'I was frightened to read': Summer program helps newcomers cope, catch up to peers

The growing number of kids in some summer schools isn't a sign of failure, says a student who was in one for six consecutive years.

Sinnah Koroma, 21, says she struggled to keep up with her Grade 6 class before joining the first-ever session of the Sierra Leone Refugee Resettlement Inc. (SLRR) Summer Learning Program.

"I was frightened to read," said Koroma, who fled civil war in the West African country with her mother and four siblings and came to Canada at age five.

"Whenever my teachers would give me a book, I had anxiety and fear."

Koroma spent six weeks that summer learning the Manitoba curriculum and exploring Winnipeg with about 30 other students.

The SLRR was established in 2000 to help refugees from war-torn Sierra Leone resettle and integrate in Canada. In that time it has sponsored over 300 families from there and has now expanded to include newcomers from other countries as well.

It launched the summer learning program in 2007 to give refugee children, aged six to 16, help in academics — reading, writing, science and math — as well as experiential learning through recreation, sports, arts and culture. 

There were about 30 people enrolled in that first year, including Koroma. Last year, there were 145.

The program is now largely funded by the Winnipeg Foundation, allowing SLRR to provide the six-week program for $1,000 per-student at no cost to families.

Going above and beyond

One of the program's benefits, said Koroma, is learning in a space where students share background experiences with their peers — and some of the teachers.

I sometimes see kids hoarding food and stuffing it in their pockets. I say, 'Don't worry, there's more. You don't have to do that anymore.'- Marjorie White

Marjorie White, a teacher at Dufferin School who helped pioneer the program more than 10 years ago, said she felt intense culture shock when she came to Winnipeg from Jamaica in the 1990s.

She didn't want any child to experience what she went through.

She now teaches newcomers all year round. Dufferin School took in 159 refugee status students in the 2017-18 school year.

But in summer, White teaches what most Canadian-born students never need to learn.

"I sometimes see kids hoarding food and stuffing it in their pockets. I say, 'Don't worry, there's more. You don't have to do that anymore,'" she said.

White also spends time with newcomers at the Boys and Girls Club, where she's volunteered for the last 10 years.

Her work with newcomers over the years recently earned her and her family the Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries Family Volunteer Award.

"I remember when I came, one or two people reached out to me and tried to help. Now it's my turn to help the next generation," she said.

While White isn't teaching in the program anymore, one of her former students has taken up the torch.

Student to teacher

Koroma is now a student in Red River College's advanced graphic design program and a peer mentor in the same program she once attended for all those years.

She holds high praise for the work White has done.

"I saw her as a mother to me in a way. She really cared about us a lot," said Koroma.

Far from her days of being scared to read, Koroma recently pitched a rebrand for SLRR's umbrella group, the Newcomer Youth Educational Support Services Coalition (NYESS).

"I shed tears," said Koroma's uncle and SLRR program co-founder Peter Koroma. "This is a girl who had zero English when she came. Now she's helping others and speaking better English than I do."

He hopes to expand the Summer Learning Program to other school divisions in the near future.

Changemakers is a multimedia series spotlighting the efforts and stories of everyday Winnipeggers striving to improve the lives of their neighbours. It was produced by senior journalism students in Red River College's creative communications program.