A Fremont entrepreneur opened the city’s first bilingual daycare

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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.”]

According to a survey by the Buffett Early Childhood Institute at the University of Nebraska, more than 80% of Nebraskans say the state’s lack of child care is a major problem.

“There is such a huge need in Fremont for day cares,” said Fremont Area Chamber of Commerce President/CEO and working mom Brenda Wilberding. “I remember when my daughter was born, going to look for day cares, and they're like, ‘you probably should have been looking about four months ago, or maybe when you got pregnant.’”

Fremont Mayor Joey Speller echoed the heightened need for Canjura’s business.

“What a huge need that you're meeting. We're so grateful," Speller said.

Canjura said that’s why her day care focuses on quality care while also scheduling flexible hours to fit what working parents need.

She added that although it was difficult to open a business without being a fluent English speaker, it was not impossible.

“Nosotros siempre fuimos así, perseverantes,” she said. “Me llena el corazón cuando ellos me dicen a mí no me dicen maestra, no me dicen mis, me dice mamá."

["We are always like that, persevering…It fills my heart when they don’t call me teacher, they don’t call me Miss, they call me mom.”]

Ely Children Care is able to take on 10 more children between the ages of six weeks and 13 years old.