How can we provide students with emotional support?

Last week during tutoring with our ELL student, myself and my fellow tutor were saddened to learn some devastating news from our student, W. Toward the end of our session, W opened his Facebook to find a video of his fiend in critical condition in the hospital. This was his very best friend from back home, who was admitted to a hospital from self-immolation protesting in his home country. As W watched this video, I could see in his face that he was not okay. He showed us this video and explained to us that people set themselves on fire to draw attention to the huge political issue of his country's lack of freedom, which is commonly overlooked. He told us he was feeling very depressed and isolated in America and that he doesn't have any friends here. My fellow tutor and I were concerned about this previously because when he is not after school in the library doing homework, he is always at his job, and because we never see him interact with other students. His feeling of alienation is making it much harder for him to deal with such a tragedy, as he does not feel the support of having peers to talk to. My fellow tutor and I told W that we are so proud of him for all the hard work he has put into learning English and all his schoolwork here, and that we will be there for him if there is anything he needs. We encouraged him to talk to the guidance counselors at his school whenever he is upset during school or when he needs somebody to talk to. It is clear that W needs emotional support more than anything else right now, so my fellow tutor and I have been brainstorming about how we can deal with this situation and to figure out if there is anything that we can do for W.

We are very concerned about his well being, and will continue to check in with W to make sure he is getting the support he needs. This might be a good time to do a fun activity with him, as we know he wants to go on a tour of our campus and he wants to learn how to play the drums from my fellow tutor who is a drummer. This would be a good way to show him that we care for him, and it may help to cheer him up when he is having such a rough time. It has become evident to us that our role is not only to provide academic support, but must also include emotional support for our student.