2022 Impact Report

BECAUSE OF YOU

FORA’s VISION is a world where refugees in need are welcomed and empowered.

FORA’s MISSION is to ensure that refugee families are provided access to an education sufficient to prepare them to become economically self-sufficient and robustly engaged in American civic life.

FORA’s OBJECTIVE is to ensure that refugee SLIFE (Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education) students and refugee first generation readers catch up to and then maintain grade level so that school becomes joyfully meaningful.

FORA’s STRATEGY is to provide two-hours daily of customized foundational High Dosage Tutoring (HDT) in math and English to each refugee student we serve, with a 2-to-1 or less tutor-student ratio throughout the calendar year, ensuring that foundational educational gaps are filled so that educational scaffolding can occur.

FORA’s MAIN TACTICS are to be embedded in the communities we serve, within walking distance of our students, and to establish deep relationships with our students’ parents and teachers so that we work together as partners to support the academic progress of the students we serve.

We at FORA VALUE patience, kindness, wellness, intercultural connection, a passion for learning and a determined resilience... and modeling these values for others.

Lana and Nour’s story

Lana is a fifth grader, whose family is from Syria, by way of Jordan. She came to FORA last year, scoring in the 1st decile nationally in math, and now is in the highest decile! She is fully engaged…and she is always smiling. Her sister, Nour, a student at Truman College, is both a FORA student and one of FORA’s most inspiring tutors. She brings brilliance and joy to everything she does, and students at FORA look to her as a shining example they can follow.

Greetings, friends, from all of us at FORA.

You have been the difference in the lives of hundreds of refugees arriving in America in a time when only mere thousands are being let into our country. You are the shining light, the beacon of hope, saying, ‘Yes, we welcome you.’ Indeed, you have robustly welcomed these refugees – from Burma, Syria, Ethiopia, Bhutan, South Sudan, and Ukraine –to our shores, embraced them and given them the educational tools needed to succeed in school and in American civic life. And now, these refugees – survivors of genocide, ethnic cleansing and the most horrible forms of abuse and misogyny – are showing the world that they are succeeding in America and that nobody need fear the refugees in our midst. Refugees are an important part of America’s history and an even more essential part of our future if our future is to be bright.

And you have led the way. The story of how you have helped these formerly most forgotten of the world’s children is wonderful. Their successes over the past year are yours as well, and as they pass on their successes to others, the story will only magnify further.

You are a part of an ever-expanding team of volunteers, donors, staff, schoolteachers, and refugee parents along with the refugee children we all adore. Together, we are on a journey toward a day when all refugees who arrive in America can thrive in America. What we are doing together is literally the name of our organization. Together, we are… Forging Opportunities for Refugees in America.

As you read the following pages, please reflect on the victories of the past year and the thrilling possibilities that lie ahead for the children you have poured your time and resources into. There is no greater investment than an investment in these children. There is no greater act than spending time with these children in need. And once you meet these children, you cannot help but understand that they are the best that America has to offer to the future.

They are our joy and our hope. They are our future mathematicians and poets; doctors and social workers; engineers and teachers; and politicians and peacemakers. They are the future parents who will educate yet another generation of children who will carry on your legacy. They are the future leaders of FORA itself.

Please give generously to FORA out of delight at what has been achieved already and excitement at the promise of tomorrow. There are so many accomplishments for you to be proud of at FORA over the past year. If the past is prologue, this prologue suggests that the uplifting story of these refugee children has just begun.

Read on and know that the transformation in the lives described in the following pages is because of you and the scores of people like you who reach out to refugees as if they are our brothers and sisters.

Of course, truly, they are.

Sincerely, Ms. Arkhawan

Kathleen O’Connor, Ph.D. Chief Operating Officer Director of Education

Salih

Ms. Salih was a high-level manager of international charities in Kurdistan, Iraq before being forced to flee with her family in 2014. Arriving in the U.S., she received her master’s in International Relations at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and a certificate in data management from Northwestern. Dr. O’Connor, with a B.A. from Amherst College, an M.A. from Harvard Education School and a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University, is a child developmental psychologist with a specialty in working with war-torn youth. Together, these two women are, truly, a dream team.

BECAUSE OF YOU,

in the past year, scores of recently arrived refugee children received more than 35,000 hours of individualized tutoring, empowering them to succeed in school and in the world beyond.

