Photo courtesy of Claire Mills

"It was one of my happiest moments in life when Yogeeta was declared the winner that evening."

It's an exciting time for RT in the South Bay! We were happy to announce the opening of our new office location in San Jose in our last newsletter (see directions here), and this February we have more great news!

RT just received a grant from the Walter S. Johnson Foundation to serve refugee foster youth, and we are looking for volunteers in the South Bay to provide weekly tutoring and mentoring to these students. Currently, RT has over 100 volunteers in the East Bay, over 100 volunteers in San Francisco, and 45 volunteers in the South Bay. This year, we aim to increase the number of students served in the South Bay, and in order to do this, we need to find more volunteers like you!  

If you know of anyone who may be interested in volunteering as a home-based tutor in the South Bay, please forward this newsletter, encourage them to attend our next orientation on March 8th at 6:30 pm, or contact us for more information at 415-989-2151 or info@reftrans.org. 

BB Borowitz first joined RT in the Spring of 2009, when she began tutoring Esther, a woman from Liberia. 

With BB's support, Esther passed her Certified Nursing Assistant Exam and got a job - meeting all of her tutoring goals. 

Soon after, BB contacted RT asking to continue serving as a tutor, this time with a youth student. She was quickly matched with Si Poe, a seven year old Karen refugee from Burma/Thailand. Si Poe has grown tremendously during her time with BB, building her confidence, discussing her dreams for her future and, of course, improving her language skills. 

BB regularly goes above and beyond her 2-4 hour/week tutoring commitment. She has taken the whole family on field trips, helped coordinate health appointments, played games and written stories with the girls, communicated with her student's teachers, practiced English with Si Poe's mother, and is currently taking the lead on coordinating a backyard garden (with the help from RT's gardener-extraordinaire, Zack Riedman). We are so grateful to have BB on our tutoring team - and her students are immensely grateful, as well.

Si Poe

From volunteer tutor BB Borowitz:

All of these stories were inspired by a game we played with a grab bag of little plastic animals and toys :) Si Poe would close her eyes and reach in the bag and pull out three toys and then tell a story about them while enacting the story with the toys. I would write the story as she was telling it, then read it back to her, then she would read it to me. When all the stories were written, I typed them up and put them in a little book, which she titled and colored. She was very proud of this. One day Si Poe told me she wanted to read a story to her class. Indeed, her teacher let her read and Si Poe chose the "Duck, Spider and Spoozz the Monster Eat a Duck". When I saw her that week Si Poe was so excited about having read to her class!

Here is one of Si Poe's stories:

THE MONSTER, THE TURTLE, AND MOUSE 

The turtle went to see a flower. Then she saw a flower. The monster turned into the flower. The turtle wanted to eat the flower. The mouse walked but the turtle walked faster.  Then she pushed the mouse down.

The mouse said, "Why did you push me down?"
"I'm sorry," the turtle said. "Can you be my friend?"
"OK.  Let's go play together.  Let's go see the flower."

To read more of Si Poe's stories, visit the RT blog!

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