San Diego Refugee Tutoring

The vision of San Diego Refugee Tutoring is to achieve social justice through educational access for students of refugee background in City Heights.

The mission of San Diego Refugee Tutoring is to provide holistic academic support through one-on-one tutoring and enrichment activities to students of refugee background in City Heights.

Over the last 14 years, SDRT has provided assistance to students and families arriving from Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Afghanistan who are the lucky few getting out of the refugee camps in these troubled areas and being given a fresh start in San Diego. These students of refugee background spoke 1-3 languages with their families and began learning to read and write a language in the country where their refugee camp was. However, these students did not have a solid grasp of any one language (could not read, write, speak and understand). These students were placed in school based on their age (and this was often unknown) and not their ability, which further complicated their educational journey to learning English. The amount of support these students needed was enormous. One teacher (with no parent volunteers or teachers’ assistants) could NOT meet these kids’ need and set them up for success in the future.  Hence an idea was born that turned into a full fledged nonprofit serving approximately 200 students ranging in age from pre-school through college. Giving students the aid of one on one time with an experienced volunteer who not only helps with reading, writing, and arithmetic but also makes that child feel special and cared for will only set them up for success in their future.