It's Morning Edition on KRPS. I'm Fred Fletcher-Fierro.
As we approach marking the second anniversary of President Biden's announcement that the United States military would be leaving Afghanistan on April 14, 2021. One result was that tens of 1000's of Afghans were relocated to the US, including about 100 to Joplin, Missouri.
Everyone from Moms and Dads, Aunts and Uncles, and small children. I recently spoke with Warda Morsy, a 15-year-old 10th-grade student at Thomas Jefferson Independent Day school in Joplin who is currently tutoring two Afghani siblings, one six years old, the other seven. She isn't tutoring them in English; she's teaching them Arabic. It's a learning experience for all three of them.
“No honestly this is my first time trying to. A lot of the Afghani kids want to learn how to read the Quraan, but they can’t read without knowing the letters and I learned at a very young age so I thought I could just teach them the letters.”
Warda speaks both English and Arabic and comes from a multi-ethnic family. Her Mom born in Morocco; her Dad is from Egypt. The residents of Afghanistan speak two dialects of Arabic, Pashto and Dari. Warda’s six and seven-year-old students speak a little bit of Pashto and some English. I'll let her explain.
“The Afghani’s, they speak Pashto, most of them, I don’t speak Pashto but I can communicate, like with some minimal English and gestures. It’s pretty easy to teach them different letters because you don’t have to do that much other than point and show them this letter and what it sounds and what it looks like.”
While Afghan refugees have received a lot of coverage due to the US leaving after a 20-year war and Afghanistan's government collapsing within days, cities across the US, including Joplin, have assisted in relocating refugees from Somalia, South Sudan, Congo, and Afghanistan. Warda says her six and seven-year-old students arrived about one year ago.
“It’s actually taught me patience. I have to keeping repeating myself, but not like getting upset because it’s not their fault that they understand you and it takes the extra step because you have to go forward to make them like understand what you’re trying to say whether it’s drawing pictures. Trying your best to make them watch videos with cartoon characters, something. Even Google translator in their languages so that they can understand. It’s, it’s definitely taught me patience.”
To assist her young students learning Arabic, Warda uses a picture book recommended by a local mosque. Her Father purchased 30 copies with hopes of large classes in the future. The text has examples of letters used in words. Warna also finds kid-friendly videos, such as alphabet songs, so they can kids and learn more skillfully, or at least she hopes.
“Another challenge that I noticed that I’m trying to cope with is, they are also really young kids that have been through a lot in the past year, so they are not going to want to sit down and learn. So it has to be a very short class for them to be about to comprehend so. I have to kind of condense all of the material I want to give them in 20-minutes, because that’s how long they will sit down and actually be present and focus.”
While Warda enjoys teaching, she hopes to have a career in medicine. She also works with RAISE, or Refugee and Immigrant Services and Education in Joplin, assisting refugees transitioning to life in the US.
“We’ll it’s been really good. I started over the summer and I’ve gotten to help with a lot of different things and I’m so glad for that. Like paperwork, that's a major part that takes such a long time to do but they could really use the extra help. That felt really good to be able to do something like that.”
For 89 9 KRPS News, I'm Fred Fletcher-Fierro
