From Homeless Shelter to Home: One Immigrant Family’s Journey of Perseverence

No family is without its challenges. Some families face health issues, others financial setbacks, and others internal conflicts. None of us are immune to problems. But what do you do as a family when circumstances beyond your control force you to leave your home and country and live in a homeless shelter where you don’t speak the language or know the culture? You persevere. 

Today’s story truly highlights this quality of perseverance. It focuses on the real-life journey that one family experienced not that long ago.

Let’s first learn more about this family and what brought them to the United States.

Joao and Carine enjoyed a beautiful and quiet life in Angola for many years. As parents of four children, ranging in age from three to eighteen years, they worked hard to provide a good life for them. Carine taught at a French-speaking elementary school and Joao worked in Angola’s booming oil industry. They had never imagined a day when they would need to leave their home, friends, and country behind.

Against the backdrop of the ongoing fuel crisis, protests, and unrest in Angola, the family’s situation changed drastically. Joao lost his job and political tensions intensified. It soon became clear that in order to preserve their family’s security, they would need to leave Angola

With no other option in sight, they fled the only home they had ever known in search of peace and stability.

Arrriving in America and Staying in a Homeless Shelter

Finally arriving in the Southern United States in early 2023, Joao and Carine, with four kids in tow, made their way across the country to Maine. 

Sadly, however, once in Maine, they would face challenges of another kind.

Once they arrived in Portland, Maine, they were placed in the Portland Expo Center, a basketball arena that the city converted into a homeless shelter for refugees and asylum seekers. There, Joao, Carine, and their four children were packed into a large room with 300 other people, with little more than a bed to lay their heads.

Here is where the reality of their decision came home. Joao explains, “We were living pretty much in open air with 300 other individuals and families. There were no limits, no privacy. We were thrown into a culture and language that was completely foreign to us.”

In Search of a Home

Their first priority was to find a home — an apartment where they could settle down and raise their family. Despite their best efforts, however, Joao and Carine met with one disappointment after another.

“We didn’t know where to begin, especially since we didn’t speak the language. And most landlords did not want to work with General Assistance”— the department that oversees rent vouchers for immigrants and other homeless individuals looking for an apartment in Maine. In just the first couple of weeks, they looked at five different apartments without any results.

Then they came into contact with Good Helper Foundation. 

“Their help was just what we needed at the right time,” Joao confesses. “They know what they’re doing. They work with landlords and General Assistance all the time. They know where to find apartments, how to negotiate rents, and what each family needs.”

We’re happy to report that their perseverance paid off. While it took a long and arduous two months, Good Helper Foundation was finally able to secure an apartment for Joao, Carine, and their family.

But that’s not where GHF’s work ended. “They made sure we had the furniture and kitchen utensils we needed to get started,” Joao shared, “And helped us enroll our children in school.”

While they still have a ways to go – learning English, acclimating to a new culture, and finding work to support themselves — having this initial foundation is a big step in the right direction. As Joao continues, “As a parent, you’re acutely aware of your responsibility to provide for your family. Now we’re in a situation where we can fulfill our roles as parents. We have a home to raise them in. Our children have space where they can play and study.” 

Looking at the Big Picture

As much as we rejoice in Joao and Carine’s success, we at GHF also recognize that their story is just one drop in a sea of other similar cases. There are still more families in need of some form of transitional assistance as they build their new life here in America.

Happily, Good Helper Foundation is in a position to help. 

But we cannot do this alone. We rely on the generous support of our dear donors to be able to provide the help and support that immigrant families need. Please consider making a donation.