The city of Fremont now has its first bilingual child care center.
Ely Children Care opened Friday to fill an increased need for child care in the area. Salvadoran owner Elida Canjura said the city has some child care centers, but none to provide specific services for the more than 19% of residents who identify as Hispanic or Latino.
“Entonces para mí es un sueño hecho realidad. Y estoy aquí no para hacerme famosa ni para gritar ni nada, sino que para ayudar, para ayudar, para darle un poquito a Fremont de lo que no teníamos,” she said in Spanish.
[“So for me it is a dream come true. And I’m here not to make me famous or to shout about it or anything, but to help. To help give Fremont a little bit of what we didn’t have.”]
Canjura, who came to Fremont in 2008, said she has both seen the need for a Hispanic child care center as well as lived the need for it.
“Y dije qué raro que en ese pueblo sí habían muchos day cares, pero todos americanos. Y luego nació la idea. Y con esa idea dije, tengo que hacer algo,” she added.
[“And I said it’s odd that this town has so many day cares, but all of them are English-speaking. And then the idea was born. And with this idea I said I have to do something.”]