35,000

HOURS

In fact, more than 80 refugee children, their 150 pre-literate parents, and their under-school-age younger siblings are all receiving services at FORA that will prepare them to become full participants in our society. This empowerment is not the norm. On average, it takes refugees ten years after fleeing their homelands to be permanently resettled. During their years in exile, many – living in camps and slums – are denied any education, falling years behind in school. So many refugee children around the world have forcibly missed years of education that a new pedagogical acronym has been coined – “SLIFE,” or Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education. Almost all refugee students became SLIFE students, years behind in school or totally illiterate. Fewer than 10 percent of SLIFE students in the U.S. graduate from high school.

We at FORA are laser-focused on flipping this percentage on its head. FORA students are breaking the mold. They are classified as SLIFE, but they are on track to not only graduate high school, but to go on to college.

Our tutoring program is made possible by grants from the Council of Islamic Organization of Greater Chicago’s Zakat Chicago and the W.P. and H.B. White Foundation, general development support from the Chicago Community Trust, and your donations.

Your support is enabling refugee children to achieve at breathtaking levels. We need your ongoing partnership to continue making these remarkable outcomes possible.

Shareefa’s story

Shareefa, 12, was only six when she and her family left Malaysia, but she remembers the violence directed at the Rohingya community. “There was a lot of fighting and shooting,” she says. Her family used to hide in the woods.

But in 2016, they were able to come to America. Shareefa began school – for the first time ever – as a third grader.

Working with FORA tutors helped Shareefa soar and become a devoted reader. She smiles and says, “My goal is to read 100 books this year.”

Shareefa serves as her family’s interpreter at medical appointments, though “it’s kind of nerve- racking; I am afraid of getting a word wrong. But I’m also proud to show my parents that I can help them.”

Shareefa is excited about being in 7th grade - but also aware of the increasing importance of grades. “I’m nervous; everything is on me,” she said. But she knows FORA is behind her. “FORA helps you with everything,” she said. “And they treat you like family. They’re loving.”

She wants to do well in school so she can become a doctor. “I want to achieve something in my life,” she said. “I want my parents to know that I can do this – that I will not fail.”

BECAUSE OF YOU,

in this past year, FORA’s 2nd through 12th graders made 264 percent of their expected gains as measured against national norms in math and more than 340 percent in reading! Our children’s median national percentile ranks in math went from the 17th to the 49th percentile and in reading went from the 3rd to the 16th percentile in just one year! Math skills, as measured on Star Renaissance standardized tests

These students’ progress in math is amazing, but please understand that such reading progress is almost unimaginable. Many of these students came to the U.S. with no knowledge of English and unable to read or write in their native tongues. To see them devouring books from their homelands as well as “Harry Potter” books and mystery-thrillers feels nothing short of miraculous. Such gains happen only because of your financial support.

Rodas’ story

Rodas’s, 11, family is from Ethiopia, via Eritrea. She arrived in the U.S. as a kindergartner. “I was excited about school – but this girl was making fun of me because I didn’t know English.” She eventually stopped going to school, and by the time Rodas entered FORA in 2022, she had already missed one full year of school in the U.S.

This summer, Rodas spent six hours a day, every day, at FORA, and the hard work paid off. Her reading tests in August 2022 showed that over the summer her rate of improvement was at a pace greater than 99% of students nationally, and she progressed from the 3rd percentile to the 35th percentile of all U.S. students. “Reading is my favorite subject,” she says, and now she is teaching her mother the English alphabet.

Today, Rodas is often the first student to arrive for tutoring – sometimes arriving 45 minutes early so that she can start tutoring and spend time in the place she loves to be. “When I say ‘I cannot do this!’ my tutor says, ‘Don’t quit – try it! Sound it out. You can do it!’”

BECAUSE OF YOU,

in June 2022, when final report cards were released, FORA students were filled with glee. In the past year, our 1st through 12th graders raised their final report card grades, on average, from 2.5 to 3.0 G.P.A. in math; from 2.3 to 2.8 in reading; and from 2.3 to 2.9 in writing –all statistically significant gains.

MATH READING WRITING

Our students’ scores speak volumes. At the start of the 2021-22 school year, many FORA students had grades just above a 2.0. Local public-school policy is to give refugees a 2.0 simply for showing up.

But the 2021-22 school year was sensational – the year that everything clicked for so many of these students. Their grades exploded upwards. Behind these numbers are scores of stories of students finally being able to engage in school.

