When Arbay Jumale fled the refugee camps of Kenya with her family, she had no idea a city called Wheaton was in her future.

Placed in Illinois by World Relief in September 2004, the Somalia-born Jumale found herself far from the heat and troubles of her home continent. But landing in America came with its own set of difficulties, the most pressing of which was her inability to communicate.

“Speaking English is very hard,” said Jumale, perched on a couch in the lower level of the Wheaton Public Library. Her round, youthful face poked out from a cloth head covering that engulfed her body’s entire upper half. Her oldest daughter, Hibo, 4, sat on a couch across from her, engrossed in a colorful children’s picture book.

“I’d like to go to school but I can’t because I have small baby,” she said.

“She also works eight hours a day,” added Beth Johnson of Wheaton, a petite blond woman who sat beside Jumale. Johnson, Jumale’s English tutor since June, listened attentively when her pupil spoke and provided assistance when language barriers halted the conversation.

Johnson and Jumale met through Literacy DuPage (formerly Literacy Volunteers of DuPage), a nonprofit group that links non-English speakers with volunteer tutors for one-on-one instruction or small group sessions.

The organization provides an essential service to a community like DuPage County. In 1990, the county’s immigrant population numbered 71,335. The figure reached 164,343 in 2004 and continues to climb.

“Since 1990, there has been a 255 percent increase in the foreign-born population,” said Tana Tatnall, executive director of Literacy DuPage. “There are jobs in DuPage County and that’s what’s bringing people here.”

The organization, which was established in 1972 and is based out of Naperville, attended to upward of 450 students last year alone. Hispanics make up 50 percent of the student population, Eastern Europeans 30 percent and Asians comprise 17 percent of non-English speakers. Women, most at home with young children, compose 80 percent of the students served. Literacy DuPage mandates that students be DuPage County adults with no access to classrooms.

“It can be for financial reasons but it can also be because they don’t have a car or for child care reasons,” Tatnall said. “It might be that they’re working two or three jobs or that they work at non-traditional times.”

Immigrants find out about Literacy DuPage through word-of-mouth or other agency referrals, and though the nonprofit would like to immediately connect every student with a dedicated English tutor, it has proven difficult.

“We have an ongoing wait list and it varies between 80 and 100 people,” said Lisa Thackeray, program manager. “We can never seem to get below 80. We never have enough tutors.”

The organization holds eight or nine training sessions a year where volunteers, who must be older than 18, high school graduates and fluent in English, determine their student’s goal. Common ones include a desire to carry on a conversation with a doctor or child’s teacher, learning to read paperwork or acquiring a driver’s license. Volunteers then gather materials and learn teaching techniques. Students and tutors are allowed to devise their own schedules and meeting places.

“Our program is completely student-centered,” Tatnall said. “We teach using practical materials. There are no books or curriculum.”

Jumale’s goal to speak and understand English with proficiency is broader than most, but she has excelled.

“(Literacy DuPage tested) the students when they came into the program and then they test periodically,” said Johnson, who not only counts Jumale among her friends, but also has spent time teaching the woman’s three children using picture books and flash cards.

Jumale admits an easier time navigating the local grocery store and speaking on the phone. She has even formed friendships at her factory job, where workers come from several different countries and speak a multitude of languages.

It is triumphs like these that keep the resolve of both volunteers and Literacy’s staffers strong.

“You look at those you’ve helped and you know you’ve helped them in a way that has changed their lives and made them more independent,” Thackeray said.

The next tutor training series will be offered in Lisle in early May. For more information on all the planned training session sites, call (630) 416-6699 or visit www.literacydupage.org.