Thirty-five-year-old Nyanjur Bagadalor has never been to school in her life.

In war-torn Sudan, she stayed home to do house chores while her brothers got an education. She grew up speaking Dinka and later picked up Arabic.

But that didn't help Bagadalor when she moved from Africa to Utah in 2000. She couldn't speak English. Traveling with her two young daughters, the refugee managed to make it here with strangers pointing her in the right direction.

"I didn't know anything," she said in almost-fluent English with an accent. "I felt sad."

Today, Bagadalor is studying the language with the help of a volunteer through the English Skills Learning Center (ESLC) in Salt Lake City.

The nonprofit agency matched Bagadalor and Heather McMaster through its one-on-one tutoring program.

For seven years, the pair have been meeting almost weekly in Bagadalor's kitchen or living room in her cozy downtown apartment while she cares for her now four children, ages 3 to 18.

"The little ones are usually crawling all around us during our lessons," said McMaster, a retired nurse who lives in Sugar House.

Bagadalor said learning English has been difficult because she's never studied reading and writing in any language and rarely used a pen; she and her husband were trying to adjust to the U.S. and raise their family; and she worked the night shift loading mail until she was laid off last month.

But, her hard work and McMaster's dedication have paid off.

Bagadalor took the U.S. citizenship test -- the first exam in her life --- more than two years ago and passed. She also passed her driver license test last year.

Now, Bagadalor can count money, hold a conversation, speak in front of a group of people, write checks, and read her bills, letters from her kids' teachers and street signs.

"If it wasn't for [McMaster], I couldn't have done it," she said.

Catherine Barnhart, the center's executive director, said the pair is one of the agency's success stories. But the center is expanding -- almost doubling the number of clients it serves in two years. More volunteers are needed. There's a waiting list of about 65 eager learners.

"It's like a never-ending demand," she said.

The center was founded in 1988 as the Literacy Volunteers of America -- Wasatch Front. When Salt Lake City was designated as one of the country's resettlement areas for refugees years later, the center merged with another group and was renamed in 2003.

It now runs five programs, including a project where volunteers teach English to small groups at apartment complexes on the city's west side.

Two years ago, the center started "Empowering Parents with Literacy" that offers free English classes for people twice a week while kids are in school. The program started with four people at Jackson Elementary; today 100 participate among seven schools.

"The parents, teachers and administrators are starting to trust each other and getting to know each other," she said.

McMaster said she had never volunteered with the refugee-immigrant community nor had she taught English. But, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, she wanted to do something to learn more about other cultures.

She started working with Bagadalor in early 2002.

"Being able to read is such an important part of life," she said. "There's so much we learn about the world from reading."

jsanchez@sltrib.com