High school grades are a story of their own. Our high school students had an average GPA of 3.71 in the 2021-22 school year. This statistic is key to their future. Chicago Public School high school students with a GPA of 3.0 or higher are eligible for a full scholarship to Chicago’s community colleges. Once at community college, students can get a professional certification or transfer to a four-year institution after two years. We’ve worked with students whose straight A’s in community college earned them impressive scholarships to finish their bachelor’s degrees at four-year institutions.

With FORA only a few years old, you already support five college students. One of FORA’s former high school students, who graduated among the top twenty students in his high school class, is currently a freshman at Loyola University Chicago. He still comes to FORA from time to time –sometimes asking for help but also serving as an example to younger students of what is possible with hard work and a positive attitude.

You made these academic achievements possible. Your continued support will enable more students to take this crucial path to success in America.

Shahika’s story

Shahika, 11, was happy in Malaysia, where her Rohingya family had fled from Burma. She had friends and cousins there and loved picking mangoes from trees. She didn’t want to leave.

But in 2020, her family relocated to America, and Shahika began the hard work of getting an American education.

She was starting from near zero. Like other Rohingya children, she had not previously been allowed to attend school. She was not literate even in her own Rohingya language.

Compounding the challenges, COVID hit shortly after the family arrived in Chicago in January of 2020. Shahika had to switch to remote learning. The family barely left their apartment.

On top of that, Shahika wasn’t the most attentive student, she admits. She liked playing with friends and had a hard time focusing on schoolwork.

Working with a tutor at FORA focused her. Shahika kept a notebook of new vocabulary words and learned to read and write in English. Her latest report card had mostly As, and a few Bs.

“I didn’t want to come here, but now I’m happy;” she says, “I feel safe here.”

And she has discovered that she loves snow!

FORA is the country’s only after-school learning center dedicated to providing intensive, individualized foundational learning to SLIFE refugee children, providing tens of thousands of students hours of High Dosage Tutoring (HDT) a year.

Empowering refugee students to catch up in school so that they can thrive – academically, socially, and economically – is our “one thing.” We dedicate our lives to this “one thing” because we believe that this “one thing” can help change the world so much for the better. Helping to empower these children gives us such great joy.

BECAUSE OF YOU,

we created a Family-School Partnership Program (FSPP) last year. Over the past year, refugee parents went from reporting that only 50 percent of their children were happy in school to reporting that 93 percent of their children were happy in school.

Many refugee parents feel confused about and isolated from the American educational system. They are reluctant to talk to teachers because of language barriers or uncertainty over what to ask. This dynamic can be detrimental to children; they see their parents’ detachment and follow suit, pulling back from school engagement themselves.

The FSPP, made possible by grants from the Helen Brach Foundation and the Howard and Abby Milstein Foundation, and your generous support, empowers parents to participate in their children’s education. FORA team members attend parent-teacher meetings as liaisons, acting as interpreters, asking questions, and giving refugee parents the tools to become active partners with the schools.

This past year, the FORA team attended more than 100 meetings with parents, teachers, and relevant school personnel. FORA was able to provide background information on families’ journeys and students’ lives and collaborate with teachers to supplement classroom work with High Dosage Tutoring.

With parents, teachers, and FORA’s HDT staffers working together, student success skyrocketed. Moreover, empowered parents raise empowered children who will grow up to contribute meaningfully to American civic life.

This momentum is possible in part because you spend the money to treat these students as your own. Please help us keep it going.

Liza’s story

Liza and her mother were living in Kharkiv, Ukraine, when Russia invaded. “For a time, everything was kind of okay,” Liza says. “But then there was a time when my mom was driving her car to get some supplies, and something blew up in front of her. That’s when she decided we had to leave.”

They fled to Turkey and then to Chicago. Liza was excited: “It’s a great opportunity to be in America to get a better education and a better life.”

She and her mother found FORA by accident when they happened to walk by. Liza enrolled, but with trepidation. “I was really scared. I thought I wasn’t smart enough,” she said. “I told my mom, ‘This is a bad idea.’”

She changed her mind quickly. “I was so wrong,” she said. “I’m really happy here. Everyone is so nice, and my tutor is very good at explaining things.”

And then Liza revealed she plays violin. Kiera Donovan, FORA’s head of High Dosage Tutoring, arranged for Liza to audition for entry to the Chicago High School for the Arts, a renown public school focused on visual and performing arts.

