APOPKA, Fla. — An Apopka nonprofit plans to restart its Central Florida school program again to help unaccompanied children, those who crossed the southern border of the United States by themselves.

Hope Community Center’s Adelante Caminantes program, which helps unaccompanied children adapt to their new country and home, was paused last year because of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

“We provide support to the families,” Hope Community Center founder Sister Ann Kendrick said. “We have a feeding program. We’re helping with English, adaptation to life in this country, solidarity with children who’ve been through the same.”

The program has helped youth like Alexis, an 18-year-old unaccompanied youth from Guatemala who made the grueling journey into the U.S. in 2019. He said once he crossed the southern border, his future in the country became uncertain.

“I was caught by border agents and placed in a detention center,” Alexis said. “I tried to prepare mentally for it, but once you’re there, it’s very difficult.”

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents caught more than 76,000 unaccompanied children trying to cross the border in fiscal year 2019, 667 of them from Guatemala, the agency estimated.

“It was traumatizing,” Alexis said. “Some things you never forget. I saw a kid with torn up clothes always shaking because all there was to keep us warm was foil-like blankets in a freezing cold room. Thankfully, I didn’t have to stay there long. My uncle helped get me out.”

Once settled in his new home, he arrived at Hope Community Center to take part in Adelante Caminantes.

“It’s amazing to come to a place like this where people help you learn the language, culture and are always there for you when you need them,” Alexis said.

Alexis also receives free legal assistance from the program to help him apply for asylum, and he gained a sense of camaraderie with the other youth in the program.

It’s a bond Kendrick hopes other children can experience when they restart the program in May.

“What was very important about the process was a chance for the kids to be together to share their stories, to hear other kids who’ve been through similar things and realize they’re not alone,” she said.

Before the pandemic, Kendrick said there were about 90 children in the program. Volunteers are needed to help the children, she said. They also would like qualified foster parents or sponsors to help house some of the unaccompanied youth so they won’t need to remain in detention centers.