Hiawatha Public Library provides permanent home for Bhutanese learners

By:Brea Love.
HIAWATHA, Iowa (KCRG-TV9) – The Hiawatha Public Library teamed up with the
 Catherine McAuely Center to provide English classes for a group of Bhutanese refugees.

The group fled their home of Bhutan out of need and moved to American start a new life.
Most of them settled in Hiawatha, but with the Catherine McAuely Center’s downtown
location, many of them had no means of transportation.

That’s when the Hiawatha Public Library offered to turn the center’s English course
 into a library program, which provided a permanent space within a mile radius of
their homes.

“We offered that space to them and it has just blossomed into a really great program,”
Library Director
 Jeaneal Weeks said. “The Bhutanese people come every week, and they’re so excited
 to learn. When there is no class they come asking for class.”

It’s that dedication that inspires the instructor Katie Lanius. She said teaching the course
 is her favorite part of the week.

“This group is so motivated and so hardworking that I kind of feed off of their enthusiasm,”
 Lanius said. “They are walking a mile or two to come to class. They do it in the freezing
 temperatures, they do it in the rain, when it’s really warm in the summers, so they’re
motivation is extremely high.”

The students are a variety of ages, between 20 and 70 years old. Some of them have at most
six years of education, others have none. Lanius spends time working on things as simple
as colors or some of the more advance students preparing for their citizenship interview.

“Anyone can learn English at any age, but the older you get the more challenging it gets

 your brain just isn’t as quick or receptive to picking up a new language,” she said.

Student Bala Edhikari is studying for his citizenship. He said he’s thankful he has the
opportunity to come to class every week.

“We have no English in our country we are from Bhutan, we are learning English here,
some people don’t know how to write read,” Edhikari said. “They teach everything, 

but some of my friends they don’t know.”

Lanius uses patience and repetition, and assures each student they can learn with time.

“The English empowers them to be more comfortable talking with their children’s teachers,
my students are now being able to obtain jobs,” she said.

Lanius is grateful for the library and their help to make sure these Bhutanese students 

succeed.

“This is a group of people that came here out of need and out of persecution in their 

own country,”
Weeks said. “However they got here in Hiawatha they are here, and we serve the entire 

community,
and that’s them also. If they have a need for education we can get them on the way to that.”

The library also had a warm clothing drive for the refugees and ordered dual language

 books in their native tongue of Nepali.