A Picture is Worth a Million Words

by: Hayley Smith, LHI Founder/Director

Internally-displaced men await aid distribution in the Kandahar province of Afghanistan in 2021.

For every distribution of aid that leaves our warehouse, we get a report and distribution photos from our partner orgs. You can imagine our surprise when we came upon the image above while looking through the latest batch from our partner org in Afghanistan. Our jaws dropped to the floor.

We were totally convinced that the picture had been taken by a professional photographer, and we wanted to know more about the story behind it.

As it turns out, this photo is actually a quick snapshot, like the other photos in the batch (see more of them below). But this particular image really stood out to us—you can really feel the connection between the person taking the photo and the men waiting for aid distribution to start. It should come as no surprise that the photographer is not an outsider, but also from Afghanistan.

This particular camp hosts internally-displaced persons in the Kandahar province of Afghanistan. They’ve been forced to flee Taliban-led violence and its soul-crushing laws preventing any sort of upward mobility and education.

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In this region, like in many of the poorest countries around the world, COVID-19 has brought with it widespread economic devastation. The material needs of families living in such extremely vulnerable circumstances is more substantial than ever. Then there's the health risks associated with living in overcrowded conditions during a pandemic.

Afghanistan has been sent enough COVID-19 vaccination doses to innoculate just above 1% of its population of 38 million people. Due to current supply delays, the UN fears that the country won’t get any additional doses until 2022 at the earliest. And with the highly-contagious Indian variant making its way west to Afghanistan and other poverty-stricken countries, refugees and internally-displaced people there are more vulnerable than ever.

‘Vaccine inequality’ is alive and well, and while LHI can’t send vaccines to Afghanistan, we can most definitely provide hygiene supplies and other material aid to help meet the current needs of refugee and internally-displaced families there.

You can help us get much needed aid supplies to refugee families in Afghanistan and around the world by supporting our We Keep Going campaign. Click on the the button below to learn more.

Introducing LHI💛2G!

by: Hayley Smith, LHI Founder/Director

Hayley forgot to wear her LHI shirt at our refugee center in Greece, but resident volunteer, Abdullah, was totally on the ball!

We are excited to announce our new monthly giving community, LHI2G (LHI Together)! By signing up, you will make an ongoing positive impact in the lives of refugee families everywhere, every day.

Recurring donations will:

1. Help refugee families all year long.

2. Spread your giving out allowing you to make an even bigger difference.

3. Help LHI be better prepared with predictable future support.

And let’s be real here—the biggest perk about being a member of this group is that you only have to SIGN 👏🏼 UP 👏🏼 ONCE! Just choose an amount to pledge each month and let autopay do the rest. I mean, we all do it for our student loan, car, and mortgage payments, so why not get the warm fuzzies from donating to a charitable organization…12 times a year, without even thinking about it!

I want to tell you a little about the name LHI💛2G, both because it means a lot to LHI, and also because we want some validation for finally landing upon something good! We must’ve gone through two hundred ideas (most of mine horrendous) before finally deciding on LHI2G. Please like the name! Please like us! We like you, too!

For the less tech-savvy amongst us, 2G is the text abbreviation for “together,” a word that perfectly encapsulates Lifting Hands International’s tight community of passionate and informed supporters. So when we say 2G, we mean everyone, including our amazing refugee resident volunteers at our program in Greece (like Abdullah, pictured above), all you groups who assemble education kits, partner orgs (both local and international), our army of volunteers, the admin team who keeps LHI running behind the scenes, and so many more!

If LHI 2G doesn’t yet include you, come on down and join our community of monthly givers. In return, you’ll get a really cool sticker and a card from me! And we guarantee it will be much more satisfying than paying your water bill.

Hayley’s Hoodie: A Sweatshirt Memoir

Resting after a long day in the field with LHI.

You probably know me as an article of clothing, yet I am so much more than that. I am a pillow on a plane. A comfort in the cold. A pocket for popcorn. A hood to hide Hayley’s face when she walks past the cafe she forgot to pay for a sandwich at 7 months ago. But it's displaying the Lifting Hands International logo of which I am most proud. 

Together with my owner/wearer Hayley, we spread Lifting Hands International's message as we travel the world doing refugee work with LHI. Also, Hayley only has one hoodie, so she doesn't really have another choice. And boy have we had some adventures together! 

Here we are distributing milk goats to Syrian families in Jordan.

