Foster carer who looked after Afghan refugee says she’s an ‘inspiration’

A foster carer from Bristol who took a young asylum seeker into her home has said she is proud of the man he has become. Lyn Rainey signed up to be a foster carer in 2008 after seeing an advert in the newspaper and has continued to care for children and young people ever since.

Aizat, who was a 14-year-old unaccompanied asylum seeker when she moved in with Lyn, was the first person she encouraged. When the National Adoption Agency first introduced the pair in 2009, Lyn was nervous that he was Muslim and from Afghanistan because she knew nothing about his culture or religion.

“I just got approved as a foster carer, and Aizat was the first young person I placed. It was a bit of a learning curve and I asked the social worker who was supporting me at the time, “is she going to have a problem with Christmas?”.

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“And she said, ‘Wait a minute, a 14-year-old gets a bunch of presents, I don’t think he’s going to have a problem with that,’ which was really good advice because, of course, he didn’t have problems with it. All the boys love Christmas because they know a big present is coming their way,” said Lyn.

Lyn was introduced to Aizat in 2009 when he was 14 and attending school in Fishponds. At the time he was traveling from Wiltshire. She lived with her partner in Emerson’s Green and although they later moved to Mangotsfied, Aizat stayed with the family until three years ago and still lives nearby.

Now 30, Aizat is training to be a teacher and became a foster carer himself after completing his degree at Bristol. Since then, Lyn has fostered several children and young people from Afghanistan, Syria and the UK.

“I read a bit about Islam then, but I think we just hit it off. We loved going to London and he loved going to Tower Bridge because he had seen it in Bollywood movies.

“The relationship has gone from strength to strength and he has been a fantastic role model for the other young people we have had from Afghanistan more recently. Education was really important to him and every opportunity he got, he took advantage of it.

“Now he is preparing to be a teacher himself and lives around the corner from me, he is an inspiration to me and others. I often think he should write about his journey, although he is reluctant to do so,” added Lyn.