NewsPosted June 8, 2016 Atlanta, GA, US: American Mom Puts Refugee Kids in Adventist Schools

By Karen Suvankham, communication coordinator for Mission to the Cities

Imagine a place where 60 different languages are spoken by people living within just a square mile (1.6 kilometers) of land.

That place is real, and it has a name: Clarkston, in the U.S. state of Georgia.

Clarkston is located on the outskirts of Atlanta and is home to refugees who have resettled from all over the world. It’s a place where life begins again and where long-cherished dreams take root. It’s also an area with huge needs, and with huge opportunities to make a difference — especially with a Seventh-day Adventist education.

Among the people assisting the refugees is an Adventist volunteer, Kelli Czaykowsky, president and executive director of a nonprofit organization called Friends of Refugees Providing Empowerment and Education. Czaykowsky, who has helped dozens of refugee children receive scholarships to Adventist schools and assisted refugee families in many other ways, was recognized this week with a Daily Point of Light Award, an honor bestowed by former U.S. President George H.W. Bush on individuals and groups that create meaningful change in communities across the United States.

“The power of the individual to spark change and improve the world — that’s what the Daily Point of Light Award celebrates and that is exactly what Kelli Czaykowsky does,” the staff of her organization said in announcing the award, which Bush created in 1989, onFacebook.

Until 2010, Czaykowsky had never even heard of refugees. Read More . . .