News from Ukraine: The Women of the LHI Shelter in Lviv, Ukraine

by: Hayley Smith, LHI Founder/Director

As is the case with displaced Ukrainians, most of the women at the shelter are on their own. Most of their men joined the military when the war started. In some isolated cases, men stayed behind in danger zones to take care of elderly family members. 

As I write this post, about 40 women and children are living at the LHI Shelter in Lviv. I got to spend a memorable day with them last month. Please bear with me as I try to fit such an incredible experience into a little blog post nugget. 

The visit starts with me almost tripping over a large cat just casually sleeping in the middle of the main room. Ilona, one of the women at the shelter, explains that the cat had wandered in just a few weeks after the war started… and subsequently gave birth to 4 kittens.

“We didn’t have the heart to turn the little cat family away, probably because they’re just like us. Maybe their owners had to flee in a rush. Maybe their homes are gone.” She adds laughing, “We call them Children of the War. I guess we’re basically cats.”

I can’t multitask very well. Once I picked up the kitten and got distracted by other things, I forgot I was holding that poor thing until it literally clawed my arms about 30 minutes later.

The women run the day-to-day operations of the shelter. Ilona, who is a former soldier and mother of 5, is the de facto head manager. Her main responsibility is registering new arrivals and assigning others to prepare their spaces and some food.

Ilona’s husband, also a soldier, was already on active duty when Russia invaded Ukraine in February. She and her children, including her newborn son, were living in a town in the Zaporizhzhya region which was quickly occupied by Russian soldiers. They retreated to their basement for safety, where they managed to stay for 3 months without running water or reliable cell phone service. “A lot of elderly people died from the stress. We buried a lot of people. I used to be a soldier, so I could handle these conditions.” But, finally food became too expensive, and conditions too unsafe. Ilona gathered her children and fled.

I got to witness Ilona’s leadership in action as she comforted a woman named Xenia who was tearfully telling us about her 4-month-old baby who died because of the war. Ilona stood by her, gently stroking her arm and said reassuringly, “I hope the war will end very soon.” Xenia replied, “I hope for that very much. I want to go home. My son is buried there. I want to go to him.”

Longing for home is a theme amongst the women in the shelter. An elderly woman named Vasilevna tells me, “They promise Kherson will be liberated in August. Once it is liberated, I will go home the next day. I won’t wait a single day. I will walk home if I need to.”

This is Ilona welcoming newcomers to the LHI Shelter. I had to steal this photo from a video, so please excuse the quality. But, this image encapsulates Ilona in action!

As for Ilona, her work is cut out for her. Her adorable toddler wakes up from a nap just as a new mother and child arrive. I have to hand off the kitten so that I can hold her son while she goes to welcome the new arrivals. As Ilona walks away, she says, “The war will end sooner or later. We just have to be patient.”

To hear the stories of the women of the LHI Shelter in their own voices, please watch the video below.

News from Ukraine: An Entrepreneur Becomes a Humanitarian!

by: Hayley Smith, LHI Founder/Director

Stas is short for Stanislav, and that is the only short thing about him. At a height of 6’5”, the man towers over literally anyone he’s standing next to, especially the babushkas who live at shelter.

A few days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we started looking for local Ukrainian organizations to partner with in order to get solid work done. In this search, we connected with a Lviv local who had an incredible idea. In short, Stas owned an empty basement space and wanted to convert it into a 55-bed bomb shelter. With funding, he and a group of his engineer friends would transform the basement into a warm, welcoming two-story shelter. 

We enthusiastically agreed to fund the project for several reasons, two of which stand out: The project proposal closely aligned with the key goals in our Ukraine response, and second, we prefer to work with local Ukrainian organizations and individuals. They started converting the shelter immediately. With their own hands, they built the second story, installed three toilets, two showers and a kitchen, along with installing all of the plumbing and ventilation systems. And, reflecting their desire for families to feel at home, put up homey wallpaper and painted cheerful walls for children’s space.

The LHI Shelter in Lviv under construction.

Let’s hear from Stas himself: “Originally, I decided to create a shelter for people who are forced to move from their cities because their homes were damaged by explosions.” 

