Foster Care Refugees Thrive With Love

Courtesy photo/CCS

+ Enlarge

Salih and Awet, unaccompanied refugee minors in the Catholic Community Services of Utah program, are shown in this screen shot from a television interview.

Unaccompanied refugee minors come into the care of Catholic Community Services of Utah for many different reasons. Some have been orphaned by war, some have been trafficked, and others have fled unsafe situations, but all have one thing in common: the need for a loving and safe home. Catholic Community Services of Utah places refugee youth into loving Utah homes and watches them thrive from the care and support they receive.

Two such children are Awet and Salih, who both fled the oppressive military regime in Eritrea. Although they were strangers when they left their homeland, they became brothers while living in the same foster home in Utah.

Both experienced a long, harrowing journey before finding safety in Salt Lake City.

At just 11 years old, Salih fled to escape conscription into the military, where he would have been a child soldier. Like many others from Eritrea, he sought help in Ethiopia’s Mai Aini Refugee Camp, but instead of salvation and safety he was met with over 1,000 other unaccompanied refugee minors living in deplorable conditions. Luckily, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was able to advocate for his safe passage to America.

Awet also fled child military conscription, but instead of finding help, he was captured and tortured for months before being released after his ransom was paid. Alone and injured, Awet was taken in by staff from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, who arranged for him to be resettled by CCS.

Today, after experiencing so much trauma in the past, Salih and Awet are normal teenage boys living and thriving with love and support from their foster family.

Editor’s note: As part of Pope Francis’ Migration Campaign, this is one in a series of profiles of refugees and migrants who are helped through Catholic Community Services of Utah.

Courtesy of Catholic Community Services