Aline and Cintia visit our group in October

During our second gathering of bilingual and multilingual families, we had two special guests, Aline and Cintia, who are involved in the running of AMBI, the Associação das Mães Brasileiras na Irlanda. AMBI is an organisation that has been running for many years, providing a space for Brazilian families to socialise and to transmit their language and culture to their children. Our speakers talked about the activities run by AMBI for young children, and about their future plans to teach the language to primary school children. They also described their experiences as parents of bilingual children. They reminded us how important it is for parents to persist in speaking their language to their children, and they explained the key role a community and voluntary organisation such as AMBI had on their early experiences as new parents in a foreign country. Groups such as AMBI can be extremely valuable for new parents who feel the need of support, and they can help newcomers feel at home and integrate into Irish society, while maintaining the link with their language and culture. To find out more about AMBI’s work, visit https://www.facebook.com/ambiirlanda/