EFFINGHAM — Nermine Tawdros and her husband wanted a safe country and a better future for their two children.
So, after years of applying for a lottery visa to emigrate to the U.S. from Egypt, Tawdros and her family were finally selected.
At the encouragement of her uncle, Dr. Nash Naam, the family arrived in Effingham nine years ago.
“For us, being immigrants and coming from a different country, speaking a different language, having no idea what’s going on culturally,” she said, was awkward. “It’s hard just to move, leave your family and leave your country, leave all your history and experience, and move to another country.”
She sought help from the CEFS Adult Volunteer Literacy Program in Effingham. She credits the program with putting her family on a path that allowed her to get an MBA and a job as a data analyst and assessment coordinator at Lake Land College and her husband, who’s nearing his MBA, to get a job as a global demand Planner at Justrite Manufacturing.
Tawdros is one of many over the years the program and its volunteers have helped learn English and navigate everyday life skills and customs.
Now, the program needs help. In fiscal year 2022 – from July 1 to June 30 – the program had 11 English language learners. In the fiscal year 2023, that number grew to 30. Now, in 2024, 35 have sought help through the program.
Adult Literacy and Education Resource Coordinator Susan Wilson said the program desperately needs more volunteers to keep up with the demand.
“Right now, I have 14 volunteers,” she said, adding that she needs 25.
Wilson attributes the increase to those escaping violence and drugs in their originating countries, as well as the opportunities here.
“They can make more money faster here and often they send it back to their families. But escaping drugs and escaping violence are the two big ones,” she said.
Current learners in the program are from Brazil, Guatemala, Cuba, Mexico, Syria, Ecuador, Romania, Thailand, India and Poland. Some are refugees seeking asylum in the U.S.
Nationwide, the number of refugees has increased, with over 25,000 refugees arriving in the U.S. in fiscal year 2022, twice as many as in 2021. In fiscal year 2023, that number reached over 60,000. In February 2024, the greatest number of refugees admitted by the U.S. came from Congo, Syria and Afghanistan.
Of the countries that Illinois has accepted the most refugees from since October 2023, the third highest have been from Syria and the seventh highest from Guatemala, according to the Stacker news service, which referenced data from The Refugee Processing Center.
Syria has seen more than 5 million refugees flee to neighboring nations since 2011 while a longstanding civil war rages, and Guatemala has one of the highest rates of violence in the world due to gangs, forcing a growing number of inhabitants to leave the country, according to the UN Refugee Agency.
As for European immigrants, Wilson said they are often here because of job transfers.
Wilson said many of the immigrants come on buses, but some fly into St. Louis or Chicago. However, she doesn’t know of any associated with the influx of migrants in Chicago from the southern border.
“Of the Latin immigrants, I would say at least half have families here already,” she said.
The immigrants seeking help through the program are both individuals who are single and families.
“Some have families, and the children are in school; some are single, some are brothers, some are blended families of in-laws, and multiple families in one house,” she said.
Besides having family here, Wilson said immigrants seem drawn to Effingham through word of mouth. But she also believes Effingham is not unique in the influx of immigrants.
“So, it’s not that they’re all coming to Effingham. They’re just coming to America, and Effingham is one of those places,” she said.
She notes other cities of similar size in the region, such as Arcola and Mt. Vernon, are also seeing an increase.
The program provides free individualist tutoring for those needing to learn English, and with learners from so many different countries that means communicating with many different languages.
“I’ve had speakers of 13 different languages come here, and I use Google Translate. It’s not great, but it’s what I got,” she said.
Wilson also has bilingual picture dictionaries in 15 languages, which she said help tremendously.
Although Wilson said she can communicate some in Spanish, she’s not proficient, and added volunteers in the program don’t need to speak another language.
“But since their goal is to learn English, we communicate as much as we can in English so that they learn it,” she said.
The program, which is funded by an Illinois State Library grant, also tailors tutoring to meet individual needs.
“So, for example, if a learner works in a Mexican restaurant, I’ll have them bring in a menu, and then we’ll make up a lesson plan specific to that menu so they can be a better worker,” she said.
“If the immigrant is a mother with kids in school and the kids have homework that mom doesn’t understand how to do, I’ll have her bring the kids’ schoolbooks in, and then I’ll teach it to her so she can teach it to her children.
“If the immigrant has to sign up for utilities and they don’t know how to fill out the paperwork, they bring that in, and instead of having a textbook for their English lesson, we’ll use their bills or their forms they have to fill out as their lessons. Everything is individualized based on what they need to know.”
That individualized tutoring helped Tawdros and her husband when they started at Lake Land College. Although the two earned bachelor’s degrees in Egypt, the degrees did not transfer to the U.S., so they had to start over.
Whether Tawdros was struggling with pronunciation, how to ask questions, paying bills, or setting up an account, she said Wilson and the program were always available to help.
“All this stuff may seem like small things to you, but for us, it was a great help,” she said.
Tawdros is now helping others. She recently became an instructor at Lake Land College and teaches students for whom English is a second language. She said the program and her experience at Lake Land College inspired her to “pay it back.”
“We feel like all of us owe that program a lot,” she said. “Whenever we got our citizenship, we invited her (Susan Wilson).”
Vivian Kaldas doesn’t know where she would be without the program.
She and her family emigrated from Egypt in 2011, seeking freedom and a better education for her children. After living in New York for a year, they came to Effingham at the encouragement of her brother-in-law, Naam. That’s when she discovered the program.
“I lived in New York for a year, and I couldn’t find a program like this there,” she said. “It literally changed my life.”
Kaldas said Wilson helped her obtain scholarships for the physical therapy assistant program while also helping her through the program.
“I almost went into her office every day,” she said. “If she was busy, she would contact me with another tutor just to make sure I got all I needed and became my close, close friend.”
Kaldas graduated from the program two years ago and has been working as a PRN. She will start a full-time job as a physical therapist assistant/clinical director with EmpowerMe Wellness.
Wilson said volunteer tutors are the backbone of the program, and the current tutors range in age from 20s to 70s.
“I have a wonderful new tutor who is bilingual. He speaks Spanish and English, and he’s very popular with learners,” she said.
However, she noted that volunteers don’t need to be bilingual. They also don’t need to be teachers. Still, they need a high school diploma, patience, and the ability to remain confidential. Volunteers must go through 12 hours of pre-service training.
The program also provides tutoring to adults who request it in math, reading, language and life skills, including work soft skills – filling out job applications, mock job interviews, telling time, counting money and basic keyboarding skills.
Wilson invites those interested in learning more about being a volunteer tutor to attend a celebration of the CEFS Adult Volunteer Literacy Program Thursday, April 18, at Joe Sippers Cafe in Effingham at 4 p.m. Beverages and door prizes will be provided.