Like in Jordan, where we distributed milk goats to Syrian refugees living in remote desert locations. Together we held a newborn goat, greeted wonderful Syrian families, and unloaded dozens of nervous goats from Ahmad’s truck. In fact, by the end of the day, there was quite a bit of goat poo and pee on my left sleeve. It wasn’t a big deal, and it certainly didn’t stop Hayley from wearing me at a local restaurant later that night. 

Another adventure took us to Serres, Greece, where we worked at LHI’s long-term refugee community center. I met a lot of wonderful Yazidi people who came to our center. I even met some LHI t-shirts and we became fast friends. They’re so nice and friendly, just like the team members and Yazidi resident volunteers who wear them! 

That’s me with Hayley in London!

Sometimes we'll do a side trip to Eastern Europe to fuel Hayley's addiction to history. Did you know that Warsaw was 90% destroyed in WWII? I do, but only because Hayley has repeated that fact at least 30 times in casual conversations since then. 

Now you can have adventures like these by purchasing some LHI gear of your own! 100% of the proceeds come right back to LHI so that we can keep running and growing our high-impact programs around the world. 

We can’t wait to hear about all the places you go or the local delicacies that get spilled on you by your owner!

SHOW THE WORLD THAT YOU SUPPORT REFUGEES!

You’ve seen LHI gear like Hayley’s hoodie worn by our amazing team members around the world. Now you can help spread awareness about our work by wearing your own LHI gear! 100% of the proceeds from purchases support our programs that have benefitted over 500,000 refugees around the world. Get yours today!

Refugee Work at Home: Granite School District

by: Hayley Smith, LHI Founder/Director

LHI provides humanitarian aid to refugees, both at home and abroad. This post will focus on the “at home” part of our mission statement. It is post 1 of 3 in a series about our partnership with Granite Education Foundation in Salt Lake City, Utah.

A family helps prepare an aid shipment at our warehouse in American Fork, Utah.

I spend a lot of time at our program in Greece, and I always get a kick out of telling our team members, most of whom are European, that we also have a huge warehouse in Utah. Before they ask about the warehouse, they’ll inevitably ask, “Isn’t Utah where [insert stereotype]?” After a brief clarifying lesson about National Parks, green jello with shredded carrots, and filming locations for High School Musical—and how I’m from Texas not Utah—we finally arrive at the absolute best thing about Utah: its passion for refugee work!

Even the smallest volunteers help out!

The state of Utah has long been a champion of refugee resettlement, taking in tens and thousands of refugees from all over the world over the course of several decades, no matter the current overall political attitude towards refugee resettlement. That being said, limited funding is always an issue for all states, and especially challenging for resettlement agencies responsible for putting refugees on their path to integration. This is a huge process that starts with identifying housing, enrolling kids in school, providing adult education, finding employment, and getting set up with basic medical care.

Volunteers help sort through items donated through our Amazon Wishlist.

Refugees are often resettled in low socioeconomic-level neighborhoods in urban centers, bringing a different set of challenges altogether. Take Salt Lake City, Utah for example: 70% of the entire state’s refugee population is resettled within the borders of ONE school district alone—Granite School District in Salt Lake City. This is where our Lifting Hands of Welcome program (operated out of our humanitarian aid warehouse in nearby American Fork) comes into play… Stay tuned to learn more!

In our next post, we will talk about how we got connected with the Granite Education Foundation and how we help underprivileged refugee families that live in the Granite School District.

Click here to learn more about our Lifting Hands of Welcome program that assists resettled refugees in Utah.

AN UPDATE FROM HAYLEY: ON THE GROUND IN SERRES, GREECE

Hayley Smith, founder/director of LHI, is on the ground at the LHI Refugee Center in Serres, Greece. Here’s her latest report:

Hayley is on the ground helping out at “the field” in Serres, Greece.

Yesterday’s afternoon shift at “the field” was absolutely wonderful (“the field” is what everyone in Greece calls the LHI Refugee Center, learn why here). These 3-hour shifts, which provide additional support since our teachers and volunteers are otherwise engaged, allow for sitting and chatting with the Yazidi residents of the nearby camps—albeit from a distance and through a mask—who are waiting for their classes to start or just come to take a breather from the camps for a while. 

Even though the current heat wave drains me of any energy (and sometimes my will to live), it is an automatic conversation topic. Over the years, we volunteers have learned how to say “galaki gherma”, which means “It’s sooo hot” in Kurmanji. In turn, the camp residents already know how to say “air conditioner” in English. Our solar-powered AC system is, after all, the most essential part of our spaces in the summer (well, 3 out of our 4 spaces. We’re still trying to find funding for the 4th). 

