AZ Refugee Teen

In June 2022, a few months after the war began, we received an urgent request from a close Ukrainian friend to potentially bring her daughter to America, while the family tried to chart a path forward as refugees in Poland. After several difficult discussions and a flight to Poland, we brought “Anya” home to live with us in Chandler. We were able to enroll her in school as a 7th grader, and she received daily English as a Second Language(ESL) classes to help her assimilate.

Like many girls her age, she was already struggling with all the typical teenage challenges, then we added the war and leaving her home and country, she then left her family as refugees behind in Poland, and she came to America, for an entirely new set of challenges with language and culture. It was obviously overwhelming for her and one strategy she used was to isolate and avoid having her photograph taken.

Although we did our best to help her find a home and new opportunities here in America, ultimately her family decided to try and return to Ukraine. The mother flew to the US and returned to Ukraine (via Poland) with Anya. Unfortunately, only one day after returning to Kyiv, in November 2022, the random bombing resumed and they were forced to flee to Poland again. Anya now attends school in Poland, is learning Polish and making the best of her families challenging status as refugees.