East African Women's Center - Building community for Somali and other East African Women and their Families

The East African Women’s Center’s family childcare opened in September 2006, just in time for mothers to attend the first day of the fall session of ESL classes. Our purpose was to provide infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with early childhood development activities at the same time as their mothers learned English in classes provided by our partner, the Cedar Riverside Adult Education Collaborative (CRAEC). Our childcare room was—and still is—limited to 12 children and there are two sessions—one in the morning and the other in the afternoon, coinciding with ESL sessions. (Currently, the morning session has been suspended because of a lack of funding.)

The morning session filled immediately. In fact, eight of the nine women who started that September are still part of the Women’s Center’s community. The afternoon took longer, but our caregivers—who themselves are refugee women who live in our community—built trust with mothers and convinced them that the Center was a good, safe place for their children to be. Today we have a waiting list of 60+ and we have stopped taking names.

Our childcare room is a huge success. One mother who has been using the Women’s Center’s child- care since September 2006 says, “My children play better together, and they are learning to share.”

Early childhood development. Our second challenge was to convince mothers of the importance of early childhood development. Women laughed initially when we said infants and toddlers could learn. Now? They see with their own eyes the cognitive, small and large motor, and social development of their children. The Women’s Center is changing cultural attitudes among refugee mothers about early childhood development, mothers as their children’s first teachers, and school readiness.

Now, our biggest challenge is numbers. Neighborhood estimates suggest that there could be as many as 500 – 700 infants, toddlers, and preschoolers living on our block! Currently, we are serving approxmiately 40 mothers and their children. Mothers are Somali, Oromo, and Ethiopian with one mother who comes from Mali.

A professor from the University of Minnesota’s School of Nursing tests the children every six months. After 6 to 9 months in the Women’s Center’s early childhood development program, the children have all scored at or above their age appropriate milestones

Says Pearl Savage, ESL Coordinator for CRAEC, “Confident that their children are receiving quality, culturally competent childcare, mothers are free to focus on their learning. They have proved to be highly motivated students who attend classes regularly, participate fully, and make good progress with their studies.”

Volunteers provide new experiences for the children. This young woman is a graduate student from Norway who is living with a Somali family in Minnesota and volunteering at the Women’s Center one day a week.