Conversations often go far beyond the weather, opening our respective windows to other cultures and perspectives. I just wish that you could magically appear here and have a chat with the Yazidis! But since you can’t be here, here are some snippets from some of these chats:

1. Chatting with a Fifteen year-old boy, who melted my heart:

Me: “How did you learn such good English?”
Kid: “Here. And my first German class is tomorrow.”

(By the way, his whole family takes classes from us!)

The three boys who helped Hayley weed the garden beds.

2. Three kids, two of whom have special needs, insisting on helping me pull weeds:

“We help you,” or “Look, teacher, look!” when they pull out really big weeds. “Eat!” when they bring back ripe figs from nearby fig trees. 

3. Murad, an older man who runs our community vegetable garden:

“Stop, stop! It’s better to weed at 6 or 7. It’s too hot. Sit in the shade.”

He wasn’t wrong. Side note: He speaks to me in Arabic, which I LOVE! 

Kids enjoy painting and getting messy in the Child-Friendly Space in Serres, Greece.

Government restrictions have temporarily reduced the overall number of refugees who benefit from our services on a daily basis, but the energy that comes from learning and empowerment is still palpable. Not only that, but our Yazidi resident volunteers more than make up for low international volunteer numbers in a beautiful way; our remote learning program also allows people to learn and do healing activities from their caravans in the camp; and despite the mandatory face masks, the eyes will always show when people are smiling!

Click here to learn more about our Refugee Center in Serres, Greece.

WE KEEP GOING: PART 10

Quarantined… in Greece!

by: Hayley Smith, LHI Founder/Director

The balcony view is so beautiful!

Hayley here, reporting from Serres, Greece. After one failed attempt at getting into the EU a few weeks ago, I’m certainly glad to be sitting here on the balcony of LHI team apartment 1 writing to you. Navigating the tricky EU ban on US citizens wasn’t easy, even with invoking the humanitarian exception to the ban. But here we are on day #3 of team quarantine!

Last night’s dinner on the balcony.

There are six of us in this quarantine set. We’ve got Iñigo from the Basque country Spain, Natalie from the Netherlands, Maddie from England, Jana from Germany, and Katie from Scotland. Apart from borrowing a bread pan from a distance, we’ve had zero contact with the team currently on the ground, let alone anyone else in Serres, in order to prevent the potential spread of COVID-19. It’s not easy for some of our team members to be in Greece and not be nursing an iced coffee! 

You may suspect that I’m writing this post simply out of boredom, since 5 other volunteers and I have 11 more days of quarantine. But trust me, we are all excited to be here and tell you all about it, especially after months of lockdown. I’m even waiting to eat Iñigo’s homemade Spanish tortilla while writing this. (Spanish tortillas are baked omelettes with potatoes, and in Inigo’s recipe, onions). 

Luckily, LHI tends to attract some of the nicest and smartest people in the world, so quarantine has been painless and pleasant. We take turns cooking for each other, play lots of card games, spend time soaking our feet in the river park (where there are very few people), and talk. We’ve tackled subjects anywhere from cooking to the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. Did I mention that it’s in the high-90s with high humidity and no air conditioning? 

Card games get us through the day. And working on this blog post…

As pleasant a group as this is, we are keeping our eye on the prize, which is finally getting to work on the ground with the Yazidi refugees who come to the LHI Refugee Center to learn, to teach and to heal. We are ready and waiting.

Our own experiences with lockdown have given many of us the opportunity to develop more empathy for those in more difficult circumstances, such as our refugee brothers and sisters throughout the world who have been experiencing such struggles for years: useless passports, being confined to one location, canceled life plans, and perhaps the hardest thing, uncertainty about the future. 

Jana (in the shorts) is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. Natalie is not…

This being said, we can’t undermine our various struggles and suffering during this time. Whether we are in quarantine, managing restless kids doing online school, working on the front lines, living in refugee camps, etc., we’re all here for one another, and we will keep going!

Click here to learn more about our Refugee Center in Serres, Greece.

WE KEEP GOING: PART 9

We Keep Going Because They Keep Going

In the early hours of August 3, 2014, ISIS fighters flooded out of their bases in Syria and Iraq and swept across the Sinjar region of northern Iraq, home to the majority of the world’s Yazidis, a distinct religious community whose beliefs and practice span thousands of years. Within days of the attack, reports emerged of ISIS committing unimaginable atrocities against the Yazidi community. 

Many of the Yazidis who survived the ISIS attacks fled through Turkey to Greece.

