Women from the Center prepared traditional Somali food (with a few American touches). After a wonderful cross-generation meal eaten with the children in the Family Childcare Center, the children who were 4 and 5 went with their mothers to hear author, Marian Hassen, read Dhegdheer. Following the reading, the children went back to childcare and the women had the opportunity to share old folktales over Somali tea.

Director of Bilingual and Heritage Porgrams, Kathleen Moriarty, who coordinates, Share a Story! says, "The East African Women’s Center is such a comfortable gathering place and a wonderful setting for women to share their stories. The Minnesota Humanities Center was pleased to be able to distribute copies of our recently published bilingual retelling of Dhegdheer with the women at the center. The Somali Bilingual Book Project was designed with women and programs such as this in mind. It was an honor to share a well-known Somali folktale with women who were animated in their discussion of the story and in their enthusiasm for encouraging their children’s early literacy development."

Each family received a free copy of Dhegdheer, and Kathleen is coming back in June for another storytelling session with the women and children. Together with Women’s Center staff woman, Howa Karshe, they will tell stories and chat with women about the importance of sharing stories and books with their children.

Gift from the Sheltering Arms Foundation (May 2007)
The East African Women’s Center is happy to announce that we have received $10,000 from The Sheltering Arms Foundation to design and implement our mothers’ program Raising Children Across Cultures. With resources from Sheltering Arms, the Center will be able to provide programming introducing mothers of young children to learning tools to begin preparing their infants, toddlers, and pre-schoolers for school. Center Director Doroth Mayer says, “We are so appreciative of the Sheltering Arms Foundations’ contribution to the Center’s work. It will go a long way in supporting the Center’s efforts to provide young mothers with the skills they need to prepare their children for school success.”