Hope for Tomorrow provides assistance
May 18, 2017
Coming to America as a refugee in 2007, Perry Meridian graduate Justin Thang experienced all of the joy and hardships that came with living in a new country first hand. Thang saw many of the challenges he and other Burmese refugees went through and decided to do something to help.
“I knew I needed to help other refugees here,” Thang said. “I knew if I was able to help, then that is what I should do.”
Thang decided to create an organization that would be able to help them. He created the non-profit organization called Hope for Tomorrow to help refugees. The program offers homework assistance, English classes, immigration rights classes and citizenship classes to refugees who need it.
SHS graduate Alexis Meier is one of the few volunteers who helps teach at Hope for Tomorrow. Meier teaches a citizenship class in which she helps adults prepare to take their U.S. citizenship test.
“I meet with my classes on Wednesdays and Fridays,” Meier said. “There I go over the 100 questions that will be on the test and help them know how to answer them.”
She says that other classes are held on different days. Homework help classes are on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and immigration rights classes are held on Saturdays. She says she hopes that the classes at Hope for Tomorrow are helping make the lives of these refugees easier in the U.S.
Meier chose to get involved with Hope for Tomorrow because of its assistance to many and because of her passion for teaching. She says that she has always wanted to be an English teacher, so this is a step towards that all while being able to help others.
“I love being able to see that click in their minds,” Meier said. “That’s the best part. That’s why I want to teach and help them.”
Meier says that if there are others out there who feel the same or want to help in some way to contact Hope for Tomorrow. She says help and donations are always welcome because they are what allows the organization to do what they do. To contact and to learn more about Hope for Tomorrow, go to hopefortomorrowusa.com.
