WE PROVIDE AID TO REFUGEES, BOTH AT HOME AND ABROAD. NO POLITICS. SIMPLY HUMANITARIAN.
We envision a world where compassion compels individuals, families, and communities to lift hands, helping refugees achieve “the good life” through stability and self-sufficiency.
We’re here to show you how.
On this page, you will find the following information about Lifting Hands International:
HOW WE GOT STARTED
LHI Founder/Director Hayley Smith stands in an abandoned dinghy that likely carried 40–50 refugees across the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece.
In January 2016, Hayley Smith volunteered as an Arabic translator on the Greek island of Lesvos, where Iraqi, Syrian, and Afghan refugees in crowded rubber dinghies would land after fleeing their homes and crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey. What she found was many people wanting to help, but few proper supplies and little organization need to do so effectively (read more here).
The refugees arrived with nothing aside from the soaking wet clothing on their backs and started lining up outside the clothing distribution tent. Inside, volunteers found unorganized boxes of baby clothes, high heels, and lingerie. Finding proper dry clothes was frustrating at best. Hayley quickly realized that much organization was needed to effectively and efficiently distribute appropriate aid supplies. So she decided to do something about it.
Just two months later in March, 2016, Hayley founded Lifting Hands International.
Learn more about our history here.
WHAT WE DO
In the video below, LHI Founder and CEO Hayley Smith offers an overview of the many ways we help refugee families at home and abroad.
WHO WE HELP
The refugees we support come from a wide range of locations and cultures. They have different traditions but share a common experience—having to leave everything behind, flee their homes, and try to start over somewhere else. The refugee populations we support around the world include Afghans, Syrians, Yazidis, Rohingya, Central and South Americans, Somalis, and other refugees in transit.
Learn more about the refugees we help here.
OUR PROGRAMS
Our Greatest Need program provides critical aid supplies needed to address timely concerns. This program allows us to react quickly in response to emerging needs.
Our humanitarian aid warehouse in American Fork, Utah collects, sorts, packs, and ships aid to refugees around the world.
Our Refugee Center, located 100 meters from the Serres Refugee Camps in Greece, offers female- and child-friendly spaces, classes on language, fitness, music, and more.
In partnership with the International Rescue Committee, LHI is setting up housing incoming Afghan refugees in the Salt Lake City, Utah area.
We distribute goats to Syrian refugee families in Jordan, who feed their children with goat milk and regain hope as they start back down the path of economic security.
Aid shipments to our southern border help families who have fled atrocities in their Central and South American home countries.
OUR IMPACT
Since 2016, our dynamic and passionate team has responded to the ongoing refugee crisis by meeting the most immediate and vital needs of thousands of refugee families. With minimal overhead and an army of volunteers, we fill gaps and rapidly adapt to conditions on the ground in ways larger organizations often can’t.
Learn more about our impact here.
THE LHI SENIOR LEADERSHIP TEAM
Hayley Smith
Founder/Director
Hayley’s love of the Arabic language led her to start LHI. Now she spends her time visiting LHI programs around the world to oversee operations and offer inspiration and support whenever and wherever it is needed.
Patrick Petro
Development Director
With a background in fundraising, marketing, communications, and graphic design, Patrick makes sure LHI raises the funds needed to do its work around the world, and also makes sure everyone knows about it.
Jaron Malyon
Director of Evaluation
and Learning
Jaron’s extensive experience analyzing and improving the impact of aid and development work ensures that LHI’s aid distribution and educational programs are as effective as possible.
Learn more about the full LHI team here.
IN THE NEWS
Follow the links below to read press releases and articles about LHI and our supporters:
KSL News (2016)
Big Ocean Women (2017)
KSL News (2017)
KSL News (2017)
The Times of Israel (2017)
USA Today (2017)
Middle East Monitor (2018)
The Herald Journal (2018)
The Salt Lake Tribune (2019)
PR Newswire (2019)
Hypebot (2019)
Outside (2019)
Otago Daily Times (2019)
Kokomo Tribune (2020)
The Salt Lake Tribune (2021)
BYU Radio (2021)
KSL News (2022)
Truthout (2022)
KSL News (2022)
The Daily Universe (2022)
KSL News (2022)
The Story Exchange (2023)
The Daily Universe (2023)
Cache Valley Daily (2023)
KSL News (2023)
MOST (2023)
KSL TV Sunday Edition (2023)
KSL News (2023)
KUTV (2024)
KTVB (2024)
East Idaho News (2024)
DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT
The images and logos below are provided for media use.
Click on an image below to open a larger uncropped version for download.
CONTACT
For media inquiries, please send an email to publicrelations@lhi.org. Thank you!
“The humiliation was hard to bear. Many of the faces I saw spoke of the same thing. In their own countries, these people had power, even the respect of their communities. Here in the Jungle we were barely human. We were the beasts that gave this place its name. I imagined myself running up to some high-ranking French official and shaking them to demand answers. It wasn’t my fault I wasn’t born in Europe. My home was a war zone - did that somehow make me less human?”
For the sixth year in a row, LHI has earned the Candid (formerly Guidestar) Platinum Transparency Seal, honoring our strategic planning, our results, and the progress we’re making toward our mission. When you donate to LHI, you can be certain you are directly supporting refugees through our high-impact programs around the world.