A number of Yazidis that we work with in Serres, Greece were brave enough to share their stories with us. This is Guli’s story.

PART 1

Our village wasn’t attacked as early as other villages, so we had no idea what was happening. I was spending time with my children and their spouses at home, which was located near the hospital. Suddenly, we started seeing many injured people being brought there. One of my sons went to the hospital to find out what had happened. The injured people told him that everyone needs to flee because ISIS was coming. I told my son that we need to flee, too, but he was confident that the Peshmerga militia would save us. So we stayed put.

The next day, the city was almost empty, and our neighbors told us, “You need to flee, you need to flee.” They were saying that in other villages ISIS was separating people, killing men and taking women. My son said, “This can’t be happening,” so he took his gun and things to confront ISIS. My daughter said, “Are you crazy? Are you going to war? They beheaded all your friends, and they will behead you too.” But he was still focused, saying, “Things like this shouldn’t happen, I will go and fight.”

My son’s best friend called him when he was on his way to fight and said, “Are you stupid? Are you crazy? We are in the mountains right now. They are killing us. We saw how they beheaded people. Why are you still in the Sinjar area? You need to flee right now. They will do the same with you.” So my son came back.

By this time, it was 9:30 AM, and my mother said we needed to leave immediately. My son agreed. I said, “I told you.” He said, “They beheaded all my friends already.”

My son took off his military clothes, because he knew they would kill him right away and behead him. We had to wake up the children. They didn’t know what was going on. We didn’t even eat. I was like a crazy woman, waking them up, saying we needed to leave. We were the only ones still in the area. We heard that the roads leading out of Sinjar were completely blocked with thousands of people trying to flee. We didn’t even try to take our car. We had to leave on foot.

PART 2

After we fled our village, we saw the people coming from Sibur, the first place that was attacked, and they were covered in blood. They had broken arms. They didn’t have any shoes. They were hungry and thirsty. We were so exhausted already, but there were so many people crowded on the streets that there was no place to sit and rest.

There was a temple in the Sinjar area near where we lived, where we worshipped and where our relatives and ancestors of old were buried. Suddenly, it exploded right in front of us. They had already started to bomb our temples. 

We finally found a way out of the city through a tunnel, but people came out of the tunnel saying that there were ISIS soldiers waiting for us on the other side. So we went around it. We had to run to make it in time before being attacked. I had a water bottle with just this much [a few centimeters] in it , and my son told me, “You need to keep this with you. You’ve got just one kidney and high blood pressure, so you need to watch out.” My son’s son was just a young child, and he didn’t want to take any of my water. I saw how thirsty he was, but he didn’t want to ask me for any water. 

As we walked to the mountain, we passed a woman walking with her three young sons. I realized how thirsty her kids were, and I couldn’t watch anymore. I gave them my water. She said, “No, you need to take it.” I said, “No, it doesn’t matter. It’s like I’m fasting today, I won’t eat and drink today.” When she gave a little bit to one child, the other two went crazy with thirst. People also tried to help her by putting her children on their shoulders, and she tried to hold two of them as they went up the mountain.

We passed a city and thought we could stop and rest there, but then we saw people running away from it saying, “They took our women and young kids. We have to go to the to the mountains.” There was a woman who was scratching her face, it was bloody, and the man with her was crying. I asked, “Why are you crying? What happened?” They said, “They took our three daughters away from us.”

Photo: Washington Post

By the time we reached the mountain, our feet were bloody. The kids were crying, desperate for us to carry them, but we didn’t have any strength, we couldn’t hold them anymore. We reached a stagnant pool of water in the mountain. It was very dirty and full of diseases, but we had to drink it.

We stayed seven nights in the mountains of Sinjar, just trying to survive. All the time there were children crying and screaming. They didn’t have the words to describe how they were feeling. I didn’t know what to do.

PART 3

We finally crossed into Syrian Kurdistan. It was too hot to travel during the day, so it took two nights to get there. We were terrified. It was so hard for us to reach there. We suffered a great deal during that journey.

We waited for a week in Kurdistan and realized that we couldn’t stay there. There was nothing there. So we went straight to Turkey, where we lived in the mountains for four days. We were terrified that a wild animal would attack us or a snake would bite us. Some of the mountains were too high to walk over, so we had to walk around them. Some people died. Kids fell from rocks and died. The Turkish Peshmerga militia came with animals to carry old people and children, but sometimes people would fall off the animals and die, too.

