Yvette: Teaching days of the week
Yvette is a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo. She has six children, ages 3-14, five boys and one girl. She fled the Congo as a young adult, and lived in a refugee camp in Burundi for 14 years.
Yvette lived in Wichita for one year after she arrived in the United States in November 2017. Life was difficult for her there.
She packed up her kids yet again, and arrived in Davenport late one Saturday night in November 2018. She had a few contractor-sized garbage bags of clothes, some kitchen pans and utensils, her important documents, and her six children.
A Tapestry Farms volunteer met Yvette soon after her arrival in the Quad Cities. They established goals for her family: Find a place to live and gather furnishings/household items, enroll the children in school, enroll Yvette in English classes, pay off her debts from Wichita, seek medical care.
Most importantly, Yvette wanted to find some stability and safety.
Today, Yvette lives with her kids in a safe and affordable home. Volunteers help her get to English language lessons twice a week. Her older four children attend schools that offer an intensive program for English Language Learners. Her youngest two recently began preschool through Head Start. She has a bank account and a monthly budget. She has the medical care she needs. The kids have a playground across the street, a volunteer who takes them to the YMCA to run off some energy, another volunteer who helps with homework, and people who make cakes to celebrate birthdays. Two of her kids won student of the month at their schools. She served as a community garden associate this past summer for Tapestry Farms, and she recently started a job at a bakery in our community.
Yvette loves to teach new friends Swahili. One volunteer is now well-versed in days of the week thanks to Yvette's lessons.