Asha’s Refuge has held weekly English Conversation and Kindergarten Readiness Classes. These classes aim to assist adult refugees with conversational, reading and written English as well as help prepare preschool refugees for what is expected of them in Kindergarten. These classes are only a very small part of what our volunteers and staff do throughout each week with refugee clients.

As we approach the new school year and begin our classes in our new building location in the Binghampton/Highland Heights area at Highland Heights Baptist Church (675 National) we have decided it would be a good time to use a more appropriate name to describe our classes as a whole. Our English Conversation and Kindergarten Readiness Classes will now be referred to as American Life and Language (ALL). As Deborah pointed out, our classes are open to ALL peoples with refugee or a green card from previous refugee status. While we will still be teaching English at a conversational, reading and written level we believe the new title gives a better sense of what our organizational goals are. This title will also be appropriate for our Kindergarten Readiness program for preschoolers as they too will be learning about American Life and Language but of course on a level that is more fitting for their age. American Life and Language allows us to speak about our current and future classes as a whole without a mouthful of class titles. In addition to the Kindergarten Readiness and English Conversation classes we currently hold, we envision a future with small group classes teaching art, driving, computers, job skills, and citizenship classes. We will continue to also walk along side of our refugee friends teaching them about daily life here in America such as understanding their mail, registering for school and communicating with their children’s teachers, exhibiting acceptable behavior, social and cultural skills, making doctors appointments, understanding basic health and doctors orders, going to the grocery store, using available community resources and completing forms.

Please be in prayer for Asha’s Refuge as we press forward in doing what we believe the Lord has invited us to do. There are challenges and always more things to understand or more needs to address. Thank you for your support.