We stayed in Turkey for a year and a half. We reached Greece on the 26th of August. My husband and one son who was injured are still in Turkey, and we are here. One of my daughter’s is still stranded in Iraq.

Yazidis have been spread around. Some are in Germany, some in Iraq, some in Turkey and some in Greece. Five daughters and two sons made it to Germany. One of my sons is married, and has five children there. Two of my daughters aren’t married, and three are. I have seven daughters and four sons all together. Most stayed in Turkey because we didn’t have the money to smuggle us all to Greece. I have my 18-year-old son and my 17-year-old daughter here with me. 

I wish you will share this and spread it the world, share it with everybody. Make a movie out of it, so they can see who we are and what we experienced, and so they can help us.

Click here to learn more about our Refugee Center that provides services to 1,100+ Yazidi refugees in Serres, Greece.

Photos by Shannon Ashton, story collected by Kate Hubrich, LHI volunteer in Serres.

WORLD REFUGEE DAY: A QUICK HISTORY

by Hayley Smith, LHI Founder/Director

People have been fleeing persecution, war, and natural disaster since the beginning of time. The Roman period saw groups of 100,000 at a time arrive from outside territories. 

Belgian refugees arriving in neutral Netherlands in WWI.

Fast-forward to modern industrialized warfare as we know it, when refugee numbers are staggering: 10 million in WWI & 60 million in WWII. Since no international agreement to recognize and protect refugees had ever been implemented, most pleas for resettlement or basic protection were rejected.

Refugees from East Germany, 1944.

For example, out of the 125,000 Jewish applications for resettlement in 1938, the USA only accepted 27,000. And then there was the SS Drottningholm incident, when a ship of 937 Jewish refugees were turned away from American waters. It’s heartbreaking to think of how many lives could have been saved had there been rules in place to recognize their right to asylum in a safe country.

Vietnamese “boat people” in the 1970s.

Luckily, in 1951 the newly created League of Nations (now the UN) recognized the need for international regulations. And this is exactly what World Refugee Day celebrates: the 1951 Convention, which saw 19 countries adopt the first international laws to recognize and protect refugees. The 200+ page document produced during the convention is one of the most seminal of the 20th century. 

Bosnian refugees in the 1990s.

The 1951 convention actually only covered Europe, since there were still many refugees waiting for resettlement years after the war. It seems like everyone thought that WWII was the war to end all wars, but as the century kept progressing, mechanized war around the world kept going. The 1967 Convention ratified the original document to include the entire world. And looking around these days, it’s a good thing those changes were made.

Syrian refugees arriving in Greece 2017.

As the executive director of a humanitarian organization that focuses on refugee aid, I’m somewhat conflicted about World Refugee Day. Let me explain: 140+ countries have signed the convention. Yet, several wealthy countries have started picking and choosing which articles of the convention to actually follow. And since there is no body that oversees adherence to the rules, refugees are being turned away when they should be accepted.  

So, let’s dedicate World Refugee Day (Saturday, June 20, 2020) to not only honoring refugees, but also to recommitting ourselves to do whatever we can to take make sure that the 1951 convention does not fade into history.

You can help refugees around the world. Click here to find out how you can start now.

WE KEEP GOING: PART 4

Repeat After Me: ana baHki shway arabi (I Speak a Little Arabic)

by: Hayley Smith, LHI Founder/Director

It feels like my life is a series of feeble attempts to thank people for their incredible generosity: The sweet family that took a shy American student into their home in Fes, Morocco; every single donor who keeps LHI afloat; the many LHI volunteers and leadership team members who pour so much of their love and intelligence into our programs. The list goes on and on.

Hayley (top) teaches an online Arabic class for three LHI volunteers.

So, when the COVID-19 quarantine started in March, it seemed like a good time to offer remote Arabic classes to LHI volunteers, both past and present, as a way to thank them for their time spent at the LHI Refugee Center in Greece. Many had previously expressed interest in learning Arabic, since it is an especially helpful language to know in the humanitarian field.

15 students and two months later, our classes are still going strong, and the students are making amazing progress! 

Why Arabic?

Ever since I started learning Arabic at college (it was a toss up between Arabic, Gothic literature, and indoor volleyball: no-brainer), it has changed my life in ways I never could’ve anticipated. The most powerful way hands down is the unmatched hospitality and depth of friendship that the Arab culture is famous for. And being able to speak Arabic bridges a massive communication and cultural gap that can exist between humanitarians and beneficiaries. 

One reason LHI even exists is because of honest and open conversations I’ve had with Arabic-speaking refugees, who were able to express in their own words what they needed in order to survive (both physically and psychologically) years of living in a painful limbo. 

