Building ESL Infrastructure In Clarkston

Today members of the Movement to End Israeli Apartheid Georgia (MEIAG) and Project Hope Atlanta met in Clarkston to take a tour of the space where ESL classes will be taught starting next Tuesday. The ESL classes will be a free service that caters to Palestinian, Iraqi, and other refugee women who live in the area.

The classes represent the first collaboration between both groups. MEIAG has been exploring ways to engage with the Palestinian refugee community for the last year, organizing outings, rides to doctors appointments, and more.

It's exciting to see Project Hope and MEIAG coming together to bring ESL classes right to the doorsteps of refugee women that may not have had access otherwise. It's also impressive that MEIAG's analysis leads the group not only to act for global change by working to end the Apartheid practices of Israel, but to address the local consequences of Aparthied as well.

Kelli's Childcare Collective has agreed to facilitate free childcare in an effort to make classes accessable to mothers in the community.

AFSC Atlanta is exciting to play a supportive role in this exciting new project, and we hope you are too!

You Can Help!

1. We need more volunteer ESL teachers
2. we could really use some help with childcare on Tuesdays from 2-4
3. Donate to cover travel expenses for volunteers

Please contact me if you're able to help at tfranzen@afsc.org


Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee

SCAP Brings Non-Military Options to Stephenson High

Stephenson High school invited Student Career Alternatives Program to their first spring career fair, which took place today. This marked our second visit to the Stone Mountain high school. One striking thing that we again noticed today that the student body is over 99% African American, which seems to further confirm the fact that Atlanta Metro school have become resegregated over the past 20 years.

We were all impressed with the counseling staffs dedication to the students and their post high school careers. So many high school counselors cave into parents request to hold career fairs after school instead of during school. The fairs that take place during school hours are so much more accessible to students.

We had hundreds of students come talk to us through the course of the fair. Students explored ways to serve their country, travel the world, find adventure, get money for college, develop artistic skills, and other job skills training without out having to join the military.

We also provided students that were considering military service with our new DVD, "Before You Enlist" which breaks down the realities of the enlistment contract and interviews young people coming back from Iraq/Afghanistan. We weren't the only folks tabling at today's career fair. In addition to dozens of colleges and a cosmetology school, there was two tables staffed by Army recruiters.

We're excited at the prospect of building a relationship with Stephenson high staff. There's already talk of a summer program collaboration with SCAP!


Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee

"It's My Life" Visual Art!

So we're still putting the poetry, music and video submissions onto the internet, but for now we're gonna go ahead and post all the lovely photos, paintings, graphics, and collages that students entered into the "It's My Life" youth art contest.

Keep in mind that the gallery will be up until April 15th and much of the art is still for sale with all the proceeds going to the artists.

We will also be hosting a closing Friday April 15th from 6-8pm at the AFSC office, 60 walton street, Atlanta 30303.


Tim Franzen
American Friends Service Committee

Students Sound Off to Decrease Fossil Fuel Reliance

Here's the second youth produced video that came out of our Be The Change Curriculum at the Horizons School. This crew of students call themselves the LFFR, of Lower Fossil Fuel Reliance.

We actually spent a few hours with then today to support their effort to make 1000 origami pinwheels to send to President Obama. In many Asian cultures(about half of the LFFR crew is first generation Asian immigrants) it is believed that if you make 1000 origami paper cranes then you will receive one wish.

When the LFFR crew completes their quest to create 1000 paper pinwheels(they got up to 405 today) they plan to hold a press conference at the Horizons school and send the pinwheels to the white house with one simple with; lower fossil fuel reliance.

Undocumented! Unafraid!

About 300 students from Forest Park High School in Clayton County staged a walkout Friday March 18, leaving school to protest the HB87, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act of 2011. Critics say the bill would cause racial profiling because it requires police to check the immigration status of those they suspect of being undocumented immigrants.

The students, who had been threatened with suspension and other punishments by school officials to prevent them from walking out, staged a spirited rally in Forest Park Starr Park and marched by roads adjoining the park. Students said they would have to wait until Monday to find out whether they were suspended.

The demonstration was planned and executed completely by students, including 12th grader Brenda Fernandez, who says the school administration and police both tried to stand in the way of the protest planning. The students contacted the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR) a few days before the action and reieved that group's support. The crowd at the demonstration consisted almost entirely of highschool students from Forest Park High School; a few students from other high schools also attended, as well as a few parents, younger siblings, and other immigrants' rights activists.

Student walkouts have historically been a powerful tool in the immigrants' rights movement in the US as well as in other progressive and radical causes. In 2006, middle and high school students in California and Nevada walked out of class to protest HR 4437, proposed legislation that would among other things build a wall between the US and Mexico. These student walkouts helped spark a nationwide wave of protest that resulted in rallies of millions of people in dozens of cities.


Dell MacLean
Georgia Peace and Justice