CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. — Rabiul Alam says he loves everything about America, the country he thought he'd never call home.
"I'm from Burma, originally," Alam said Tuesday, speaking with CBS 6 near his home in Midlothian.
Before turning 10 years old, Alam said warfare in his home country displaced his family.
He was forced to leave them, taking a perilous journey overseas in a boat alone among more than 400 strangers looking to flee to safety.
"I ended up going to Indonesia. We were in a boat for a long time, and then after that, we got rescued by the Indonesian fisherman," Alam said. "It was terrifying."
After years of waiting in Indonesia, he was processed as a refugee through the United Nations, unsure where he'd be sent next.
"I didn't know I would come to the United States until I saw the flag in Chicago," Alam said. "I was very excited because they don't tell us what country exactly they're going to take you to. It could be any country. It was a very happy moment for me."
Alam then traveled to Virginia and was placed in a foster home by Commonwealth Catholic Charities (CCC).
"I was very excited to go to school. I didn't really get to go to school. When I saw all the kids over there, I was like I was dreaming. And my foster mom, she was very sweet, very nice. The first time sleeping on a bed, I slept all night. It was the moment every kid dreams of, coming from my country or my situation; it was like a kind of dream for me," Alam said.
The nonprofit says it has served over 1,000 children from over 44 countries since 1982, many of them fleeing abuse, persecution, or war, like Alam.
"Right now, the majority of the children that we receive are from Africa, but we still have children from Haiti, Afghanistan, and Central America as well," said BeBe Tran, CCC's foster care specialist. "They come with traumatic experiences that they witnessed before they arrived here."
Tran, who came to the United States as a refugee from Vietnam with her family 50 years ago, said unaccompanied refugee minors often have limited options once arriving in the United States and are often teenagers when they arrive, an age group often overlooked by families looking to foster.
"When children come to us, they say that they even witnessed the killings of their own parents. But if you go into court and you don't have paperwork to prove that you know they are deceased, the children don’t stop and say, 'By the way, you just killed my parents. Can you provide me with a death certificate so I can show it to court?' So that's why the judge can't grant adoption for these children," Tran said. "If their grandparents are able to escape, aunts and uncles, then they have the first choice to have their children back with the family."
As of right now, CCC has the capacity to foster 70 international children. May is National Foster Care Awareness Month, and the nonprofit is now encouraging families to open their homes to foster children so CCC can expand its reach.
Cathy and Joe Buttner decided to take the leap in 2023 after years of waiting, fostering a teen from Honduras.
Their foster child's journey to their home was somewhat similar to Alam's.
“I said, 'How did you like your flight from your home country to here?' She said, 'Oh no, Daddy, I walked. I walked for days, days, days, days, days, days, days, days, with no food, no water. I hid on a bus. I hid on a boat.' So, it was nothing like I thought," Joe Buttner said.
The Buttners worried that they were too old to foster a child through CCC.
CCC says foster parents have to be:
- At least 25 years old
- Single or married
- From any cultural background
- Financially and emotionally stable
- Have a safe and clean home with a room for a child
Potential foster parents must be approved by CCC, complete required training and a home study, and work with a caseworker, as well as interpreters. CCC also offers support.
"It feels like we have a purpose; we have a good purpose of doing something in the world," Cathy Buttner said.
As for Alam, he eventually graduated from Hermitage High School and just last year became a U.S. citizen.
“Finally, I felt safe after a long time. When I came to the U.S., all the CCC people, they really made me feel safe. They made me feel like I was home now, finally, with family, and I didn’t have to worry," Alam said. "It's a great experience for everyone, and you get to learn a lot from us. We're learning from you a lot. And eventually, like you're raising a baby who had nothing, now you're giving everything."
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