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A young boy who recently moved from Mexico was struggling to fit in at his new elementary school in California.
A classmate of his at Paloma Elementary in Temecula decided to extend a helping hand – with the help of Google Translate.
Amanda Moore wrote a short note to 10-year-old Rafael Anaya, who does not speak English. Because she doesn’t know Spanish, she used the Google app to help her translate the letter.
Amanda said she wrote it because Rafael often sat alone in the lunch room.
“Would you like to sit with me today?” she asked in her note that has now gone viral. “Look for me and I will show you where I sit. We can color or simply tell scary stories. Thank you for your time.”
Before she handed him her note, she asked her mom, Kimber Kinard, to proofread it.
Kinard shared the video of her daughter reading the letter on the Facebook page Love What Matters. The post has been shared 1,600 times and viewed by over 300,000 people.
In an interview with ABC, Rafael said he recently moved from Mexico and had a tough time feeling accepted at school.
"When the teacher speaks to me and sometimes I don't understand," Rafael told ABC 6.
Although cameras aren’t allowed in the classroom, Kinard said Rafael cried when he received the letter and the entire class stood up and applauded.
Rafael and Amanda have since discovered they are also neighbors. So, on Halloween, they went trick-or-treating together.
Paloma Elementary awarded Moore for her act of kindness and even named her “student of the month.”
