Literacy Partners of Manitoba

WRITE ON!

Volume 19 No. 1    January 2009    ISSN 1481-5117

The Story of Emita

by Dorota Blumczynska (Immigrant & Refugee Community Organization of Manitoba Inc.)

By Don Marsden, Fieldstone Ventures

Until six months ago, Emita Mahamet had never stepped foot in a classroom. Born into a poor family in Lagos, Nigeria, Emita's parents struggled to feed their nine children. They could only afford to send their three sons to school.

"I have been home all my life. I got married when I was sixteen and had my first baby at seventeen. In my house in Nigeria I had a store where I sold drinks and bricks of ice, and in spare time I braided hair to get money to send my children to school. I never wanted them to end up like me. "At twenty-five and with four children, Emita is changing her life. In the basement of a Winnipeg inner-city school, she is doing what she had thought was impossible. "Now, I know how to write my first name, my last name, my children's names." — continued on p. 7.

Herding Cattle

by Brett McKay (Swan River Adult Education, Inc.)

On our ranch we had a lot of cattle. They stayed there for the winter and left during the summer. They had to leave in about May every year after they where done having their babies. We did not have enough pasture land to keep on our ranch for the cattle to graze for all summer long. — continued on page 3.