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Rafael Casas: A journey in portraits

By Mariana Minaya, Times Staff Writer
In print: Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Rafael Casas, center, plays pool with other refugees, including Agostin Qosaj, from Albania, right, during the summer camp earlier this month
	[LARA CERRI | Times]

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Of the dozens of pictures on display at Studio@620 in St. Petersburg, one is of a boy and his tutor. Rafael Casas, 12, snapped the self-portrait while they were studying for a reading test. He received the best grade in the class.

Rafael is one of 17 children from eight countries whose photographs will be on display through Saturday. They are all in a refugee youth program of Gulf Coast Family Jewish Services.

The program provided the children with cameras and asked them to take pictures that would show how they view their new home. Their insights will be used to show educators how best to help students adjust.

Rafael's tutor, Branka Prodanovic, has been his steadfast ally since they met about a year ago when his elementary school referred Rafael to the program.

At the time, he was depressed and barely spoke English. He and his mother arrived in Florida from Cuba nearly two years ago.

"He didn't want to go outside, he didn't want to meet anybody," said Prodanovic, who is from Bosnia.

She told Rafael that she could help him learn English and make friends, and that the program was full of children just like him. The program serves about 200 in the bay area.

Rafael joined. Prodanovic is now his tutor and family case manager. She helps him with schoolwork at least once a week. When school is out, the program runs a summer camp to maintain students' learning and language skills.

The goal is to provide families with whatever they need to adjust, but also to help the children gain a sense of independence. For Rafael, it seems to be working.

"He became more mature and less shy," Prodanovic said. "We all had an impact on him, but he's the one who probably saw that there is a nice life in this country, that he can make new friends."

Rafael made plenty of friends at the program, on the baseball field and in school. He also worked hard enough to make the honor roll last year.

Now he helps newcomers with schoolwork and translations because "they're my friends," he said in Spanish. "I like to help."

His dream is to become a lawyer to "help people who don't have papers."

Of the pictures he has displayed in the exhibit, his favorite is of the sea. Rafael knows his grandfather, also named Rafael Casas, arrived here "like all Cubans, by boat," said his mother, Maria Isabel Matos, 37.

"Many people have come through there," Rafael said of the water in his picture. "Some die. Their boat turns over or they are eaten by sharks."

The opportunities here far outweigh what they had to endure in Cuba, Matos said. Here, with Prodanovic's help, Rafael has a clearer future ahead of him.

"Thanks to them, he forged ahead," Matos said.