'Through the Eyes of a Foster Child' art exhibit showcases unaccompanied refugee minor foster care youth

Henrico teenager Daniela’s artwork is inspired by beautiful rural and aquatic landscapes she has seen on road trips to her family’s lake house and on trips to the Chesapeake Bay.

But some of her artwork portray women going through difficult emotions like the painting of the woman in a beautiful red dress with long hair.

“I was feeling a little bit sad, so I just drew like sad, a lady in the rain,” Daniela said. “She was at a party inside, because it was raining. She was feeling sad because everybody was making her feel like out, unwanted. So she ran away, and it was raining, stormy. She ran away with a pretty dress. She felt alone.”

Dani painted the image in an after-school art program with the Henrico-based Commonwealth Catholic Charities in its unaccompanied refugee minor foster care program.

Daniela, who goes by Dani, is one of about 60 children and youth in CCC's Unaccompanied Refugee Minor foster care program that have been admitted to the United States by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement.

CCC’s program places the youth with foster families, supporting the children and providing them with skills to enter adulthood and achieve self-sufficiency.

Since CCC started the program 40 years ago, it has placed more than 1,000 unaccompanied minors like Dani in homes in and around the area. CCC officials say it is the largest unaccompanied refugee minor foster care program in Virginia.

For her privacy and protection, she provided only her first name as a 13-year-old immigrant from Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

BeBe Tran, the CCC staffer who has a background in art, offers the art workshop because it is therapeutic.

“Mental health is just as important physical health. And one of the things that I feel like a lot of foster children have low self-esteem because they lost everything. They lost their childhood, lost their culture, the families, the siblings, the school, their friends, the teacher, the food, their language, and then build them up with some kind of pride that they can feel like they are good at,” Tran said. “It builds up their self-esteem.”

Dani’s artwork along with paintings by other current and former CCC unaccompanied refugee minor foster care youth are being exhibited in the “Through the Eyes of a Foster Child” art exhibit on display from September 1 to 30 at Pine Camp Cultural Arts and Community Center at 4901 Old Brook Road in Richmond. The opening reception on Sept. 1 runs from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

“When they see their art, not even if it's not sold, in a nice gallery and people come and say, ‘Oh, it's beautiful.’ And if you come to the opening night, they have an opportunity they can come up and say, ‘This is my painting.’ They get excited,” said Tran.

Some of the kids drew very dark paintings. One of the boys in the program asked Tran for a black canvas. So she always has a black canvas in advance to fill that need. 

“Some are very cheerful, it depends on their life, their current situation,” said Tran. “If they live in a loving home, like with Dani’s mom, they give them opportunity to be able to express some of that. It's happy pictures or things, it's because she's been exposed to the ocean. They take her to see a lot of different things, so kids open and see pictures outside of the foster care system.”

The youth come from different situations from around the world. Some are victims of trafficking, including labor trafficking.

“Most of our boys, if they stay behind in some countries, they got recruited by gangs. So for their safety, sometimes the family send them out,” Tran said. “In general, they’re here because they fear returning home or back in their home country.”

Dani, who has been in foster care for four years was previously held in scary and difficult conditions in an ICE shelter.

“It's bad. It's like prison,” Dani said. “There are no windows. We can't see when it's day or night. There's no clocks. You stay inside. There's no TV. Nothing, just people. You don't have a bed. You sleep on the floor. And the blanket is like, it's not really a blanket. It's just like, metal thing. So, doesn't really warm up. Lights don’t go off. And you can't go anywhere. You can't do anything.”

Unaccompanied children have come into CCC’s care because they are here by themselves and have no other family members here that can take care of them. Many have fled their country due to fear of persecution.

As a long-term foster care program, their goal is not to be reunited with their family. Family reunions happen in few cases but otherwise, they’re in foster care until 21.

As a foster parent specialist, Tran goes to churches and events, to recruit foster families like Dani’s to give them an overview about the programs. She trains foster families and conducts home studies. Leading art classes helps Tran connect to the kids.

Tran has lived the refugee experience like many of her students. In 1975, she was 15, Vietnam fell to the communist party and, Tran became a refugee.

“I came with my whole family, and that's a big difference between myself and the kids, as I was lucky enough to come with mom and dad and my older brothers and sisters,” Tran said. “We escaped by boat. Life was tough when we first came. Just like them, I couldn't speak English, and had to start in high school, and struggle, and deal with discrimination. At that time, the Vietnam War was not that popular, just like for our children, now many have to deal with discrimination too, when they go into school, just because of having the title immigrant.”

The number of refugees around the world are estimated to number 41 million. During fiscal 2025, part of which overlapped with President Joe Biden’s term, the U.S. admitted 38,102 refugees. In the previous year, during which Biden was president, 100,034 refugees were admitted. CCC was among the organizations that worked to welcome and settle refugees fleeing war and danger.     

The Trump administration, which has sought to limit immigration of all types, has capped refugee admissions for fiscal 2026 at 17,500, the lowest level in the past 25 years.

Excited to start 8th grade at Tuckahoe Middle School, Dani describes herself as cheerful, fun, and open to trying new things. She loves animals and has a black lab named Heart, a pug named Grace, and a cat. She enjoys math, finds English to be her hardest subject and is interested in learning Italian.

She spent the summer attending entrepreneurship camp at the ACE program, where her group designed a Barbie-themed amusement park project, reflecting her goal of eventually starting her own business rather than working for someone else.

This summer she swam, visited Kings Dominion, relaxed and shopped for back-to-school clothes.

She thrives thanks to her loving home.

Tran remembers other CCC foster children who have finished college and one man from Sudan who works as a diplomat.

“The art exhibit is an opportunity for us to tell people in the community what we do,” Tran said. “Foster parents change lives. They make a difference because they give the child an opportunity, you can see from where they started and where they go. I see that over the 39 years of the program.”

“We hope that this is an opportunity to bring more people in the community that don't know or are afraid of doing foster care, or don't know about refugees and immigrants, so they can come and meet us.”

Dina Weinstein is the Citizen’s community vitality reporter and a Report for America corps member, covering housing, health and transportation. Support her work and articles like this one by making a contribution to the Citizen.