Local Somali families push to pass down language by publishing children’s books

SEATTLE, February 17, 2023 – Somali households in South Seattle have created a brand new assortment of child’s books to protect their language for generations to come back in the USA.

Seattle has one of many nation’s largest Somali communities. Whereas it is the second mostly spoken language within the metropolis’s public college system, based on the Somali Household Security Process Power, tales from the tradition are arduous to come back by.

“After we got here, we misplaced all our nation. We misplaced every thing,” stated SFSTF Government Director Farhiya Mohamed. “The libraries again residence, all of them, they weren’t right here, after which the libraries right here, they do not have books.”

It is why Mohamed banded along with a number of South Seattle households to jot down a sequence of Somali-English youngsters’s books, giving libraries and colleges new instruments to show the language.

“The youngsters, in the event that they see somebody that appears like their mother, additionally they are going to be completely happy.” Mohamed continued, “they’ll see it, after which they’ll study their very own language.”

This month, the duty drive revealed 5 authentic books. A few of them are impressed by conventional tales, whereas others like ‘Hana & Harun,’ a narrative of siblings serving to one another study new expertise, recount actual experiences from Seattle’s Somali neighborhood.

“I actually love that story as a result of you may see how the children, they’ll assist one another, after which what you want, you may study it too. So different youngsters, once they learn this story, they are going to, you understand, get that concept to assist additionally different youngsters who want their assist,” stated Mohamed.

Their arrival has been celebrated by metropolis leaders like Mayor Harrell, and is drawing curiosity from organizations across the nation.

“We’re getting lots of telephone calls, lots of emails, so many individuals, they wish to get to those books,” Mohamed stated. “We generally is a position mannequin for different communities who got here as a refugees on this nation.”

Print and audio variations of those new Somali-English books are actually obtainable on the Seattle Public Library. SPL, Seattle Public Faculties, and Seattle Housing Authority helped assist the initiative.