These immigrant African women in their 60s and 70s are learning English and how to be more self sufficient. And safer, now they can make phone calls, write their own names and talk to their doctor. DP
By Edwin Okong'o, Mshale Editor
mshale.com: BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. – Sarah G. Swen walks to the courtesy telephone mounted on the wall in the hallway outside her classroom and pulls a small phonebook from her purse. The number she is looking for is scribbled in large print covering most of the 3-inch by 5-inch page.
“Seven-six-three,five-three-seven …” Swen begins to call out every digit she is dialing loud enough to be heard from 20 feet away.
The call doesn’t go through. She hangs up and tries again, and again. Swen’s repeated calling of the same phone number alerts Betty Toe, a schoolmate from a more advanced class, that the junior needs help.
“You have to dial one before seven-six-three. But because this phone is the same area code as the number you’re calling you only need to dial the last seven,” Toe explains before helping Swen make the call.
Swen is no little girl calling home to be picked up after her day in school, but she is a schoolgirl. She is one of more than a dozen Liberian immigrant women aged between 60 and 75, who come to Brookdale Covenant Church in Brooklyn Center every Saturday to be taught skills that most people in the United States do not have to go to a classroom for. Mastering basic skills like knowing how to write their own names and addresses,or how to make a phone call can bring tremendous freedom to these women.
Many of them can now leave their homes knowing that if they got lost they can make a phone call and give directions to where they are. Knowing English also allows them to bypass interpreters in private matters like visits to the hospital.
“I’m so happy that when I go to the doctor, I speak for myself,” says Toe, can now read English on her own.
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