“From Raining to Shining” – The Story of Refugee Foster Care

GILROY, Calif. – “Juan” – that’s not his real name — is a 17 year-old Mexican citizen who lives in the Bay Area under the Refugee Foster Care program. The terrible situation that he experienced in Mexico forced him to leave behind his family and country. Although he refused to talk about what happened to him in Mexico, because he is not ready to share his painful experience, he described that his life has changed “from raining to shining.”


Juan came to the United States two years ago thanks to the Refugee Foster Care program. He lives with an American family with two other refugee children, girls from Asian countries. A refugee is a person driven from a country for reasons of persecution. Many are alone, separated from family or orphaned by war. In the Bay Area, Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County “has the only refugee program in the state of California that accepts refugee teens” explained Carmen Muñoz-Avila, Community Relations Manager of Refugee Foster Care.

The Refuge Foster Care program began five years ago, but just six months ago Catholic Charities obtained the license to operate independently and is currently helping 43 minors who are living with 18 families in six counties: Alameda, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Contra Costa, San Francisco and San Benito counties.

Most of the refugees, who are between the ages of 14 to 17, arrive undocumented from countries as far as Rwanda, Iran, Burma, China and Sudan. However “more than 50% of the refugee adolescents are Latinos,” said Muñoz-Avila. “We want more Latino families to help our refugee youths,” she added. The majority of these young boys and girls are from Honduras, Nicaragua, and Mexico. They are not expected to return to their countries and while they live here, they are being helped to legalize their status.

According to a 2009 report by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), 42 million people around the world were uprooted from their homes due to conflict or persecution. Of this number, 16 million were considered refugees, and approximately 45% of the world’s refugees are under 18-years of age. Life was not easy at the beginning for Juan. He did not speak much English, and was very shy and quiet. Today he is in the 11th grade, and he said that he likes school. His favorite subjects are math, chemistry and geometry, and “I am 75% bilingual.”

One day he would like to go to college and earn a degree, “to be successful in the field of science with something related to chemistry or medicine,” he declared. He also says that he has “more than he ever could have thought.” He never imagined having a roof over his head and “two people who care about me.”

One of those people is Marilyn, his foster mother who, with the help of her husband, has been opening her house to refugee teens for the last five years. “One day we saw an article in a local newspaper about the refugee program,” recalled Marilyn who speaks Spanish fluently. “Our first teen was also a young Latino boy.”

Marilyn and her husband had to attend training sessions and monthly meetings in order to be foster care parents. She does not deny that hosting a refugee teen is a big responsibility, but the difference that they are making in the life of the young teen and the opportunity that they provide is unique. Through all the years that she has been hosting young refugees at her home, Marilyn says “I have learned a lot about these teenagers and their native countries. Every time that they have a success, I have a success, too. I feel that I have done something good.”

Carmen Muñoz-Avila of Refugee Foster Care explained that the program trains the parents in many areas, such as First Aid but it also helps them to cover medical and daily living costs. The teens can stay with the family until they are 19 years of age. “If the youth wants to stay with the family after the age of 19, he or she can stay until the age of 24, but under a different program,” she added. Today Juan has the prospect of a better future. He sees things more positively and from a different perspective and point of view. He has changed from being a quiet boy to “a more open person.”

If you want to get more information about the Refugee Foster Care program, visit www.catholiccharitiesscc.org online.