Bay View Student Wants to Help Resettle Syrian Refugees in RI

(Open Post) By Isabelle Stevens, a Bay View junior from Coventry

EAST PROVIDENCE, RI— “Helping Syrian refugees and bringing awareness to the war is so important to me because I am a Syrian American myself, and I haven't been able to visit my home and cousins in six years because of this devastating war.”

That’s according to Alyah Achabi (Cranston), a sophomore at Bay View Academy. Alyah has taken the initiative to lend a helping hand by starting a collection for household supplies she says Syrian refugees living in Rhode Island might need. And she’s asking for help.

“As a community, I feel that it's important to help as many people as we can,” she says. “A huge crisis in our world today is the war in Syria, which has left more than 11 million Syrians displaced.”

Alyah has organized the drive through Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island, located at 645 Elmwood Ave., in Providence.

More information about what can be donated, when and where, is available on their website. Alyah has advertised the collection throughout Bay View Academy with flyers and notes in morning messages, appealing to her classmates and to faculty and staff to help. “The most I can do is help resettle my fellow Syrians into a safe home in America,” Alyah says. “And I'm so happy to do so.”