In a former life, we worked with refugees. You may be shocked to hear this, but being a refugee is not the carefree, global-Huck Finn-with-a-knapsack existence you might think it is. It's certainly not as fun as Bono makes it sound:
Most refugees come from places where governance and common sense have broken down completely, business has ground to a halt, education is scanty at best, and the very mouth of hell itself has opened up and disgorged its contents onto the ground where they live.
Then, having survived that, they get to live in a tent next to other people living off UN crackers and juice for a few years before they are assigned to live in places like Clarkston, Georgia. They then attempt to support their families on nine dollar an hour jobs. It's better than being killed en masse because of their tribal affiliation, religion, or, you know, just because crazy-ass third world madman thought you needed to die today, but it's definitely not easy.
They can be very charming people though, and like most people that charm is most evident in their kids, which brings us to the EDSBS Christmas gift.
We ask you to donate money to RRISA, better known as Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Services of Atlanta, and to give that money specifically to the Afterschool Program, which helps low-income refugee kids living in the Clarkston/Stone Mountain area succeed through all of the things afterschool programs do: developing literacy, keeping them busy, and generally enhancing their chances of overcoming the educational deficits you naturally have when arriving in the country without English, resources, or parents who know anything at all about the American education system.
The programs need the funding both because Clarkston remains a busy resettlement site for the United States' refugee resettlment programs, and thanks to the bull market in global trouble, there's no end in sight to the number of cute kids appearing in Dekalb County who have to wear signs around their neck to tell the bus driver where to drop them off.
Read about them here; donate here. Under the tab reading "Donation Type" select "Special Event" and type in "EDSBS." This denotes the money will go to the youth program specifically.
If we raise a significant amount of money, I will try to get Trev Alberts to sing a Christmas Song with me and film it. I'm not promising he will, but I'll try my damndest. Barring that, I'll try something else bizarre and entertaining to shake out your charity dollars if needed.