For the past three years, Someya, a young Sudanese refugee, has attended evening English classes at St. Andrews. If asked what fuels her passion for learning, she’ll give an easy smile and tell you about the lifelong importance of pursuing knowledge, as well as her desire to speak with others directly, in their own language. It’s an answer we all know well. But Someya’s dedication to self-improvement through education is completely sincere. One year ago, her ability to continue her English lessons was jeopardized by the birth of her son Farris-–a blessing mixed with an ironic twist. Because her husband has been working in the United States for the past seven years, Someya would have no choice but to shoulder childcare of their son all on her own.
At St. Andrew’s, this is a familiar story, and often, the tale is succeeded by a mother’s absence from classes for two – four years until the child can be more easily babysat by neighborhood mothers. Absence from classes means these mothers lose much of the language and literary skills they have accrued in St. Andrew’s courses, and even worse, they must abstain from vocational training that offer much needed income-generating opportunities.
Dedicated single mothers like Someya shouldn’t have to sacrifice their personal development for the sake of their children, but without help from their communities, there is precious little time to devote to one’s self. Fortunately, starting last spring, informal free childcare services offered to students of St. Andrew’s adult evening classes meant that Someya didn’t have to choose between caring for her new baby and her own personal enrichment.
This winter, St. Andrew’s will expand these services significantly by starting a new preschool. The Mother & Child’s Early Childhood Education program is just shy of being completely funded and hopefully, will open its doors at St. Andrew’s downtown location in January 2009. The preschool will provide kids from 2-5 years old with a safe environment to learn through play while freeing up their parents to pursue work or education during the daytime hours.
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Refugee families rarely fit a traditional, two-parent structure. The violent rupture that forces refugees to flee their countries of origin can also tear families apart. Family members may be killed, become separated from one another, or go missing for several years. All too often, children loose their parents as a result. Single-mother households like Someya’s are common among refugee families, and in cases where neither parent is present, the burden of child-rearing falls upon an aunt, uncle, or older-sibling.
Kathy Kamphoefner, StARS co-director, believes that early childhood education is critical for refugee children, who have experienced the trauma of displacement at an early age. Innumerable studies have shown that early childhood education produces big benefits in terms of long-term academic achievement, grade retention, and social adjustment. Kathy hopes that the preschool will offer a haven of stability to counterbalance the chaos in the children’s lives. Changing conditions in their home-countries or in their legal status as refugees may uproot families repeatedly during the children’s formative years, at a time when most kids are in school. Early socialization in a classroom setting helps to minimize the damage done by later interruptions in their education, making it easier for kids to integrate into a new school.
Drawing advice from friends, colleagues, and former preschool teachers in the US, Kathy says that lessons will be child-oriented, encouraging kids to learn through play. The preschool director and teaching assistants will target basic skill sets, like learning the alphabet, numbers, colors, and counting, which will prepare them to graduate up to kindergarten and beyond. Early exposure to English is also a priority, with a long-view towards preparing kids to pass British and American university entrance exams, such as the TOEFL, when they get older. The program will also provide refugee women in Cairo with further opportunities for employment and skills training, since area refugees will be given top priority for teaching positions.
All of St. Andrew’s directors are excited about the potential of the new preschool. For Fiona Cameron, the director of the Children’s Education Program (CEP), it means kindergartners will be better prepared for CEP classes. For Pasquale Thomas, director of the Adult Education Program (AEP), the preschool will ensure he doesn’t lose so many of his female students every year. And most of all, for Someya, St. Andrew’s new preschool will expand the options currently available to her, and single mothers like her, whose struggle has so often defined itself as an ultimatum between education and motherhood.
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This post was written by Alyssa Miller, StARS volunteer from July 2009 – August 2009. We wish her the best back at grad school in Texas!
