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MIGRANTS TAKE HELPING HAND: English as a Second Language class offered
By JEFF GREEN , Morning Journal Writer
VERMILION - Migrant workers in the area have found an outlet that helps
provide them with basic needs in the Immigrant Worker Project.
Every Sunday, 15 adult migrant workers take an English as a Second
Language class at St. Mary Catholic Church, 731 Exchange St., Vermilion,
under the direction of the Canton-based non-profit, which provides
English lessons, legal assistance and translation services.
Martin Soto, of Durango, Mexico, said he has been taking the ESL class
for four years now. There are a couple of programs in the area that
provide the service, but he said the organization sticks out the most by
assisting migrant workers like him.
"We always have good leaders that support us."
As the population of immigrants and migrant workers living in Ohio
exceeds 80,000, services they need grow harder to come by, according to
Katrina Forman, a summer intern with the organization.
"The communities we are working on are not even (helped) to the extent
which there is a need," Forman said. "There are communities we don't
know about."
Forman, 20, of Cleveland, is a junior at Oberlin College and teaches
Vermilion's class with three other volunteers. She also teaches two
classes in Willard.
Each Sunday session begins with the volunteers picking up students at
their homes and taking them to St. Mary Church.
"We go to Mass in Spanish and if there's no Mass, we play basketball and
hang out, socialize and have dinner," Forman explained.
Six pastors in the area who know Spanish rotate in providing Mass. Last
night Al Krupp, pastor of St. Agnus in Elyria, presided over the
service.
He has been helping them for the past four years as a way to give back
to the men who work mostly to support their wives and children who live
at home, he said.
"I'm impressed by these men, their goodness and generosity," Krupp said.
When lessons start, the students split up into groups depending on level
and experience, and the volunteers spend an hour teaching lessons, which
have a different theme each week, she said.
Last night, the students did a worksheet on the risks and benefits of
joining a union.
"We try to make all of our lessons relevant to their lives," Forman
said. "We get as much input into teaching as possible and try to be
flexible."
Krupp said that the work is essential for the migrant workers to feel a
sense of community.
"I think there's nothing more isolating than not speaking the language
people are speaking," he said. "It's more than getting around the
grocery store. It's being able to bond with other people, the
fundamental human need."
The Immigrant Worker Project, founded in 1999 through a coalition of
organizations convened by the Catholic Conference of Ohio, does work in
seven regions throughout the state, including areas in Lorain, Erie and
Huron counties, said director and founder Jeff Stewart.
Volunteers help people in Oberlin and Norwalk, in addition to Vermilion
and Willard, he said.
Stewart said he is grateful for the help from Oberlin, which has a
strong ESL program and college students, such as Forman, who spread the
word and get others involved.
Education is on the top of the list of migrant worker and immigrant
needs, Stewart said, citing survey research the organization has
conducted.
"Popular myth says people want to come here and don't want to learn
English," he said. "That's not true. They understand that educational
advancement is key to a better life, but they work 65 to 70 hours a week
and that limits their access."
More than 50 percent of Ohio's immigrant and migrant worker population
does agricultural work, and a considerable amount are employed with
"near green" enterprises such as slaughterhouses and sawmills, according
to Stewart.
The workers in the Vermilion class are employed with Willow Way Nursery
in Huron. Martin Rojas, 43, of Guanajuato, Mexico, said he has been
working there 11 years and has been taking English lessons for eight
years. He proudly answers questions in class.
Rojas said he is grateful for the organization. He won't see his wife
and parents again until December, when he goes back home for three
months out of the year.
"Anytime I have time, I do something different," Rojas said.
The number one thing that the public and private sectors can do to help
immigrants and migrant workers is to support organizations such as the
Immigrant Worker Project, Stewart said.
"Help us reach more people," he said. "There needs to be a recognition
of what these folks do here in rural Ohio."
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