Nazira, 22, originally from Afghanistan, created several paintings in the Commonwealth Catholic Charities exhibition “Through the Eyes of a Foster Child,” on display at Pine Camp Arts Center through September.
Refugee children have often experienced the unspeakable by the time they arrive safely in Richmond and into the care of Commonwealth Catholic Charities.
Some have survived war, others have witnessed the death of loved ones. They’ve fled danger and violence, enduring long, perilous journeys to reach the United States. Many have difficulty finding the words to process their emotions.
So instead, they paint.
Through September, CCC is sponsoring “Through the Eyes of a Foster Child,” a free art show at Pine Camp Cultural Arts and Community Center that spotlights the works of refugee children and teens.
While they come from different countries and backgrounds, all are foster children with legal protective status in the United States. Virginia is one of 14 states that participate in the Unaccompanied Refugee Minors program managed through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and implemented by CCC.
BéBé Tran has worked with CCC for nearly four decades as a foster parent specialist as well as an art teacher and organizer of the annual exhibit.
“Art is such an important outlet for these children,” she says. “We provide supplies, take them on field trips and teach them tools to help express themselves.”
Tran’s work is extremely personal. She arrived in the United States from Vietnam with her family in 1975, when she was just 15 years old.
“I was lucky to be able to escape with my whole family — my parents and my siblings,” she says. “My father was a lieutenant colonel in the military, and if we stayed behind, he probably would have been sent to a concentration camp.”
Her family was sponsored by a Catholic church in Lynchburg. Soon after, Tran’s sister was born, becoming the first Vietnamese baby born in that city. “Other countries were willing to take us in, but my father chose America so the next generation would have a home and be accepted,” she says.
Tran graduated from Holy Cross Catholic School in Lynchburg, studied art at Virginia Commonwealth University and moved to New York to work as a fashion designer.
Eventually, she was called back to Virginia to help her family and work with children whose stories reminded her of her own. She brought her love of art to her job at CCC, where she designs jewelry, paints, sews and makes quilts for children.
BéBé Tran of Commonwealth Catholic Charities
Throughout her career, Tran and her team have placed 1,000 refugee children into foster homes in Roanoke and Richmond. These children have fled dire conditions in dozens of countries across Southeast Asia, East Africa, Central America and the Middle East.
While the circumstances that brought each child to Virginia are heart-wrenching, Tran says a highlight of her work has been watching these young people build remarkable new lives.
One of those success stories is Gai Nyok, one of 25,000 Sudanese children separated from their parents by the Sudanese Civil War in the 1980s and 1990s. The children famously walked over 1,000 miles to Ethiopia and Kenya in search of refuge. After spending over a decade in refugee camps, Nyok was granted asylum to the United States and placed in foster care with a family in Hanover County.
With Tran’s assistance, he earned scholarships to VCU, where he obtained degrees in economics and international relations. Nyok then received a master’s degree in economics from the University of Illinois. Now in his 40s, Nyok speaks five languages and serves as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer for the Department of State. He was recently in Richmond, where he took Tran to lunch and visited with his foster family.
For Tran, stories like Nyok’s make her work meaningful. “Children like Gai deserve a safe home and the opportunity to start a new life,” she says. “That’s our mission at Catholic Charities, whether it’s helping international children or American children in foster care.”
Tran, who is retiring this month, feels blessed to have been a witness to so much love and compassion. “There is a lot of kindness in people, especially our foster families, who are heroes,” she says. “When you look at the Christian viewpoint of ‘Love thy neighbor,’ that doesn’t mean someone who looks like us, speaks the same language or even practices the same religion. It means helping any brother and sister in the image of God.”
For her final art show, Tran wants to encourage others to see beyond the label of refugee and connect with the people and the stories behind each piece. She hopes the show might even inspire someone to open their heart and their home to a child in need.
“Foster parents not only change lives, they save lives,” she says. “If we can recruit just one more foster family, then my job is done.”
