Indiana teacher volunteers as translator for Afghan refugees

ELLETTSVILLE, Ind. (AP) - When Edgewood Intermediate School teacher Sara Jallal-Azizi had a simple conversation with her fourth grade class about what everyone did over Labor Day weekend, she was shocked at what happened next.

That weekend, Jallal-Azizi, who is Afghan-American, had started volunteering as a translator at Camp Atterbury near Edinburgh to help Afghan refugees. Once her students in Ellettsville heard about what she was doing, the cause quickly became close to their hearts.

'œThe class just shouted out like, '~OK, we're ready to help!''ť Maggie Johnson, a fourth grader in Jallal-Azizi's class, remembered.

That's exactly how it happened, Jallal-Azizi said. 'œThey have such big hearts and they just wanted to help,'ť she said. 'œThey were all very eager and willing to help out.'ť

Jallal-Azizi has been volunteering at Camp Atterbury every weekend since Labor Day, and on Sept. 19, she taught her first class to Afghan children. Each Sunday, she teaches basic English vocabulary, important phrases and a bit about how schools are run in the United States. She continues to go back each weekend and whenever else she can.

'œEverything that I personally am doing over there, like volunteering and teaching my class over there and everything like that, that's important and I love that, but I think they're getting a huge life lesson out of it and just gaining so much empathy,'ť Jallal-Azizi said of her fourth graders.

As the school day wrapped up on a recent Thursday, Jallal-Azizi's class meticulously worked on decorating cardboard boxes that will be used as donation collection containers around the school. They carefully cut out construction paper, peeled stickers off sheets and uncapped markers, writing messages like 'œplease donate to Afghan refugees!'ť on the sides of the boxes.

For Jallal-Azizi, volunteering at Camp Atterbury is personal. Jallal-Azizi was 5 1/2 years old when her family immigrated to the United States. When she started going to school in Indiana, she didn't know much English at all. She still remembers her English as a second language teacher who worked with her one on one almost daily.

'œThat's something that's kind of stuck with me, and I remember it was just hard,'ť Jallal-Azizi said. 'œIt was hard on my family. It was hard on my parents, myself being in school and not being able to make friends as easily because I couldn't speak the language.'ť

She learned English quickly, she said, and lived with her family in Fishers and Noblesville before moving to Bloomington during her fourth grade year. She went to school in the Monroe County Community School Corp., then Indiana University.

Now Jallal-Azizi is in her third year of teaching, and hearing the news about what was happening in Afghanistan hit her and her family hard, she said. The last time the Taliban took over, Jallal-Azizi's parents left Afghanistan and went to Pakistan, where Jallal-Azizi was born.

'œWe just felt helpless, like we couldn't do anything to help the situation over there,'ť she said.

But after hearing Afghans would be coming to Indiana, Jallal-Azizi immediately started making calls to figure out how to get involved. Jallal-Azizi said she was put in contact with someone from the Department of Homeland Security to work through the process of becoming a volunteer translator and to get clearance to come into Camp Atterbury.

It's something she wanted to do because Dari isn't a very common language, she said, and female translators were particularly needed. Some women didn't feel comfortable talking to men about certain issues or concerns or things that they needed, Jallal-Azizi said.

As a recurring volunteer, people began to find out Jallal-Azizi was a teacher. She worked with a sergeant at Camp Atterbury to develop a plan to have classes for the children.

'œI was like, you know what, we need to think of something we can do for these kids for their education and kind of get them like a little head start instead of going into an American school and having no idea of what anything is, and just not knowing how it's run and speaking the language and all that, kind of helping to bridge that gap and lessen the culture shock a little bit for them,'ť Jallal-Azizi said.

Jallal-Azizi teaches the children in two age-based groups with over 30 children in each.

'œThey are so cute,'ť Jallal-Azizi said. 'œThey're so eager to learn.'ť

Class is on Sundays, but Jallal-Azizi goes to Camp Atterbury other days as well to volunteer, translate and drop off donations. But as soon as the children see her, even if it's hours before class, they line up right outside the door to where the classroom is set up, she said, ready to learn.

'œI wish I could do some more, like if I was not an hour and 15 minutes away from there, I would go every day I think, if I could, because they're so eager to learn and they want to come to class,'ť Jallal-Azizi said.

It didn't take long for Jallal-Azizi's experiences to inspire her students back at EIS. She told her students people had to leave their homes in Afghanistan quickly because the situation there wasn't safe for them, so they weren't able to bring a lot of their things. A lot of people came with literally just the clothes on their backs, she told them.

'œThat's when all the ideas started coming into the kids, and the gears and their brain started turning, you know, and they were like, '~We have to do something,''ť Jallal-Azizi said.

So with no prompting from Jallal-Azizi, the students brainstormed different ways to help and decided on a donation drive.

'œI honestly felt bad because they had to leave their home without anything and I felt like we needed to help them,'ť Abriana Richardson, a fourth grader in Jallal-Azizi's class, said.

The students planned ways to spread the word, like going on the school's Eagle Eye news announcements, talking about their project at a school board meeting, making flyers and putting boxes around the school as collection sites for donations. They also came up with the idea to give envelopes to each classroom teacher so monetary donations could be collected and used to buy new things for the Afghan refugees, 'œespecially toys for the kids,'ť fourth grader Isabel Branam said.

'œI felt sad, I felt really bad for them and I just thought about what it would feel like to have to leave my home and it made me feel really bad for them,'ť fourth grader Abigail Gregory said.

The ability to put oneself in someone else's shoes is something the students learn about at school through Second Steps, a social-emotional learning program.

Fourth grader Carmen Frye said the class has learned to be kind and show empathy.

'œWe learned about empathy and walking in each other's shoes,'ť Abriana said.

Sitting on the floor of Jallal-Azizi's classroom last week, fourth grader Kyle Dabbert took a look around.

'œWe're very lucky that we have all this stuff, like Smartboards and all the nice stuff we have here,'ť Kyle said. 'œOther people, the Afghans, they don't have anything. Only their clothes.'ť

Jallal-Azizi said she wanted her students to be able to make their plans a reality. Once they had an idea, it became their classroom project. Students have taken the lead while Jallal-Azizi helps with logistics and drops off the donations at Camp Atterbury.

'œI'm really proud of them because I just had no idea that this was going to come out of this, just coming out of a conversation about what did you do over the weekend?'ť Jallal-Azizi said. 'œI kind of shared with them what I did and then they just took off with it and it's so cool.'ť

Jallal-Azizi said as long as Afghan refugees are at Camp Atterbury, she'll keep going back on the weekends and whenever else she can.

HOW TO HELP:

Jallal-Azizi has an Amazon wish list, amzn.to/3mFFCor, with items that will be used to teach at Camp Atterbury or to help meet basic needs.

Monetary donations or donations of new items like clothes, toys and toiletries can also be made at EIS or through Venmo @Sjallal.

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Source: The Herald-Times