The story below is from our July/August 2025 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
For 40 years, Blue Ridge Literacy has helped Roanoke-area adults — especially immigrants — build the skills they need to learn, work and thrive.
Bruce Ingram / Courtesy of Blue Ridge Literacy
Blue Ridge Literacy hosts an annual Scrabble tournament which is a major fundraiser. / With five levels of English for Speakers of Other Languages classes, Blue Ridge Literacy provides adult learners with year-round opportunities to reach their language goals — in-person or online.
Established in 1985, Blue Ridge Literacy (BRL) has now helped to improve the literacy skills of both residents and newcomers to the Greater Roanoke Area for 40 years. Executive Director Ahoo Salem explains why the non-profit has been so successful.
“We were created to address the literacy needs of our adult community, and in turn, the Roanoke community has supported our efforts financially and through volunteerism,” she says. “Over the years, we have constantly adapted our services to meet the needs of our learners in terms of their reading, writing, and communication skills but also current pressing issues such as their need to develop media literacy, especially fact checking, as well as developing digital, financial and health literacy.”
Salem says she feels empathy for today’s immigrants. Born and raised in Tehran, Iran, she left in her mid-20s, traveling to Sweden as a graduate student. There, she met and later married a Roanoke native, arriving here in 2016 and beginning her career at BRL as a volunteer.
“In a sense, I’m helping our students navigate the same challenges I experienced ... and that is so rewarding,” she says. “We help people develop every day communication skills as well as help them access the information and resources they need to make long term plans, which helps with the process of social and economic integration.”
Program Director Sara Geres, who began her philanthropy-related career in the Peace Corps, says that one of BRL’s main philosophies is to keep a learner’s goals and interests in mind when working with them, a major task since the non-profit serves some 400 enrollees annually.
“Many want to improve their English to be more functionally independent like calling and making an appointment with a doctor’s office or speaking with their child’s teacher in a parent teacher conference,” she says. “Others are interested in pursuing higher education or finding the right path to translate their diplomas and career experience to the needs of the local market. During the registration process, we decide together which BRL program would be the best fit based on their experience and life goals. Once that decision is made, they experience instruction based on those goals.
“Our classes are both multi-cultural and multi-lingual, and we serve all levels of English language learners, from pre-beginner to post-advanced. Roanoke is a resettlement city and Blue Ridge Literacy currently serves individuals from over 40 different countries — the world is really here.”
Geres says one of her most satisfying experiences was working with a young man from Darfur, Sudan, from the time he was a teenager until he entered his mid-twenties.
“Babikir Harane and his mother escaped from conflict in his country,” she says. “The family lived in a refugee camp before resettling here and enrolling with us. We matched Babikir with a one-on-one tutor, and he really progressed rapidly.
Courtesy of Blue Ridge Literacy
Adult learners in Blue Ridge Literacy’s English and Digital Literacy classes practice the functional literacy skills they need to navigate online spaces.
“Babikir ended up graduating from Virginia Western and was accepted into UVA. He’s now a school liaison for Commonwealth Catholic Charities, a Roanoke non-profit ... and works diligently to help other newly arrived foreign-born individuals. Just an amazing young man.”
“For me, I think the best thing BRL did was finding me a one-on-one tutor,” Harane says. “The tutor experience really helped me connect with the Roanoke community and very much accelerated my learning process, more so than if I had been in a group.”
Another success story is a young, Egyptian woman, Asmaa Hussain, who came to Roanoke with her husband and six-month-old daughter. Not speaking any English, Hussain sought out BRL for help.
“I experienced the joy of tutoring Asmaa one-on-one; she was an extremely hard working and attentive student,” Geres says.
Hussain is very grateful for what BRL did for her.
“Sara and Blue Ridge Literacy taught me that you can accomplish anything if you dream it,” she says. “They encouraged me to study and learn more and also emphasized that I would never be alone in trying to accomplish my goals. Even now when I’m confused about something, I can call Sara and know that she will put me on the right track.”
That right track included taking English classes at Virginia Western and then following her dream to become an architect like her father.
“My husband supported me in enrolling at the Academy of Art University, where I graduated with a master’s degree in interior architecture in 2020,” she says. “I am looking forward to achieving my dream of becoming a licensed architect, so I am currently studying for my Master of Architecture to gain the necessary credentials for my license.”
Indeed, dream fulfilling is very much part of the Blue Ridge Literacy experience.
“BRL and its generous volunteers made dreams come true for me and many others,” Harane says. “My sincere gratitude to BRL and all of its affiliates.”
For more information on BRL, volunteering and donating: blueridgeliteracy.org.
The story above is from our July/August 2025 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!