Liza aced the audition. When the school called FORA to let the staff know that Liza had been accepted, the office erupted in cheers. Now Liza sits first chair in the school orchestra and couldn’t be happier!

BECAUSE OF YOU,

children who participated in our robotics program showed an increase over the course of a year in four key social-emotional variables.

FORA’s Sunday robotics program is highly successful. The children have a wonderful time using their hard-earned math and STEM skills to build numerous different machines, from weather stations to fully functioning drones. Working both individually and in teams, overcoming engineering failures time and time again, students show growth on all the social-emotional variables we measure: growth mindset, self-regulation, self-efficacy, and social awareness.

Multiple research studies have shown that an increase in these variables contributes to long-term school success. The growth exhibited by FORA robotics students last year was statistically significantly higher than that of FORA students who did not participate, suggesting that working together in practical applications of STEM learning – as distinct from our HDT efforts - played a role in developing these crucial habits of mind. Accordingly, we plan to greatly expand robotics this year. Our older students are currently engaging in Vex Robotics team competitions on the weekends thanks in part to a grant from the Society for Science We will be offering Lego Robotics for all of FORA’s younger children every Friday night after we move into our new building.

The Albert Pick, Jr. Fund has been a key funder and partner in our STEM efforts, and the Adler Planetarium has given two of our students paid internships, helping us to ensure that they have opportunities to take their STEM knowledge outside the classroom and hone the practical skills they need to achieve self-sufficiency and success.

We need your help to continue and grow our students’ access to opportunities such as these. Will you help us provide high-level resources that put refugee children on the same level as students at the city’s top schools?

Muhammad ’s story

When Muhammad, 15, began seventh grade in Chicago, he was behind his American-born schoolmates by a lifetime. Like other Rohingya refugees whose families had fled to Malaysia, he had never been to school. No one in his family knew English. In America, when letters came in the mail about the resettlement process, no one could read them.

Muhammad intended to be the person who could. “I told my mom I would try hard to learn English so I could help them,” he said.

With FORA’s support, he has done that, and more. Today he is fluent in English, on top of the three other languages he speaks – Malay, Burmese, and Rohingya. His GPA soared from 2.45 in elementary school to 4.3 in his first year in high school. He was valedictorian of his freshman class.

He intends to become a doctor. “I saw a lot of people in other countries and in America having a hard time. I want to help them,” he said. To that end, instead of attending his neighborhood school, he followed FORA education director Kathleen O’Connor’s advice and is going to Sullivan, a Chicago public school with a pre-medical program.

He continues his FORA tutoring, peppering his tutors, who are students at Loyola University Chicago, with questions about college. He participates in the Becoming a Man program at Sullivan and goes to Arabic school every school day after his FORA sessions. FORA has guided his journey from refugee to scholar.

“When I first started school, I felt like people could easily judge me. But at FORA, people trust you and support you.

“I’m proud of myself,” he said. “I am able to help my mom and dad. Everything I promised has happened.”

FORA’S STRATEGY: HIGH DOSAGE TUTORING (HDT)

FORA is focused on filling gaps in math and reading so that school becomes enjoyable and meaningful. The pedagogical strategy used is called High Dosage Tutoring (HDT) – an educational intervention typically defined as five or more tutoring hours per week at a ratio lower than five students per tutor. HDT is strongly associated with large learning gains. Recent research from the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University recommends HDT as the intervention most likely to have the greatest impact on pandemic learning loss, but FORA is the only organization that takes this approach with refugee students.

And because our students are some of the most disenfranchised in the world, FORA goes well beyond standard HDT practices. Students come to FORA’s center for two hours every weekday after school– 10 hours a week, year-round – and receive mostly 1:1 instruction on the fundamentals of reading and math. By the time current kindergarten students graduate high school, they will each have had more than 6,000 hours of individualized FORA tutoring with curricula that are tailored to their individual needs.

The Ibrahimi brothers’ story

The Ibrahimi family fled Afghanistan after U.S. forces pulled out and the government fell to the Taliban. “We had to leave the country,” said 15-year-old Seyar. His parents and their five sons managed to get out, traveling from Kabul to a detention camp in Dubai, then spending three months in a military camp in suburban Virginia.

Everything was different, from the food to the winter weather. But Seyar and his brothers are determined to succeed.

Education, they knew, would be key. But school was a formidable challenge. “My first day of school was really difficult,” Seyar said. “I didn’t know a word of English, and the teacher didn’t know it. She started talking in English – and I didn’t understand.”

