Like most women who have to leave their homes to do what they want or need to do, women involved in literacy have difficulty finding good, affordable childcare.

• A lot of men in town don't babysit... And even those who do babysit, if the kid starts to cry, think nothing of bringing the kid over to the woman in the middle of a course, an interview, a meeting, anything. And the trouble with a community this size is you can't hide. So, if they want to track you down, they track you down.

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• It was very difficult for me [to teach the program]. My husband traveled almost 75 per cent of the time last year. And to find a babysitter that would show up on time, that could handle putting the three kids to bed. I found it very hard to get out the door. I was impacted probably more than everybody...Even though I have extended family here it was very hard.

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• They have to rely on their friends or family to keep their children every day while they are in class. And it's all right for a while. OK, Grandma will do it. But she's getting old. She's not going to do it every day.

• When we started the tutor program, one of the reasons why we didn't get very much response is that they can't go out and just- or don't have time to just-sit and be taught. Because they don't have babysitters or they're too busy doing things. Or they're not interested... Oh, the babysitters-I have babysitter problems all year. When they change so many times it's hard on the children and the mother.

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• We're in a situation where we do have funding for childcare, but that's not necessarily the issue. We don't always have a person to always do the childcare and we're always caught in the thing-what is the best way to do this?

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• A lot of the women wait until they know that they've got their kids looked after, before they even make any contact with the organization. So, if they finally find out in August that things are going OK-I can go back to school-they come in and they're totally , frustrated because we say "Oh, you have to take an assessment test, you can't take one until after classes start, and most of the classes are full." ... The unfortunate thing is that you have to plan ahead even if it is for two courses or even one.

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• We don't yet have daycare. God knows if we're going to get it. Three of my students won't be back in the fall-they're having babies. When they come back it will depend on daycare, for infants. And there's a very, very strong tendency to stay home with an infant which I can understand. More so than with an older child. And yet many of the young women get started with us, they're with us one term or two terms and then they're off for a year or two. It feels like you lose.

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• The husband is not working and he will not look after the kids. It's not his job.

• And I think while daycare is an issue across the board, not just for people who don't have money, obviously it's more of a problem for them because they can't pay anybody. There is no money for special services ... from any of the funding services. Yet they want women to get off welfare.