But now that the war is looking to be longer than perhaps anticipated, he has adapted his business plan:

“Our shelter is not designed for permanent residence, but people can stay for as long as it takes to find a home and job - be it a day, week, month or even year, if necessary. And of course, we will not charge for any of this, because our shelter is not designed for rich people, but it is designed for those who have lost everything because of the war.” 

Even if the war does end soon, he hits on a very important point a lot of us may not think about: “There will still be many people who need temporary resettlement since their cities have been destroyed.” 

Click play to watch this video of Stas giving me a tour of the LHI Shelter in Lviv.

And with his business background, he’s hatched yet another incredible idea: He’s hoping to buy a food sorting machine so that the women in the LHI Shelter can start a small food packing business.

When it comes to Stas, the women and children residents of the shelter have better manners than to gawk at Stas’s large stature like I did. They told me about his gentle heart, his commitment to their comfort, and his kindness.

Natalia from the Donesk region speaks emotionally about what brought her to the LHI Shelter in Lviv.

A woman in her 30s from the Donesk region volunteers her story. She’d run out of money to pay for a hostel she was staying in, so she fled to Lviv with her children. She said, “I prayed a lot. I believe in God very much. I called Arena Lviv (a famous soccer stadium that is currently serving as a shelter for refugees from the east), and they told me that there is a very good person named Stas who opened a place for wives of soldiers to stay at, for other moms with kids who need shelter. It’s totally free. They bring humanitarian aid here. We do not need anything here. We have good conditions here, we have the basics. I am very thankful to Stas. You can barely find such good people these days. Thanks to him, we are all okay.”

Many of the women at the LHI shelter shared their stories with me. In my next blog post, I will share them with you.

News from Ukraine: An Orthodox Priest and His Community Shelter Displaced Ukrainians At A Moment's Notice

by: Hayley Smith, LHI Founder/Director

Father George, Hayley, and Father Vasily in front of one of the beautiful murals at St. George’s Orthodox Church.

The best thing about being on the ground is meeting ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. This trip to Ukraine was no exception. On day three of the trip, we found ourselves in the sanctuary of St. George’s Orthodox Church, which has stood in the center of the village of Storozhynets in Western Ukraine for 170 years. It even survived the Soviet era when St. George’s was decommissioned and used for industrial storage.

The curved golden steeple was shining in the sun when Father George and his own father, Father Vasily, walked out to greet us. (Side note: Although Lifting Hands has been working with Father George and providing funds for his network of Orthodox priests to get aid to the areas of Ukraine hardest hit by the war, I’d never actually met Father George in person.. For months I’d pictured an older man wearing a long robe. I was surprised to find that he’s this young guy who wears jeans). 

Before visiting one of their local refugee projects, they gave us a tour of the church.  At one point, in the sanctuary, father and son spontaneously broke into song. We’re talking perfect pitch and perfect harmonies. It was so beautiful, even though I didn’t know what they were saying. 

Father Vasily and Father George sing in the sanctuary.

The word “sanctuary’ literally means “a place of safety”, a fact that seems not to have been lost on Father George and Father Vasily. Russia started its invasion of Ukraine at 5 am on February 24, 2022. By noon that same day and with the help of their congregation, they had transformed their newly-constructed seminary building into a shelter, complete with mattresses and food. They put it out there on social media that they were ready to take in those who needed shelter. About 60 displaced Ukrainians poured in throughout the day.

Today, the seminary - here, the word means a school that provides religious education to youth - still hosts 30 people, mostly from devastated regions of Eastern Ukraine. The classrooms are now bedrooms, and the open spaces are now school classrooms for the children! Each room has bookshelves full of religious texts that now share their space with the occasional stick of deodorant, shampoo bottle or a charging phone.

A seminary classroom that has been converted into a bedroom.

As Ukrainian culture [delightfully] dictates, we sat down with Father George and his father for a snack of cake and a glass of homemade berezovyi sik, or birchwood juice. The conversation went in all kinds of interesting directions, inevitably landing on the war. “Were you ever tempted to flee?” I asked. “Absolutely not,” Father George answers. “Many of my priest friends in the east have been killed, so I know safety is not guaranteed. But you saw the murals in the Church, right? Who do you see? You see Jesus, not Putin, not Zelensky, not any politician. My job is to stay here and to care for God’s children.” He added that the seminary will be a shelter for as long as it is needed.

