☼ Volunteer Spotlight
☼
Did you know that last year volunteers
donated over 3,500 hours to Refugee Family Services? We’d like to
say thank you to our many volunteers who have donated their time to
tutor refugee youth, assist with our After-School program and Summer
Camp and help RFS in countless other ways.
This month, we shine a “Volunteer
Spotlight” on Michael Caputa, who is a full-time student at the
University of Georgia majoring in Speech Communication. Michael is a
tutor in our Refugee Youth Program where he helps students with
their homework. His favorite memory of volunteering with RFS
happened on his first day—after Michael walked through the door one
of the students immediately came up to him with a huge smile and
said, “You smell so good! You smell like Africa!”
Michael is an exceptional tutor because
he invests personal time to help our students with their homework,
but also takes extra time to play games with the youth and listen to
them when they need to be heard. Michael has also participated in
every training session we have ever held to learn more about the
challenges facing refugee youth and try to become the best tutor he
can be. He constantly watches out for every single kid in our
program, not just the ones he is tutoring, and lets the RFS staff
know if anyone needs extra help. Thank you Michael, for your
dedication to RFS!
If you’d like to learn more about how to
become an RFS volunteer, please contact the Volunteer Coordinator at 404-299-6217 x 239 or
rfsvolunteers@refugeefamilyservices.org.
Kidest’s parents fled Ethiopia and arrived in the United States in
1990 to begin reconstructing their lives, and she was born six year
later. Because both of her parents are refugees, Refugee Family Services
reached out to her to ensure that she would have the same opportunities
for growth in the United States as other children born in this country.
Enrolling her in the youth services program was key in shaping her for
academic success.
The feisty 10-year-old is now a part of RFS’ after-school program which
incorporates educational instruction in the form of tutoring and
homework assistance and character development by utilizing such
partnerships as Moving in the Spirit, a dance and theater troupe that
gives lessons to the children in the program. Kidest recently took her
love for dance to the state in RFS’ annual talent show, where she
performed a Thai dance with several other girls from the after-school
program. It was a performance that could have easily rivaled those at
the Fox Theatre!
