Because of religious persecution, Tasneem Tahira left Pakistan with her brother and his family and came to the United States as a refugee in 2016.
Tahira, who spoke only Urdu, left two brothers and three sisters and their families behind in her home country.
After arriving in Guilford County, she began learning English through Reading Connections, which she says has forever changed her life.
Reading Connections works to improve literacy and promotes educational equity for any Guilford County adult who is interested. Through programs that emphasize speaking, writing, listening and reading, Reading Connections envisions a fully literate community where all individuals have the knowledge, skills and opportunities to flourish.
Not only did Tahira boost her literacy with Reading Connections tutor Vicki McCready, she also heard about a job through Reading Connections.
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In partnership with several other Greensboro community-based organizations, Reading Connections organized a new grant-funded initiative to train locally resettled refugees and immigrants to work in the region’s sewing industry. This two-part program provides ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) literacy instruction alongside training to be a sewing machine operator through an intensive six-week class.
Tahria began her day at 8 a.m. at Industries of the Blind, where she received sewing machine instruction from Liana Adrong, an administrative coordinator and vocational instructor at Montagnard Dega Association. At 11 a.m., she took a break for lunch before walking down the street to the Eagle’s Nest at Grace Community Church where Erik Hill, Reading Connections’ integrated education and training coordinator, teaches ESOL classes customized for an industrial sewing setting, including a comprehensive industrial sewing vocabulary. This unique ESOL curriculum focuses on preparedness and effective communication in the sewing workplace.
Hill said the participants in this program, like Tahira, are eager to attend classes and extremely motivated to learn. Successful participants attend classes four days a week in two different instructional settings and complete roughly 140 hours of class time. This has proven to be enough time for many unskilled but highly motivated students to master skills to secure long-term employment at local manufacturers.
“Reading Connections helped me apply for a sewing job at the HBD company,” Tahira said. “I had an interview and a test on different sewing machines, and I was selected!” She sews bags that go to schools, hospitals and the military.
In the short time she has been employed at HBD, she has earned two raises and has the reputation of being one of the fastest sewers in the company.
“I am very happy there,” Tahira said. “It’s like a community, a family of people from all over the world.”
Reading Connections “empowers its students to make a difference in their own lives, to help them achieve their goals,” said Cheminne Taylor-Smith, who began as a Reading Connections tutor and is a new member of its board of directors.
Tahira’s tutor, Vicki McCready, said becoming a tutor for Reading Connections “filled a hole” in her life after retirement from UNC-Greensboro.
“I felt complete again!” McCready said. “I have loved every student I have taught, and I have loved each and every staff member.”
The staff, McCready said, is always available to help the tutors by answering questions, recommending resources, consulting and offering more training workshops. Trained volunteer tutors provide two hours of instruction each week in public places chosen by the tutor and the student.
In two years, with the support of Reading Connections, Tahari has improved her literacy skills, gotten a job, learned how to drive, got her driver’s license, bought a car to drive to work and gotten her green card.
“Reading Connections changed my life and helped me become more independent,” she said.