At first, Seyar relied on an Afghan classmate to translate. His 11-year-old brother, Sohail, similarly got through the early weeks of school by sitting next to a Pakistani boy who translated.

But the real answer was FORA. “After we came to FORA, life was easier for us,” Seyar said.

Their tutors have powered steady advances in English. “They taught us the words, but also how to write the words and say them out loud. That made learning English easier for us,” nine-year-old Abed said.

Seyar can now understand much of what he hears and is getting more confident about speaking. Sohail can explain math concepts in English. Abed’s recent report card had some Cs based on test results, but his teacher wrote an unofficial “A” at the top. His effort and the amount he had learned, she told him, had been stellar. “FORA is like my second home,” Seyar said.

To that end, we are buying a huge former library in the heart of Chicago’s refugee community!

FORA is located in West Ridge, a neighborhood that has welcomed refugees from around the world for the past 100 years. We are within walking distance of more than 400 SLIFE refugee families from all over the world.

Our children, parents, staff, and tutors are currently crammed into less than 3,500 square feet of space. Because of this limitation, we had not advertised a wait list since January 2019.

But in March 2022, the City of Chicago announced that it would open a bidding process to sell the decommissioned Northtown Library, a building that literally abuts one of FORA’s West Ridge storefronts. This 11,400-square-foot former library – almost four times our current space – is a mid-century modern gem and a West Ridge landmark where generations of immigrant and refugee students first fell in love with reading.

Excited by the possibilities, we put a poster in our window announcing the opening of our waitlist. In less than three weeks more than 50 children signed up, and the waitlist grew from there. Our assumptions were confirmed: there are scores more children who would use our services if only we had the space to offer them.

BECAUSE OF YOU, FORA IS NOT ONLY HERE TO STAY, BUT IS EXPANDING TO PROVIDE OUR SERVICES TO MANY MORE REFUGEES.

To the right under the green signs is FORA’s current leased empowerment center in the heart of West Ridge’s refugee community. To the left is the former Northtown Library, the beautiful 11,400 sq. ft. building that FORA is purchasing.

Bolstered by your support, we gathered our courage and decided to bid on the former library. After fiercely competitive bidding, our final bid was the highest one. We received full approval from the Chicago City Council and are now in the process of buying the library!

The purchase and renovation will likely cost a bit less than $2 million. Long-term supporters immediately stepped up to cover more than half of the costs. With the help of generous people like you who care deeply about education, empowering refugees, and restorative justice, we are certain that we will succeed in raising the rest.

Can we count on you to build the future of FORA?

The purchase and renovation of the library building would not be possible without the pro bono professional expertise of:

MATI

THOMAS R. RAINES ATTORNEY

REBECCA

Construction and Redevelopment Coordinator

TOGETHER, WE ARE… FORGING OPPORTUNITIES FOR REFUGEES IN AMERICA.

You are the key to helping refugee children excel in America.

We are at a critical moment in our shared mission. We have proved that our intensive strategy works, enabling refugee children to achieve and thrive in America. Our students have established their intelligence, grit, and determination.

Now we are ready to grow. We are poised to expand our services to more children; to become a more visible and active member of our community; and to show other cities where refugees are being resettled how they can support refugee children and their families in building successful new lives.

We can move forward only with your help.

This is a big year for us, a year that will solidify FORA for generations to come.

Between the upcoming purchase of the former Northtown Library and FORA’s focus on greatly shrinking our waitlist of more than 60 children, FORA is doubling fundraising efforts this year, with the goal of raising more than a million dollars. We need your support now more than ever. Will you please give generously and joyfully?

You can donate in one of the following ways:

Send a check or a recurring credit card donation via the attached envelope.

Go our website www.refugeefora.org or scan the QR code below. Click on “Donate.”

We also happily accept stock donations. If you would like to make a stock donation, please write to Michael O’Connor at michael@refugeefora.org.

If your company offers a donation matching program, please consider using it to double your contribution.

In addition to donations, FORA needs the following: VISITS

The refugee children we serve yearn and deserve to know that they are welcomed here. Please come and tell them in person that you welcome them to America. If you would like to visit, please reach out at michael@refugeefora.org

VOLUNTEERS

Our organization thrives because of our volunteers. Please join our dedicated team of amazing volunteers. We need in-person volunteers of any age who are willing to come four hours per week for at least 100 hours total. We also need adult online tutors who can tutor one hour every weekday during tutoring hours (4:30 pm to 6:30 pm and 7 pm to 9 pm, on weekdays throughout the school year; or every morning or early afternoon on weekdays during the summer).