Classes

Hayley uses worksheets like this to help her students learn Arabic.

Since the beginning of April, I’ve been teaching 15 students divided between two classes of LHI volunteers. It’s a fast-paced course in both writing and speaking Levantine Arabic, the dialect widely spoken in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine. There aren’t a lot of resources for teaching this dialect, so it does require some lesson planning and creating accessible and fun audio resources. 

At the end of the day, the course is a good foundation on which to build in the future. It also has helped us all get through quarantine. Rosie, who has volunteered at the LHI Refugee Center, is taking the course: “No matter what people learn or take away from Arabic classes, the course gives me structure, a break from lockdown, a chance to see different faces, to train the brain, something to focus on, a purpose and sense of achieving something during lockdown.”

So, repeat after me: 

ana baHki shway arabi (I speak a little Arabic)

أنا بَحْكي شَوي عَرَبي. 

Stay tuned for the next installment of our “We Keep Going” blog series to learn more about how LHI continues our mission to help refugees at home and abroad in the midst of a global pandemic.

WE KEEP GOING: PART 3

LHI's Virtual Choir:
Assembling a Message of Hope

by: Hayley Smith, LHI Founder/Director

Hayley Smith, LHI’s founder/director working on the video.

It’s safe to say that these days we can truly appreciate our built-in need for mobility, routine, exercise, and mental stimulation, to see friends and family, to have a personal physical space to maintain sanity. 

You can imagine how painful it was to temporarily shut the doors to our refugee center in Greece, halting those exact activities to those who have been in a state of uncertainty and isolation for years. 

It’s so awful to see them experience more fear than they already have. I was trying to figure out how we could cheer them up, and the idea of putting together one of those collage videos that have been going around popped into my head. That way, they could see familiar faces and hear beautiful music being sung directly to them. I reached out to our volunteer community and was completely overwhelmed with the response.

Roos Meijer, singer/songwriter and former LHI volunteer

Roos Meijer, a singer/songwriter and former LHI volunteer who studies at the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance, graciously lent us her beautiful voice and one of her own compositions called Dance ’Til We Win from her EP, Maktub (click here to check out on Soundcloud). 

40 singers and musicians joined their voices together to create this beautiful performance. 

The process of making a virtual choir is really involved. 

• Each singer or musician had to record themselves singing along to Roos’s master track.

• I edited the video, one part at a time — melody, tenor, bass, alto and soprano. 

• Daniel Pines, a recent graduate from the Berkley School of Music, who plays violin in the video, lent us his professional audio mastering skills to make the song sound as stunning as it does. 

As you can see, everything in the video, from the songwriting, to the arrangement, to the final production and mixing, was done by LHI volunteers. 

Someone asked if I got sick of the song, since it took me 100 hours to edit. Not at all. I was close to tears every single time I watched it. 

While we wanted to bring familiar faces to Yazidis in Serres, Greece, the song and its message of hope is universal, and we hope it reaches as many refugees around the world as possible.

Here’s the video again, in case you haven’t seen it yet:

How Does LHI’s Beyond Borders Program Deliver Aid to Refugees Around the World?

If you missed part 1, click here to check it out.

In part 1, we learned how LHI obtains humanitarian aid supplies. In part two, we’ll explore how LHI gets those supplies from their warehouse in American Fork, Utah, into the hands of refugees around the world.

Part 2: Delivering the Goods

Volunteers sort through donated items in preparation for a shipment.

Once aid supplies are at our warehouse (having been gathered by volunteers at more than three dozen drop-off locations or delivered after being purchased by supporters from our Amazon Wishlist), volunteers begin sorting through it all, checking expiration dates on food and hygiene items. Everything is sorted and boxed by item or kit, clearly labeled, and moved to the appropriate location in the warehouse depending on where it will be shipped (we collect supplies for multiple shipments at the same time).

Oh, so where do we get all the boxes? Some boxes are provided by our partner org, Helping Hand for Relief and Development. Others come from a generous local donor who supplies us with clean boxes that were previously used to hold envelopes. It’s important for the boxes to be the same size so they will fill the space inside the shipping containers as efficiently as possible.

Items are logged into a spreadsheet to speed along the customs process.

Every box is numbered and every donation is logged into a spreadsheet, which helps us track what we have sent and ensures that the container gets through customs in an efficient manner. Aid supply numbers from the spreadsheets also provide information to update our online Shipment Tracker, enabling our supporters to check the status of shipments and see photos of the aid being distributed to refugees around the world.

