Stories

Below you’ll find photos, stories, and videos – read on to learn more about Refugees Northwest Foster Care and what welcoming a refugee or immigrant teen is really like!


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Zerkel Family

“We don’t have to be spectacular parents…All we have to do is be willing to open up that empty room that is sitting in our house and provide a quiet, safe place.”

Read about Sarah’s experience welcoming refugee foster teens into her family, click here.

 

 

 

Choega 2

Choega

“In my village, nobody graduates high school, nobody does. But I did here…I’m proud of myself.”

Listen to Choega’s story of resilience and success, click here.

 

 

 

Adriana and Doi Bu 4 by Dan Bates - Everett Herald

Adrianna and Doi Bu

“It was intuitively the right thing to do. I just decided to do it.”

Read about Adrianna and Doi Bu’s experience becoming a family, click here.

 

 

 

To continue learning about the children and families in our program, visit the links below.

  • For an update on Doi Bu (featured above) click here.
  • Mohamad Imran, a Rohingya teen and unaccompanied refugee minor, fled persecution in Myanmar and eventually found safety in a Refugees Northwest foster home. Hear him share his story on KUOW as well as on New Day Northwest.
  • Angelica and her family have welcomed refugee and immigrant foster youth into their home for 13 years. Read about their experience here.
  • Blaise Nkufo and Steve Zakuani, two Seattle Sounders players, met with a group of Congolese youth from the Refugee & Immigrant Children’s Program. Read more here.
  • This article looks back at the experience of some of the young people placed in the Refugee & Immigrant Children’s Program in the past, and provides an introduction to the experiences our youth still face today.
  • Read about Emmanuel and Victor, Sudanese refugees who resettled with Refugee & Immigrant Children’s Program families in the early 2000s, click here.
  • Here, Emmanuel shares his own story of fleeing violence in Sudan and starting his life in the US with the help of a foster family.
  • This story in the Seattle P-I follows Melvin, an unaccompanied minor that fled violence in Guatemala and eventually made it to a foster home in Seattle.
  • Visit this link to read about Peter, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan who resettled with a Refugee & Immigrant Children’s Program family in 2004.
  • Frankie fled upheaval and political violence in Haiti, escaping to the U.S. but in need of adults to care for him. Read this story from 1996, highlighting Frankie as a “Sensational Grad of ‘96.”