International: For pee-wee ambassadors, it's a small
world after all
At the Children of the World Co-op near the Homewood campus
in Charles Village, young children and their parents sit on
small swatches of carpet, singing a welcoming song to their
new friends: "Friends, friends / One, two, three /All my
friends are here with me. / Kaibigan, kaibigan / Isa,
Dalawa, Tatlo/Nandito lahat ang kaibigan ko."
Today they are singing to their Filipino friends. Tomorrow
they might sing in Spanish, Japanese, or several other
languages spoken by the co-op's participants: Amigos.
Tomodachi. Amis. Friends.
Formed about 16 years ago, the Children of the World (COTW)
Co-op is part children's playgroup, part parents' support
group. One of its primary missions: to provide a welcoming
environment for Johns Hopkins graduate students and
faculty, or their stay-at-home spouses. Many have emigrated
from other countries and know few words of English, let
alone how to navigate the Hopkins or Baltimore
communities.
Sessions at the Children of the World Co-op offer
pre-schoolers a welcoming place to play and parents
a chance to interact, learn, and get to know the locals.
Photo by
Chris Myers
"A lot of families fall through the cracks when they come
to Baltimore, especially mothers with young children," says
Karen Rist, COTW Co-op director. "They are the ones without
a social network. It's hard to get out and meet people when
you have a young child in tow, but even more so when you're
from a foreign country."
Since the group was launched by Hopkins graduate students
in 1989, its membership has grown from 25 families to more
than 150 today. Most come once or twice a week for the two-
hour sessions held in the basement of the Cathedral of the
Incarnation on the corner of University Parkway and St.
Paul Street.
"Staying at home is very boring," says Sachiko Takimoto,
whose husband is a postdoctoral fellow in cardiology at
Johns Hopkins. (Nearly half of the co-op's members have a
Hopkins affiliation.) She sits on the floor reading a book
to her daughter, Miyu, 2, while 4-year-old son Yuki plays
nearby. "Here is an opportunity to make friends from all
over the world."
Socialization also means acquiring language skills. At a
small table nearby, Janet Corson shows two young mothers a
worksheet titled "Seasons and Weather."
"Here we have icicles," she says, pointing to a picture of
a window draped with ice. "How cold does it have to be to
see icicles?
"Freezing," says Betty Simarmata, whose son Sadrakh, 4,
pushes a toy lawnmower nearby.
Corson, who has been teaching English as a Second Language
classes to small groups here for about a decade, points to
another picture on the worksheet. "As we look at the last
picture," she says, "what is that of?"
"A thunderstorm," answers Simarmata, who emigrated from
Indonesia.
"How do you pronounce 'thunder'?" Corson asks.
"Th-under," says Simarmata, tackling the difficult "th"
sound in English.
Corson reaches out to co-op members in other ways,
sometimes driving a sick child to a nearby health clinic or
helping new arrivals find answers to their questions about
student visas. It's all part of the co-op philosophy.
Members help run the group, taking turns bringing in
snacks, cleaning up craft supplies, and helping with
fundraising activities and outside gatherings.
"The expectation is that you become involved," says Sharon
Beach, president of the COTW board and mother of Shelby, 4,
and Skylar, 6 months. "You form friendships because you're
working toward a common purpose: to have a wonderful, safe,
and intimate place for your kids."
Until recently, the cost for families has ranged from $95
to $125 per semester (Hopkins students paid a reduced price
of $85 to $110), thanks primarily to an annual $18,000
subsidy from the university. That money, meant to remain in
place only until the co-op could become self-supporting,
ended in July.
Co-op leaders, hoping to lure local funding, are working
out a new mission statement oriented to the community and a
fundraising plan (with seed money from the university).
Keeping fees low will be integral to the program's mission,
Rist says: "We have so many single-income families." With
increased membership costs, "the whole face of the group
[could] change," Rist worries. "We could become more like a
Roland Park pre-school. We do a lot of the same things pre-
schools do," she points out, "but we also act as
ambassadors." —Joanne Cavanaugh Simpson
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