A full container, ready to ship!

Once we have enough labeled boxes to fill a 40’ shipping container, we contact HHRD and make arrangements to have a container delivered to our warehouse for loading. On social media, we advertise the need for volunteers to help us load it. We can usually have the container filled with a team of volunteers in 2 hours or less. Once fully loaded, we put a seal on it and send it on its way!

We love seeing their smiles!

When the container arrives at its destination port, it goes through the standard customs process. Once it clears customs, HHRD or their partner org on the ground delivers the supplies to their final destination for distribution. After the distribution is complete, we receive a distribution report with information about the beneficiaries and pictures of the aid being distributed. Seeing the smiles on their faces is our favorite part. It makes all the hard work worth it!

Click here to learn more about our Beyond Borders program!

LHI’s humanitarian aid warehouse is home to three different programs that provide aid to refugees. Through our Beyond Borders program, we deliver aid to international destinations, and each shipment gets distributed to tens of thousands of refugees. We also provide aid to asylum seekers at our southern border through our Border Aid program. Finally, through our Welcome program, we assist resettled refugees by providing them with basic household items, allowing them to use the small stipend they receive for other necessities like transportation to their jobs, rent payments, etc.

Volunteer Spotlight: Carlissa!

LHI’s Humanitarian Aid Warehouse in Utah is home to its Beyond Borders program, which was started by volunteer Carlissa Larsen in 2016. Now she serves as Volunteer Co-Director of Utah Operations.

Q: Why did you start the Beyond Borders project?

Edward Everett Hale once said "I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything; but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do."

When I first started hearing of the refugee crisis, reading the stories in the news and seeing the pictures, I realized that I could not stand idly by and watch the suffering of these men, women, and children without doing something. I had to do something. Like many of you, a humanitarian trip overseas was not realistic for me and my circumstances, so volunteering through LHI became the "something" that I could do. I understood that by myself I could do very little, but collectively, with the help and support of the community, the impact, and the good that we could do would be endless. And so I started the Beyond Borders project. Alone I could do something, but together with the combined efforts of the community we could relieve suffering in innumerable ways. My mission then became, and is now, to implore you to consider, what is the "something" that you can do? I encourage you to do it.

 Q: What would you like people to know about the global refugee situation?

No matter how dark the world refugee situation may seem, there is always a flame of hope. But someone must hold the candle. There is something that everyone can do, and when we unite our efforts, no matter how small our individual flames may be, the combined warmth can ignite a blazing hope that cannot be ignored, illuminating the fact that there is still good in this world. That kindness can still prevail, and humanity is not lost. So pick up your candle and strike a match. Or just as important, pick up your pen and write a check. Do something about the inhumanity you see in the world. You are not the future. You are the present. And you have the power within you to make the world a better place from right where you are, right now. So change the world. 

Q: You mentioned that there is something for everyone to do. Many people want to help refugees, they just don’t know how. Can you share some ideas of things that people can do to get involved with the Beyond Borders project?

This is actually one of the reasons I got involved with LHI. I saw that LHI provides the how. Here’s a list of just some of the ways you can start helping refugees right now:

• Like us on social media and share our posts, especially our needs posts.

• Subscribe to our monthly newsletter.

• Host a service project collecting items and making needed kits (school kits, hygiene kits, etc).

• Donate needed humanitarian aid supplies. Purchase items through our Amazon Wishlist and they will be shipped directly to our Humanitarian Aid Warehouse!

• Donate cash to support Beyond Borders.

• Host a small fundraising event like a dinner with friends and ask them to donate what they would pay for the price of their meal if they were to eat out.

• List LHI as your Amazon Smile charity so Amazon will donate a percentage of your purchases to help us help refugees.

• Make a blanket, a beanie hat, a scarf, or a drawstring backpack.

• Explore our website or email us for additional information and more ways to help.

If you are in Utah, you can also:

• Volunteer at our warehouse to help us sort and box humanitarian aid supplies.

• Volunteer to help us load the shipping containers.

• Register your Smith’s grocery card with LHI as your charity of choice and then every time you shop with your Smith’s card, Smith’s will donate a percentage of your purchase to help us help refugees.
  

Thank you so much, Carlissa, for your dedication to helping refugees around the world!

Click here to learn more about getting involved with our Beyond Borders program!

Gather for Goats: First Distribution of 2020!

