Children are highly valued in our culture and this reflects
in our large families and most of us have one to twelve children or over. It does indeed take a whole village to raise a child
and all community members take responsibility for supervising the progress and disciplining children in a good manner.
The main reason as to why we are taking Education for our children as
the first priority is because there were no schools in our residential areas in Somalia. Access to education for the Somali
Bantu was restricted and the majority of adults have had little exposure to urban settings and western cultures. This means
that many adults are illiterate.
When
we came to the refugee camps in Kenya we send our children to attend primary and secondary schools and only 5% of them have
been formally educated because some Somali Somali students refused to study alongside Bantu children. This resulted the Somali
students attend separate classes, and in some cases in separate schools, we struggled hard and complained to the implementing
agencies to make sure our children’s right to education are secured. Luckily we successfully solved the issue. And now
when we came to the United States we are not having the same problems we hard in Somalia and in the refugee camps but there
are many other factors that is leading us to be standing next our children.
The Somali Bantu students
are English language learners with limited or interrupted former schooling before coming to the United States. The Somali
Bantu students who have not previously attended school can not adopt with the curriculum because they are placed in classes
with their same-age peers that do not teach content in a manner that they understand. The Somali Bantu students have not been
identified to receive language transition support services even though they have not met English mastery criteria.
Some of the Somali Bantu students in middle and high school can not
read and spell well. So since we are in a free world where we can share and express our feelings to the relevant authorities
and supporting the new regulation of No child is left behind we tried to establish a program called the Somali Bantu Based
ESL tutoring Program and the focus of this program is to help both the Somali Bantu students and parents with reading, writing,
speaking and interpretation skills.
The Somali-Bantu community in Syracuse
has started Tutoring English as a Second Language (ESL) classes for children, adults, men and women, and after school help
program for students from pre-k through high school. These services are provided on voluntary basis and the location has been
donated by Sharif Aden, one of the community members to help the community with a learning space. There is a great need for
other resources to keep up the project in good shape and help both children and adults benefit from this initiated pilot project.
The Location was at: 229 Maplehurst Ave, 1st floor, Syracuse,
New York 13208. Days/Times: Saturdays from 10:00am – 12:00pm. As proposed before, the tutoring classes
ran for two hours long at this location. The Start date of the Program was on September, 14th 2007 and tutoring sessions had
been held at this location until October 4th 2008. After a dialogue with the Syracuse City School district and
requisition from the city, The Syracuse City school district has accepted our request and hosted the Somali-Bantu Community-Based
Tutoring Program at Dr. King Elementary School in Syracuse, New York, which is close to where most of the Somali-Bantus live.
The initiated pilot literacy project activities are running slowly now due to lack of operating funds or donation. There is
a great need for volunteers and they don’t have to be experienced or licensed volunteers.
So far, the Somali Bantu Community Organization has 12 bilingual volunteering tutors/Interpreters,
2 tutoring Aides and 12 volunteering drivers to transport students back and forth from their homes and to the learning Center.
In addition to this, there are over 25 tutors and one professor from Syracuse University who had began to help the Somali-Bantu
community people since the community-based pilot project was transferred to Dr. King School in October 4th 2008.
The tutors from Syracuse University are
from different departments such as “Center for public and community services”, “African students Union”
, S.U Engagement Programs and a professor from School of education. They are doing wonderful jobs to
help the children with the help of bilingual tutors from the Somali-Bantu community. Over hundred students show up
every Saturday and at least 25 parents come to school as well. The Somali-Bantu Community in Syracuse makes contribution every
weekend but we don’t have enough money to meet the overwhelming needs of both the community pilot project and children’s
needs at school. We are looking for volunteering teachers such as English, Math and Science and Supplies.
The tutors from Syracuse University are from different
departments such as “Center for public and community services”, “African students Union” and a professor
from School of education. They are doing wonderful jobs to help the children with the help of bilingual tutors from the Somali-Bantu
community. Over hundred students show up every Saturday and at least 25 parents come to school as well. The Somali-Bantu Community
in Syracuse makes contribution every weekend but we don’t have enough money to meet the overwhelming needs of both the
community pilot project and children’s needs at school. We are looking for volunteering teachers such as English, Math
and Science and Supplies.
If
you want to know more about the Literacy programs or have any questions about Somali-Bantus please contact the following people
below:
Abdullahi Ibrahim:
abdullahi@somalibantucommunity.org
Haji Adan: haji@somalibantucommunity.org
