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ATTLEBORO -- Sonia Walmsley arrived in America from Colombia six years ago with little English but with a will to succeed.

Today, Walmsley, a school principal in her native land, is the co-ordinator of a program helping immigrants learn English, achieve basic literacy and polish parenting skills. She also works for a school department program which helps immigrants obtain high school diplomas and training in basic computer skills.

`` When I first came, I could just say `hello,' '' said Walmsley, who was sent to the United States to acquire English skills she needed for her job in a bi-lingual school.

She attended classes at night to learn English and eventually became an aide and a counselor working for the Attleboro school department.

When she met her future husband in America, her plans to return to Colombia changed. Recently, she became an U.S. citizen. The Attleboro Even Start program, which Walmsley runs, is aimed at immigrant parents of young children ages 3 to 7. The Literacy Center-managed program, based at the former Briggs Corner School, works with up to 20 adults and their children at a time. Tuition and child care is free to Attleboro residents.

Students, mostly young women, focus on learning English, developing parenting skills and encouraging children to learn through an `` interactive literacy'' component.

Students run the gamut from the relatively unskilled to women who had specialized jobs in their home countries, teacher Mary Hourigan said.

The program also has a family counselor who makes monthly visits to parents' homes.

A majority of the enrollees currently are Guatemalans, Walmsley said, although over the program's four-year history students have included Vietnamese, Mexicans and others.

Like those before them, most of the immigrant families taking advantage of Even Start have come here to seek economic opportunity, Walmsley said. Many of the students' husbands work two or more jobs.

`` In their homelands, often there are no jobs or the jobs that exist do not pay enough to live on,'' she said.

Some families plan to settle in America, Walmsley said, but it is also common for others to save up money in hopes of returning home to buy homesteads or provide support for family elders.

Other programs in Attleboro also provide support for immigrants and non-English speaking residents.

About half of the 250 students enrolled in adult literacy programs at the Literacy Center are non-English speakers, Director Joan Ricci said. The Attleboro School Department also has about 100 students enrolled in its Adult Basic Education Program, which offers courses in English, general educational equivalency and preparation for the U.S. citizenship test.

Much of the funding for the programs comes from the U.S. Department of Education funneled through the state. But funds for such programs have increasingly been the target of federal budget cuts, Walmsley said.

Walmsley said she views the literacy program as more than a helping hand to immigrants and their families, who often take on entry-level or unglamorous jobs shunned by others.

It's helping along an age-old process that has built a nation of immigrants into the most powerful country in the world.

`` What would we do if we didn't have immigrants?'' she said. `` It seems to me that what we do here isn't a help for immigrants, it's teaching them how to do it for themselves.''