During the first week of January, Hayley Smith (LHI Founder/Director) and Walker Frahm (LHI Chief Operations Officer) traveled to Al Mafraq, Jordan, to distribute the first round of goats in 2020 to Syrian refugee families living in the desert. During this trip, 216 goats were distributed to 108 grateful families.

How many LHI staff members does it take to distribute 216 goats to Syrian refugee families in Jordan? Two! Along with a translator, a goat expert, and a few friends…

Hayley Smith (LHI Founder/Director) prepares to distribute goats to Syrian refugee families!

In theory, it sounds straightforward. Raise money (thank you to all of our amazing supporters!), use it to buy milk goats in Jordan, and give them to Syrian refugee families. But what does it really take to get healthy goats to families with the greatest need? Read on to find out!

In 2017, while distributing aid supplies to refugees living near the town of Al Mafraq in Jordan (very near the Syrian border), Hayley asked what their greatest needs really were, in addition to the supplies they had already received. They shared that they were very, very thankful for the aid supplies. But if there was one thing that would really help their day-to-day situation, it would be… Goats!

Back in Syria, the families had large herds of goats. Tens, sometimes even hundreds of goats. In fact, they had been herding goats for generations. Being a goat farmer was a respected profession in Syria before the war. Goats provide a much-needed source of protein, which is hard to come by in the desert. Having goats again would set them up with a sustainable source of milk for several years. And by selling or raising baby goats, they could generate income to help get them back on their feet again.

The request made a lot of sense, so Hayley set out to find a way to make it work. She consulted a professor of agriculture from the University of Jordan in Amman to determine what breed of goat would best meet the need. He suggested Shami goats, a breed that produces milk 10 months out of the year and is well-adapted to living in the desert. Perfect!

Rashid is the director of Jabal Zamzam, a charity based in Al Mafraq, Jordan, that works with vulnerable populations, including local Syrian refugees.

In order to identify families in need and help find a reliable, local source for goats, Hayley partnered with Jabal Zamzam, a charity based in Al Mafraq whose mission is to help marginalized, vulnerable, and powerless groups in the local community, including refugees.

Working with Rashid, the director of Jabal Zamzam, they identified a local goat supplier that could provide healthy, young, Shami goats. Rashid then helped locate families living in local refugee camps who would benefit most from the gift of goats, such as those with young children and elderly family members. After the goats are distributed, he would also check in with each family periodically to get reports of baby goats being born and to help arrange for veterinary care, as needed.

Walker Frahm (LHI Chief Operations Offer) coordinates logistics associated with our goat distribution program, including managing operations on the ground.

Now it was time for Walker Frahm to jump in. Walker is LHI’s chief operating officer, and he is responsible for all the logistical plans including buying the goats, arranging for the goat breeder to deliver the goats to refugee camps, and overseeing distribution to the families identified by Jabal Zamam.

Walker wanted to be certain that the goats LHI buys are healthy, young, and will provide a good supply of milk for the families. So he enlisted the help of Mohammed, a goat expert with training from the University of Jordan. Mohammed inspects each goat prior to distribution, and only the youngest, healthiest goats pass his examination.

Mohammed is a goat and agricultural expert from the University of Jordan. He makes sure only the healthiest goats are distributed to Syrian refugee families.

When it came time to distribute goats, Hayley's Jordanian friend, Shadi, joined in on the action. He’s from Amman, about two hours south of Al Mafraq, and has lived in Jordan most of his life. Hayley speaks fluent Arabic, but there are some variations between the Arabic spoken in Jordan and Syria. Shadi helped make sure that all communication with the refugee families went smoothly.

Thanks to the hundreds of donors who gave generously during our Gather for Goats fundraising campaign in Sep–Oct 2019, we raised enough to provide 1,000 milk goats to refugees. During this trip, Hayley and Walker, along with Rashid, Mohammed, and Shadi, distributed 216 of those goats to 108 needy families.

Hayley speaks Arabic, but it’s handy to have someone from Jordan like Shadi around to help make sure everything is communicated clearly.

As a special part of the campaign, donors were able to name a goat for every $300 they donated, and LHI has sent them photos of their goats along with Geotags of their distribution locations. Check out the gallery of photos below to see all of the 123 named goats! Hayley posed for a photo with each and every one of them. Thank you for doing that, Hayley, and thanks so much to everyone who makes this work possible!

To date, 1,126 goats have been distributed, and more than 1,850 baby goats have been born!

For every $300 given, donors were able to submit a name for the goat their funds provided. Above are the pictures of the named goats! Donors received these photos via email, along with a Geotag showing their goat’s approximate location and some basic info about the beneficiary families.