We asked Father George what he needs help with. He replied that he and the local community has the shelter’s needs covered, including 3 meals a day, all cooked in the basement. (The basement hasn’t changed in 170 years, which makes me feel like I’ve been transported back to the earliest days of the church).  But, he says, “I do have a favor. Winter is coming. We are expecting a gas shortage.  There is an orphanage in Kharkov that is home to 300 children. They could use help getting jackets.” We ask him to put us in touch. And this is how humanitarian work is done. 

Learn more about our work in Ukraine here.

Turning 39 in a War Zone

by: Hayley Smith, LHI Founder/Director

LHI Founder/Director Hayley Smith in Chernivsti, Ukraine, on her birthday.

I’m less enthused about birthdays these days. So, when my 39th birthday happened to land on a very busy work day in Ukraine, a gas station hot dog en route from Odessa to Khryvi Rih was enough of a celebration (instead of using a bun, they stuff them into freshly toasted bread sleeves—they’re a national treasure). Minutes later, a large military jet flew low and right over us. It was such a bizarre juxtaposition of events—seeing a reminder that we were in a war zone and while munching on a birthday hot dog. 

Lunch with our friend Liza. Normal life goes on, but now with church windows boarded up and the periodic background drone of air raid sirens.

This isn’t the first time I felt like I was in a twilight zone here. A few days before in Chernivtsi, we ate dinner at a busy Asian fusion restaurant blasting Europop. Teenagers played football/soccer across the street while the air raid siren would occasionally sound in the background. Odessa and Lviv feel vibrant and back to life, despite sandbags and anti-tank hedgehogs (metal structures that look like huge toy jacks) concentrated at busy intersections, bridges, and historic buildings. The streets are bustling until mandatory curfew comes around at 10 pm and the city turns quiet and dark.

But in Kryvyi Rih, the city where I spent my birthday, it is clear that Ukraine is very much a war zone. Artillery is hitting 15 miles away from the city. Internally displaced Ukranians arrive daily. The local hospital treats frontline soldiers. The three different sirens blare, making a dissonant chord.

Hayley with Priest Vasiliy (left) and Father George (right) in Chernivtsi.

Needless to say, this is not a birthday trip. We are here to meet the ordinary Ukrainian people and local organizations that LHI has partnered with to get work done at a grassroots level. For example, we met Father George who turned a seminary in Chernivtsi into a shelter that houses around 30 people. We also met Stas, a local business owner who built a two-story shelter in an empty basement to house women and children. These are two of our many projects that you’ll be hearing about soon. 

LHI’s Jaron (left) is tall, but Stas, a local business owner who built a two-story shelter near Lviv, is VERY tall.

I am more than 6 years into humanitarian work through LHI now. Even though I’m currently in the heart of Ukraine, I can’t help but think about refugees displaced by other conflicts around the world, such as the Syrian Civil War and the ISIS attack on Sinjar, to name a few. How easily we forget when the news cycle moves on. Yet, I am also in awe of the way ordinary people look out for each other in extraordinary circumstances. This includes all of you who make the work Lifting Hands International does possible through your donations and volunteer work. You (and hot dogs in bread sleeves) are the best birthday present I could ever ask for!

Click here to learn more about our ongoing relief efforts in Ukraine.

Aid Distribution in Lebanon

Check out these photos from our partner org Helping Hand for Relief and Development, taken in Lebanon during a recent distribution of humanitarian aid sent from our warehouse in American Fork, Utah. Your support is responsible for these smiles!

The economic and social impact of the crisis in Lebanon reached new heights in 2014. The mass influx of refugees from Syria into Lebanese territory continues, with more than 1.2 million Syrian refugees present.

Syrian refugees in Lebanon are facing unemployment, illiteracy, bad housing conditions, and malnourishment. Our aid has given them support and lessened their burden.

