Foster care program takes in immigrant children
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Every year more than 40,000 unaccompanied children from other nations cross into the United States.
As they wait to be placed with family members, some of them pass through the Bethany Christian Services Transitional Foster Care program.
In March, Bethany Christian Services’ Indianapolis branch started accepting children into it’s government-funded Transitional Foster Care program for unaccompanied children in March. Since then, the number of children has increased from two to 40.
“People are always here and, I think, a little humbled when they meet that new little person and see how courageous and brave and scared they are,” said Linda Wrestler, Bethany Children’s Indianapolis branch director.
The children in the program mainly come from Honduras, Guatamala and El Savador, a region known as the Northern Triangle. The children are first detained by border patrol, then moved to temporary housing or, in this case, transitional foster care.
“Usually the children we have in our care would be what they call the tender age,” Wrestler said. “So that would be anywhere from birth to 12 years of age.”
Around 90% of the children who make the journey already have some family in the states. The transitional foster program helps the children until family can be tracked down.
“They may be with us (as) briefly as 10 to 15 days before they go onto their sponsors,” Wrestler said.
Drew and Monica are a couple participating in the Transitional Foster Care program. For safety reasons, their last name isn’t being used. The couple shared some of their experiences with the 7-year-old girl they are fostering and what helped get her to the United States.
“We just have a lot and, if we can leverage that to help bless other people, we want to,” Monica said.
The girl made it to the United States after escaping persecution and violence in her home country. The couple has been fostering the girl for a few weeks.
“For the kid that we are watching she was really close with her grandmother,” Drew said. “And so just hearing her share stories of her grandmother telling her she had to have courage to do that. And that’s one of the things she held onto while she made the journey.”
Taking in an older child who only speaks Spanish, the nonbilingual couple said they took on the role of foster parents not knowing what to expect and with a little fear.
“It’s hard work but it’s really really joyful work,” Monica said.
While fostering is one part of the program, there’s a constant need for volunteers and staff who are bilingual and have a social work degree. Fostering happens to be what works for this family.
“Ultimately we feel a calling to take care of the kids while they are here,” Drew said.