When in the summer of 2011, Anny Rodríguez was finishing her master’s degree in education and working as a teacher, she attended a fair for different cultural exchanges in her native Cali, Colombia.
“There I discovered the agency Cultural Care Au Pair (CCAP) that offered the opportunity to travel to another country to care for children in a family and learn another language.”
Since the program had everything that Anny liked, traveling, being with children and learning languages, after the fair, she wanted to know more and attended an information meeting and later an interview.
“I went to the interview with my parents. They had many questions. They wanted to know what it was about; and when everything was explained to them, they liked it. They realized that it was a cultural exchange in another country, where you arrive with a family, they offer you shelter, food, a basic salary and you create a relationship,” he says.
After the meeting, Anny made her application and created a profile where she talked about her personality, her qualities, and the reasons why she wanted to do the show.
“Among the requirements they ask for is that you be single, without children, that you know how to drive and have a driver’s license and a basic command of English.”
It details that it works very similar to a romantic dating page. “Parents who are looking for an au pair go to the site and can see the profiles of the candidates to care for their children, but we can also choose the families.”
Anny says that after talking to several families, she connected with a family from Ohio, and they started talking.
“At that time, what was fashionable was Skype, and by talking to parents, we began to create a relationship. When we knew that we had many things in common, we confirmed the matches”.
He details that online conversions revolved around what they did day to day, and shared photos.
“The agency Cultural Care Au Pair sponsors you a visa at the United States Embassy when you already have a match. At the visa interview, they asked me questions related to the family that was going to receive me,” he recalls.
In May 2012, a completely excited Anny set foot on American soil for the first time.
“At that time, we au pairs arrived directly to New York, where we immediately entered a school where we received courses in first aid, safety, and American culture.”
Upon arriving in Ohio, Anny says she quickly felt welcomed by her new family.
“It was a working family. My host was a teacher like me, she had just had triplets and wanted to get back to her job. I was going to be like the boys’ big sister. “My host was a lawyer who worked a lot.”
He says he loved the idea of coming to Ohio because there wasn’t that much of a Latino presence, and that was going to force him to speak English.
“The family was very interested in what I could contribute to them. My host mom found me free English classes at school and the local library. For me it was very important to have an English certificate from a school in the United States because that was going to be very useful for me when I returned to Colombia.”
But despite the human warmth with which she was received and being made to feel like part of the family, Anny says that she was shocked that she did not speak English well and was driving alone.
“My host family made me see that I had to go out into the community, not isolate myself and become part of the neighborhood and the city. They put me in their gym. Then I made friends with other au pairs. So I never felt alone.”
She says that coming from a place where heat abounds, in the middle of May, she was dying of cold, and her new family surprised her by giving her a Christmas gift of winter clothes and a blanket.
Know your rights
One of the most important parts of the program, Anny says, is that au pairs must know their rights in the United States.
“We have a local coordinator to call in case of any problem. If any abuse occurs, it is important that they know the resources to turn to. They are also not obliged to stay with the family if something does not work out or is not what they expected. There is what we call a retmatch to place them with another family.”
Since the visa is to work for one year as an au pair, with the option to renew it for another year, Anny says she extended it for another 12 months.
“I didn’t want to go away and leave the kids. “I wanted to make the most of the experience and take that knowledge with me.”
The profits
After two years, Anny returned to Colombia.
“Those years in Ohio left me the best reflection: realizing that I can expose myself and face hard things; I became more confident, and I learned about cultures not only from the United States. Now I have friends from different parts of the world.”
The main thing – he says – is that he returned to Colombia with a very high self-esteem for having managed to face a life change and study in another country.
“The profits were endless. The experience exposed my family to something they had never had before. Now I want my nephews to travel too.”
Return to the United States
Shortly after returning to Colombia, Anny got married, and by chance her husband, an engineer by profession, got a job in Boston.
“I had stayed with the contact of my local program coordinator Cultural Care Au Pair. When I told him I was coming to live in the United States, he told me ‘you would be perfect to work with us.’”
Currently, Anny works as a liaison between the agency and the United States government, specifically with the State Department that regulates the program.
“In 2023, 21,000 au pairs arrived in the United States, mostly from Brazil, Colombia and Mexico.”
Although the basic income that an au pair receives in the United States is $195.75 a week, they do not have to pay for room and board, and support with their English classes. It can also increase according to the family.
“We are working to modernize the stipend they receive because we recognize that the cost of living has risen a lot.”
Anny is convinced that being an au pair changed her life and empowered her.
“It is a safe way to travel and learn. When girls return to their countries, they have more opportunities; and as an au pair we are part of a family and community.”
At the same time – he says – they can generate a positive impact on the lives of the minors they care for.
“It is very important to share the Latin warmth with children, change the perspectives of our culture, show them that we are very familiar. “I brought that feeling to the family that adopted me for two years.”
Anny says that those children she took care of when they were not even two years old are turning 14 today.
“We stayed in touch, and his parents came to my wedding when I got married.”
A unique experience
Cultural Care Au Pair describes an au pair is a young foreign person who participates in a unique cultural exchange experience, which includes living with a host family in the United States.
“Au pairs can provide up to 45 hours per week of support with childcare and household chores, in exchange for room and board, a stipend for personal use, educational experiences at American universities, and extensive opportunities for personal development.”
Cultural Care Au Pair is the largest designated sponsor of the au pair program regulated by the United States Department of State. For 35 years, they have placed more than 175,000 au pairs in the homes of American host families, creating memories and cross-cultural connections that last a lifetime.
For more information about Cultural Care Au Pair, visit https://culturalcare.com/.