CORPORATE SPONSORSHIPS

Corporations who are willing to provide internships, host corporate volunteer days at FORA, and/or donate to our capital campaign or fundraising galas, are encouraged to reach out at michael@refugeefora.org.

PLEASE BE AS GENEROUS AS BRINGS YOU JOY.

FORA’s Facts and Figures

As of June 2022, there were 27.1 million refugees in the world.i Once refugees escape their native lands, they spend, on average, more than ten years in exile.ii

Only 61% of refugee children attend primary school and only 23% of refugee adolescents attend secondary school.iii Only one percent of all refugees have access to higher education.iv Meanwhile, 23% of refugee females and 17% of refugee males are illiterate even in their native language.v

INTERVENTION

FORA steps into the gap, providing approx. 80 students from pre-literate refugee homes with two hours a day of year-round individualized High Dosage Tutoring (HDT) to fill foundational academic gaps so that children can catch up in school and school becomes meaningful.

THE GRAVE SITUATION SCHOLASTIC RESULTS

In math, from June 2021 to June 2022, our students went from a median percentile rank of the 17th to the 49th percentile (p≤ .05), making 2.64 times the growth in math as would be expected in a year.

With each refugee student obtaining approximately 500 hours a year of HDT, FORA provides approximately 40,000 hours a year of free tutoring.

When refugee children arrive in the U.S. either years behind in school or illiterate, they are placed into classes according to their age, not their current academic level, and they despair. Regarding both reading and math, recent research has confirmed that academic percentile rank in earlier grades tends to predict percentile rank in later grades.iv There is little hope for refugee children who start so far behind their peers to “catch up.”

From June 2021 to June 2022, the percentage of FORA parents who felt respected and positive when interacting with school staff went from 33% to 83%.

In reading, from June 2021 to June 2022, our students went from a median percentile rank of the 3rd percentile to the 16th percentile (p≤ .05), making 3.4 times the reading growth as would be expected in a year.

Our volunteers are the reason we can provide so much one-on-one tutoring. Since 2019, we have had almost 400 volunteer tutors who have undergone full FBI background checks.

From June 2021 to June 2022, the percentage of FORA parents who reported that their children were happy at school went from 50% to 93%.

From June 2021 to June 2022, our FORA students increased their average final grades in reading from 2.3 to 2.8 (p≤.05), in writing from 2.25 to 2.9 (p≤ .005) and in math from 2.5 to 3. (p≤ .05).

i UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.” UNHCR, 16 June 2020, www.unhcr.org/en-us/figures-at-a-glance.html.

ii Devictor, Xavior, and Quy Toan Do. “How Many Years Do Refugees Stay in Exile?” World Bank Blogs, 15 Sept. 2016, blogs.worldbank.org/dev4peace/how-many-years-do-refugees-stay-exile.

iii Grandi, Filippo. “Education Is Key to Our Refugee Crisis Response. Here’s Why.” World Economic Forum, 7 Feb. 2020, www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/09/refugee-education-unhcr-filippo-grandi.

iv Schorchit, Nicolle. “Despite Inclusive Policies, Refugee Children Face Major Obstacles to Education: The Barriers Refugee Children Face Overseas Create Even More Problems if They Are Eventually Resettled in the United States.” National Education Association, www.nea.org /advocating-for-change/new-from-nea/despite-inclusive-policies-refugee-children-face-major-obstacles. Accessed 30 Oct. 2022.

v Ramsay, Georgina, and Lucy Fiske. “Election FactCheck: Are Many Refugees Illiterate and Innumerate?” The Conversation, 18 May 2016, theconversation.com/election-factcheck-are-many-refugees-illiterate-and-innumerate-59584.

vi Fielding, Lynn. D., Jay Maidment, and Christian N.K. Anderson. “Readiness for Entering Kindergarten: The Impact on Future Academic Achievement.” The Reading Foundation. 2019, https://www.readingfoundation.org/download/J6F1O3.

Zahirah’s story

Zahirah’s family is Rohingya from Burma. Her sparkling personality is matched by her intellectual focus. In less than two years, she has moved from the 28th percentile to the 76th percentile in reading. She is a scholastic superstar.