into account the unique emotional and social aspects of the lives of refugee students.

Backpacks:  All youth attending the party will be asked to bring their school backpacks, so that volunteers can browse some of their school work (in addition to the general assessment) to gauge reading ability and progress in school.

Youth and School
Most of the youth with whom we work were born in refugee camps and amidst conflict zones. Some did not have the chance to go to school at all and those who attended schools were taught in their native languages.  They are from the Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Chad, parts of the Middle East, and parts of Latin America. 

There are no separate classes for non-English speaking students. The refugee and immigrant children are often taught by teachers who do not speak their languages or understand the nature of their experience in relocation and potential trauma.  While students receive general English-as-a-Second-Language courses in school, most still struggle unless they are assigned English speakers to tutor them one-on-one.

Often students are passed on to higher grades and eventually to graduation without any substantial English foundation.  Thus, when they get to college, they soon drop out within a few weeks and struggle to find and keep jobs. Their outcomes become negative.

Parents
In addition, because refugee and immigrant families struggle to provide even the most basic needs, working rather than attending school often takes priority. Many of refugee/immigrant parents are illiterate even in their native languages and are simply not aware of the right to an education or do not have access to that information. They usually do not attend parent-teacher conferences. When the children bring home their backpacks, parents often do not check to see whether or not the children have homework.

Other Non Profits:  There are local nonprofits providing advocacy and tutoring help, but not all students have equal access the help. That's where we come in; we bridge gaps.

Created by Nkazi Sinandile, founder of New Mexico Women's Global Pathways and co-founder of Immigrant and Refugee Resource Village of Albuquerque.          - www.southafricanorionduet.com, www.irrva.com; www.nmwgp.org.    Read here for more information 
http://www.kob.com/albuquerque-news/charter-school-immigrant-refugee-students/4688743/
                                                                             Please share this link:  www.gofundme.com/holiday-backpackparty. 

To learn more about our work or who we are please google Nkazi Sinandile and Lungile Sinandile or visit www,southafricanorionduet.com

Remember that no gift is too small.  Every dollar gets us closer to our goal.

Thank You.

Son of one of our moms who has been studying English at our center New Mexico Women's  Global Pathways/Immigrant And Refugee.   He is modeling his mother's creation  September 2017
Pre-schoolers at our Educational Center
                                                                    
Some of our youth served at our 100% volunteer unfunded non profit with a 501 c (3) Immigrant and Refugee Resource Village of Albuquerque. They make up Matunda Ya Yesu African Youth Choir.

Some of the youth that we serve sing  in the choir.









 


 
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