Programs give women confidence to grow
Published in the Sept. 3 – 16, 2014 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Marty Cheek
Maria Torres sat with several other women around a set of tables reading folktales from a paperback book and building her reading skills with the assistance of instructor Rachel Rade.
Photo by Marty Cheek
Women learn reading skills at the Learning and Loving Center.
That Aug. 25 Monday morning was the first day of class for Torres and the others at Morgan Hill’s Learning and Loving Education Center, a nonprofit organization that helps local immigrant women and their children learn English, literacy and computer skills.
Torres found out about the education program through friends and decided to take advantage of it to enhance her family’s quality of life.
“Sometimes we have an appointment with the doctors and you feel horrible when you don’t understand everything that they say, especially when they give you a form and you can’t translate the form,” she said. “That was so embarrassing for me. So I felt I had to learn because I have three children. I decided I had to do something for myself. They give you support to be more confident. We learn a lot from them.”
The center will celebrate its 21st year at a special fundraising dinner honoring founder Sister Pat Davis Sept. 21 at Mama Mia’s Italian restaurant. Lynn Hasbany, the center’s curriculum director, recalls when the nonprofit organization was founded in 1994 by Davis at the parish hall at St. Catherine’s Church.
One day a week, Davis would drive her station wagon filled with books and toys and set up tables in the hall. She taught English skills to immigrant women while Hasbany watched over their preschool children. The next week, the two women would swap roles. The Learning and Loving Education Center soon outgrew the parish hall and three months later moved to a new site on Monterey Road. After a few years, it found a permanent home on Church Avenue a block south of the Morgan Hill Community Center. Every year about 200 women from Morgan Hill, Gilroy, San Martin and San Jose and their children come to the location’s classrooms and build self-confidence and self-esteem as they learn English and other communication skills.
“They don’t have a lot of interaction with other people, especially if they’re new to this country, they don’t speak the language, and they don’t have the community,” Hasbany said. “So by creating this program here, it gives the women community, it enables them to learn English and computer skills, which allows them to go out into the community more… It’s really a community builder. I see them building their community here and then going out and taking their skills and self-esteem to go on to the broader community.”
Hasbany has lived in Morgan Hill for about 25 years, and said she finds there are different pockets of community in the city and they don’t always mix. She sees the Learning and Loving Education Center as embracing the community in all aspects – especially non-English-speaking immigrants — and kind of mixing it up with the other parts of the community. The instructors at the center are mostly retired credentialed teachers who volunteer their time to teach the women and children English, reading and other skills. The center is always looking for people who are willing to teach.
“They just love the women,” Hasbany said. “It gives them a place for meeting and getting to know each other.”
The women also learn other skills such as sewing, art and choir. About 10 of the women created a folkloric dance group. The dancers wear colorful costumes from various Mexican states as they perform in Morgan Hill schools and other venues.
“We really try to empower the women to see what gifts that they have and embrace them,” Hasbany said. “They’ve been dancing for three or four years now, so at the graduation (in May) they do their folkloric dance. They go into the community. They dance at Live Oak or Sobrato high schools.”
The Learning and Loving Education started off as a free program for the women who participated, but now it charges $50 for whole year. The fee includes preschool care for the children. The center will waive the fee if an individual has difficulty paying it, Hasbany said. During each morning break, healthy snacks are provided to the women and children.
Although most of the students are Spanish-speaking women from Mexico and South American countries, the center also has taught students from China, Vietnam, and Malaysia. Morgan Hill resident Rose Eyoum is from Cameroon and came to America after marrying her husband, a Peace Corps volunteer working in her French-speaking African nation. A mother of five boys in the Morgan Hill Unified School District, Eyoum said that the Learning and Loving Education Center has helped her to better communicate and feel more confident when she goes outside her home to shop and meets other residents.
“I love the center because it helps me improve my English and they give me some information where I can go to continue my studies when I can go to the college. They sent me to the adult school here in Morgan Hill where I can improve my English,” she said. “I love everything that they do here, helping people. When I started out, I felt a little shy because I felt like I was a little late compared to the other women who were here. I didn’t have too much confidence. But they take care of everyone.”
Meeting women like Eyoum is a major benefit for Hasbany while working for the last two decades at the Learning and Loving Center.
“I love the women who come here. I love hearing their stories. I love seeing them grow,” she said. “Today was the first class day, and people come a little apprehensive. They’re not sure what the program is about. And at the end of the year, I see the gains that they’ve made, and they make a community. By the end of the year, they’ve made friends, they’re comfortable, they feel a little bit more comfortable speaking English.”
Recently, Hasbany met a former immigrant student and her son who was a rambunctious little boy many years ago when the Learning and Loving Center was just starting. Hasbany felt a deep pride when she heard the son had recently graduated from U.C. Berkeley with an engineering degree. He represented the thousands of families the center has helped.
“If you think of the United States, we’re all immigrants in some way or another,” she said. “The world is full of migrants, and we should make America more welcoming for them — it’s not easy, leaving your culture and your family and language and coming here.”
