by Siobhan Richards
After his year-long sabbatical filled with humanitarian work, history teacher Kenneth High returned to Hudson High School. He has now resumed the position of UNICEF’s advisor and has brought a year’s worth of experiences and opportunities back with him into the club.
High worked at Ascentria Care Alliance on refugee resettlement in Worcester. He helped set up apartments for families and collected donations and furniture or household items. In some cases he even brought clients to doctor’s appointments and helped them fill out paperwork. He and other members of Ascentria built a community garden and delivered presents to refugees on Christmas.
He worked very closely with all of the staff members at Ascentria, some of which were former refugees themselves.
“The best part has actually been getting to know the staff at the agency who do this professionally day in and day out,” High said. “The amount of work they do and their level of commitment is really cool.”
Ali Qusay Al-Faris and his nephew Faisal Al-Faris, who were refugees from Iraq, worked with High on building the garden shed. High appreciated that other refugees, who were also going through their own struggles adjusting to a new country, could come together to help others in their community.
High is now bringing those experiences back to the UNICEF club and the HHS community.
“They [Ascentria] know who we are and are excited to have our support, and it will help open up new opportunities for students,” High says. “Looking at what the needs are, I have a lot of ideas about how Hudson students can contribute and can help that I hadn’t really thought about before.”
He has brought those ideas into the now UNICEF One World Club. The name change came after the club decided they wanted to help people directly rather than just do fundraisers.
This year High and the club intend to continue the UNICEF fundraisers, such as Trick or Treat for UNICEF and the Volleyball Tournament, as well as working with refugees.
They will be running more clothing and furniture drives, as well as volunteering at a local bike shop in Worcester to provide refugees with bikes, and delivering Christmas presents to refugees this winter.
President Hannah Feddersohn also wants to work more directly with refugees. After she and other UNICEF members helped organize a storage facility full of resources for refugees last school year, Feddersohn wanted to be more involved and help others in the community and is leading the club to do just that.
“I remember last year going to the church and organizing all the furniture and all of the other items that they had, which were all donated for these families,” Feddersohn says. “They are coming from all over, from Iraq, and Syria, fleeing their country to safety with almost nothing. And Mr. High, by working with this company and us, as UNICEF, working with them will be great.”
Feddersohn wants to go beyond fundraising and get the whole club more involved.
“This year we’re getting a lot more personal with [the refugees],” Feddersohn says, “and I now feel so grateful. I just want to help more because I can see how much [our help] is impacting their lives.”