It is 4:30 on a Thursday afternoon and six refugee girls who have emigrated from countries such as Liberia and Somalia are gathered around a table eating brownies. There is a distinct reason behind their gathering, and its name is Imani Nailah.
The term means “faith in one who succeeds” and it is also the name of the after-school program that Laura Boutwell, a doctoral student at Virginia Tech, started in the summer of 2008.
Imani Nailah began as a six-week summer program aimed to help refugee middle and high school-aged girls in the Roanoke area.
Its success helped turn it into a yearlong program that meets every Thursday from 4 to 6:30 p.m. at 81 1st Street. Its meeting place is a house that the St. John Episcopal Church allows them to use.
Imani Nailah is a part of St. John’s Community Youth Program, and the church provides the space, transportation and snacks for these girls.
The program has served 25 girls, and there are currently 15 participating in it. From 4 to 5:30 p.m., the girls have snack and an activity. From 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., they are tutored by volunteers, many of whom are Tech students.
Some of the activities include going to the art museum, community volunteering, local field trips to see the different parts of Roanoke and having guest career speakers.
One activity that seemed to be a favorite among the girls was the visits to college campuses such as Radford University, Hollins University and Tech. Boutwell said that she wants to link these students to the larger communities in terms of leadership and service.
Makaissa Yarmah, a 16 year-old who came to the United States in 2004 from Guinea, said participating in the program and its activities has opened up ideas for her future.
“I get to do stuff that I never got to do like go visit colleges and have people talk to us about their careers,” Yarmah said. “I never went to college to visit or have a college student speak to me about how to get to college. Since I started here, I’m getting ideas about how to get into college or what to do after high school.”
Fatumata Yarmah, a 21 year-old who emigrated from Liberia in 2004, was one of the students who inspired Boutwell to start Imani. She and many others were a part of the Sister of the Circle, which is another after-school program for high school students, and was where Fatumata met Boutwell as her tutor.
Boutwell said she connected with Fatumata and is inspired by her commitment to her education. This program has definitely impacted the girls by helping them feel supported, loved and not left out.
“She gives them a really safe comforting place that they can call home every week and somewhere they can come where their friends are familiar,” said Laura Malecky said. “She’s familiar, and they know no matter what that she’s here for them.”
Alex Schiavoni, a junior biology and sociology major at Tech, has been a tutor at Imani since 2008 and said that the program is a way for the young refugees to feel at home.
This program is not a one-way street, but allows the refugees to show what they have to offer to their communities through their unique insight. Boutwell has a belief in what the refugee youth can offer, such as their ability to bridge multiple cultures together.
Boutwell worked in a refugee office before starting this program and always had a real interest in working with displaced peoples. She saw how they needed help with their education and thought that a summer program would be a good way to support their dreams.
Abby Bugas and Malecky, both freshmen at Tech, started tutoring this semester after hearing Boutwell mention it in their women’s studies class.
“You could tell just by whenever she started talking about it how passionate she was,” Malecky said, “and we saw pictures of the girls and what it meant to them and that was my motivating factor.”
Bugas described how Boutwell connects with each of the girls in the program.
“There are several girls and she has a tie with every single one of them,” she said.
Boutwell does not come from a help mindset of what she can personally do for others, but it’s more about her discovering these amazing girls and others who are already doing things, Schiovani said.
“I’m happy for the young people that are in it,” Yarmah said. “I’m a little bit older than them, but the opportunity they have right now if I had that opportunity when I first came here then I would be better than I am right now. But I’m still happy and am on the right track.”
Boutwell expressed how happy she is with the outcome and that she wants to continue this program, but would love to see a similar program for boys and the refugee communities come to fruition.
Its limited budget is also what Boutwell says makes their dreams stay dreams, but its open to any and all donations.
Boutwell expressed how she wants more Tech students to connect with the program and is looking for people to do activities outside their Thursday block.
Last May, Imani held its first award ceremony acknowledging two of its high school graduates, who came in their graduation robes.
The best part, Boutwell said, was everyone’s families coming together and bringing their own ethnic dish. It is rare to get all of the families together, not because of any cultural divide, but because ofthe demands placed by work and family life. For Boutwell, it was a wonderful moment to celebrate what Imani Nailah became.