A New Land. A New Language: Teaching English to Refugees & Other Immigrants
A woman from a village in Afghanistan who never went to school.
New textile factory employees, women emerging in their literacy and first time employment who have just completed their first “Sewing For Work” class at World Relief. A medical student in the Democratic Republic of Congo who fled to Nigeria as a refugee yet still managed to become a surgeon while living there.
These are the refugees and other immigrants known to adult educators more simply as “our students.”
They sit before us on any given day and confirm what we already know to be true. English is the key to, well, everything in this country. It means getting a better job with higher wages or pursuing academic and career goals. It means understanding the homework, the notes, the report cards tucked in kids’ backpacks, right under their uneaten lunches as they struggle to adapt in school. It means being known by friends who can understand you and who can receive your sorrows, hopes, and thoughts. It means integration and belonging and civic engagement. Even as they try to access this key, the door will be heavier for some and the years longer to shape the grooves, to finally feel it all click into place. Regardless of age, socio-economic status, gender, familial ties, these students all start at the same place — over.
Our students’ hopes and dreams are often palpable even if unspoken. Across our US Offices, Adult Education staff and volunteers sit across from over 3,000 students each year and we listen. Teaching refugees and other immigrants can mean assuring students that against all odds — the family responsibilities and sick kids, third shift airport jobs, bills that pour in as steady as rainfall — they will learn.
Our student from Afghanistan said: “[I] never even dared to imagine that someone like me could go to school. Reading and writing my name was something I thought only belonged to other people’s lives — not mine.” With the insistence of a neighbor and her husband, she hesitantly joined World Relief’s uniquely designed online class for Emergent Literacy learners in Sacramento, California. At first, she said, “I logged into the Zoom classes three times a week as required, camera off, saying nothing. I felt invisible. But the teachers didn’t let me stay that way. Their kindness, their love, and the stories we shared in class began to reach me, little by little.” After months of battling illness, loneliness, culture shock from a dark and solitary place, she “felt like life coming back.”
She persisted and in doing so, embodies a truth that forms the backbone of every family, aware or not. Research shows that “a mother’s reading skill is the greatest determinant of her children’s future academic success, outweighing other factors such as neighborhood and family income.” English class is her entry into formal education, it’s her doorway to healing and it changes the entire trajectory of her family’s future here.
Across the country, in a textile factory in Chicago, women read order slips for new aprons and fill out their timecards. Their supervisor, thrilled for the aptitude and preparedness of these new employees, asked World Relief to continue sending these sewing class graduates to her each semester. This employer didn’t realize the magnitude of what these women have accomplished. Six months ago, these women were much like our Afghan friend in Sacramento, living in “literacy blindness”. With the creative design of this Sewing with Literacy class, teacher encouragement, and classroom support, they have become family breadwinners and backbones of their children’s dreams.
As for our doctor, once he landed in the United States, the title of “surgeon” no longer officially applied. With the help of World Relief teachers, he mapped out a path, possible only for visionaries with calloused hands. He enrolled in Job Readiness English language class while working as a packer on an assembly line. He is one of the millions of “Immigrant workers responsible for 88% of the labor force growth in America since 2019,” according to a National Foundation for American Policy analysis. Within a year, he was ready with the knowledge of the American school system and English language to once again re-enter medical school, delayed but undeterred from his lifelong career. As he prepared to become a physician’s assistant, he received a call from the realtor, the keys were ready for pick up. His family has successfully purchased their first home.
These are but three of our refugee and other immigrant neighbors who manifest the reality that learning English unlocks cultural, economic, academic and multi-generational flourishing.
Your gifts to support adult education at World Relief is seed money, germinating in the hearts of those who have no choice but to survive in a new land, with a new language. It is support for those who are able to not only survive but also to flourish, and the adult educators who meet them in that ambition.
Hannah Bonifacius has dedicated the past 15 years to the field of Adult Education, serving learners across a wide range of instructional settings. Her experience includes teaching ESL, GED, and Family Literacy courses at a rural community college, directing a weekend ESL program for parents of charter school students, and devoting the past ten years to Adult Education instruction and leadership at World Relief.
Throughout her career, Hannah has been deeply committed to bridging gaps for ESOL students, ensuring that adult learners gain the confidence and skills needed to thrive in academic, professional, and community settings. As part of her MA in TESOL, she specialized in mental health and trauma awareness research for adult English language instructors. She is dedicated to equipping educators with tools and understanding to support learners’ well‑being in language classrooms.
Hannah’s work reflects her passion for equitable access to education, holistic support for our dynamic and dedicated adult learners, and ongoing professional development for the teachers who serve them.