Wisconsin literacy center gives community to immigrants and refugees

When she won the Green Card Lottery and moved to New York from her native Myanmar at 19, Chu May Paing had only ever seen depictions of the city in movies and TV shows.

The reality of living there as a new immigrant, working in restaurant jobs, “kind of shattered the … American dream,” she told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.”  

Chu May Paing found community and support at an English language center in Jackson Heights, where she lived. Now, more than a decade later, Chu May Paing is herself the leader of a similar group in Wisconsin.

In October, she became the executive director of the Winnebago Area Literacy Council, or WALC. She’s also an accomplished academic, writing in English and Burmese.

People who come to the WALC in Oshkosh are from all over the world. People from Syria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Iraq, Myanmar (many of whom are Rohingya, Chu May Paing said) and several other places all come to the council to learn English. 

“We primarily serve a lot of immigrant and refugee communities here,” Chu May Paing said.

Last week, President Donald Trump ordered a pause on a number of programs that allow people to come into the country temporarily. Now, many of the students at the Winnebago Area Literacy Council face uncertainty about their futures in the U.S.

Wisconsin a ‘safe, calm’ place after fleeing war in Ukraine

One program that’s had to pause some of its operations is Uniting for Ukraine, also called U4U.

The program allowed WALC student Olena Tkachenko to come to Wisconsin a couple years ago. Tkachenko has been learning English at the center for a year and a half. 

Tkachenko’s U4U visa was recently extended, but only through April. After that, she doesn’t know what will happen.   

Like nearly 7 million other Ukrainians, Tkachenko fled her country because of the Russian invasion. 

“There was bombing going on everywhere. It was terrible. So after our neighborhood and my house were bombed and pretty much deteriorated to the ground … It was really heartbreaking to leave my homeland because I lived there for 55 years of my life,” she said through a translator.

Before she came to the U.S., Tkachenko was living in a refugee camp in Spain. She followed her daughter, who’s married to an American citizen, from Spain to Wisconsin. 

Whether the Trump administration will restart the U4U program is an open question, according to Yoshiko Herrera, political scientist professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an expert on Russia.

“I think they wanted to show that they were acting quickly on immigration right from the start. So my sense is that they just are like, ‘OK, we’re pausing everything’,” said Herrerra. “But I wouldn’t be surprised if … in the next couple of weeks, (they) decide that United for Ukraine is OK.”

Tkachenko hopes to stay in the U.S. permanently. Her home and family are no longer in Ukraine, and she’s found a peaceful life in Wisconsin. 

“Having come to Wisconsin, I really felt I got into a very safe, calm environment. It just feels so peaceful after those years of living under the threat of bombing every night,” Tkachenko said. “I also find the citizens of this country very friendly, very supportive. Whoever I reach out to always lends me a helping hand.”

Education a way to honor family, community

Like Tkachenko, Chu May Paing has experienced her fair share of challenges. Her family is still in Myanmar, which is in the throes of a civil war that started after a military coup in 2021.

When she encounters refugees from Myanmar, Chu May Paing said she feels she is connected to her community, even though it’s thousands of miles across the globe. The English language learners she works with also remind her of her family. 

“A lot of our older refugee women remind me of my own mom,” Chu May Paing said. “If my mom were here, she would be in these classes, sitting and trying to learn English.”

“(And) if I can recognize my family in them, I hope they can recognize something in me when they look at me,” she continued. “They can also be successful in this new country, amidst all these things that they have lived through.”