Student, mother, wife, and registered nurse, Mami Ngombabu is the embodiment of Mercy Learning Center’s motto: “Educate a woman…educate a family.”
In 2001, Mami and her husband arrived in Bridgeport as refugees from South Africa. They had fled to South Africa from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to escape the civil war in her home country. With very limited knowledge of the English language, Mami left behind her parents and 9 siblings to escape the xenophobia her family endured, and to build a better life for her family.
Mami’s journey with Mercy Learning Center began the very next year. Her son Ruben was one year old and attended our free childcare program so that Mami could go to class. Ruben was one of the first babies that Maria Moreno, our Childcare Director, cared for when she started her career at Mercy 19 years ago!
“Mami is inspiring. She was very determined to accomplish her goals and did it step-by-step, while working and raising a family. Her perseverance for gaining education has been passed on to her own children.”
— Maria Moreno, Childcare Director
Mami learned how to speak, read, and write English in our ESL classes and earned her high school diploma in 2009 through our intensive study program. Mami became a U.S. citizen five years later with the support of our social services team.
She went on to earn her associate’s degree at Housatonic Community College, and graduated from St. Vincent’s College as a Registered Nurse in 2016. Mami now serves as a Nursing Supervisor at APT Foundation in New Haven, and is working on her master’s degree. Mercy Learning Center was here to support Mami in securing scholarships, navigating the admissions process and more.
Along the way, Mami’s daughter Benedicte came to Mercy Learning Center during summers and afterschool, so that Mami could focus on her studies. And bringing Mami’s story full circle, Benedicte today works as an Assistant in our Part-Time Program.
Benedicte shared: “Mercy had a great impact on my mother’s life. I remember her dropping me off at school, going to Mercy for class, picking me up at school, and then taking me with her back to Mercy. It is only when I started working here that I realized Mercy Learning Center was about so much more than her education. It was her community. It was her village.”