ITEMS DISTRIBUTED:

Baby Items: 1,533
School Supplies: 6,115
Clothing Items: 7,595
Hygiene Items: 9,448
Toys: 2,587
Household Items: 3,563

Total aid weight: 54,125 lbs

Click here to learn more about our international aid distribution efforts. Thank you!

What is Safeguarding?

by: Brigid Rowlings, Guest Contributor

My ten-year-old son and I have been reading Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed’s graphic novel When Stars Are Scattered before he goes to sleep each night. The book tells the story of a Somalian man named Omar Mohamed. Omar fled the civil war in Somalia with his non-verbal brother Hassan when they were only 4 and 2 years old and lived in a refugee camp in Kenya for 15 years.

Throughout the book, Omar dreams of being resettled in the United States where he can get better medical treatment for his brother. But, applying for resettlement means that 11-year-old Omar must relive witnessing the murder of his father at the hands of gunmen as he tells his story to United Nations resettlement officers. Under the intense questioning of the officers, Omar breaks down with the grief of not knowing what happened to his mother. When the long interview is finally over, Omar leaves the building and collapses. While on the ground, he notices that, “all around us, other families were crying. Some just looked shocked. I guess like me, they had just re-lived the worst days of our lives.”

When I read this passage from When Stars Are Scattered, what sprang to mind were the questions people sometimes ask of us. “Why don’t you feature more refugee stories on your website?” they ask. “Why don’t you share more photos?”

You may think this is counterintuitive to not place refugee stories front and center—stories like Omar Mohamed’s certainly motivate people to want to donate to LHI and organizations like it. In fact, we do sometimes ask people if they’d be willing to share. Recently, LHI was able to provide a Ghanian medical student with a laptop so that she could continue to study while displaced. We asked her if she’d be interested in sharing her story. She politely declined, explaining that it would be too traumatic.

We respected this woman’s decision because LHI is committed to safeguarding the well-being and dignity of the people we serve. Part of that commitment is being aware that in asking refugees to share their stories, we are asking them to relive the worst days of their lives. Similarly, we know that when we photograph people, we are capturing their most painful moments. We frequently do meet people who are willing to share their photos and stories, though the interaction with the student from Ghana illustrates why we are selective in doing so. Just as you and I would not want strangers to crystallize our most vulnerable selves forever on the internet, we want to give this same respect to the people who find their way to us.

LHI knows that you have a choice when it comes to how you want to share your resources and time. We hope that our mission, vision, and values, including our respect for the people we serve and their lived experiences, are part of the reason you choose to contribute to LHI.

Brigid Rowlings is a freelance writer, teacher, mom, and LHI supporter. Brigid met LHI's founder/director Hayley Smith when they were both teachers in the Boston Public Schools, and has watched in awe as Hayley established and grew LHI. Brigid is excited to help LHI tell its story!

Faces of Ukraine (Part 5)

written by: Jaron Malyon, LHI Director of Monitoring and Evaluation

Jaron Malyon has been on the ground in Moldova , Romania, Hungary and Poland as part of LHI’s senior admin team as they establish an immediate response to the Ukraine refugee crisis. He speaks fluent Russian and has been incredibly instrumental in creating several local partnerships.

Yevgeni Verbanov, founder/director of Peer to Peer with Hayley Smith, LHI founder/director.

Rather than come into Moldova and try to reinvent the wheel, LHI has vetted and funded 21 orgs that already have local knowledge and deep ties to rural communities hosting refugees, but just don’t have the additional budget to deal with the surge (more than 400,000 Ukrainian refugees coming through Moldova with 100,000+ remaining in the country). One such organization is Peer to Peer, a small, community-based organization in the village of Parcani, Moldova.

We sat down with founder/director Yevgeni Verbanov to find out more.

“Several years ago, my child was born with a severe disability. It changed everything for our family. We couldn’t have managed on our own, but people from the community helped and it made all the difference. So I started Peer to Peer in 2018 to extend that same assistance to disabled people who find themselves in difficult circumstances.”

Mr. Verbanov said that when he first established the organization and started offering services, people were skeptical. No other organization had ever come in and just offered help without some sort of hidden political agenda. Slowly but surely, the community warmed to Mr. Verbanov’s gentle encouragement that sometimes, people just want to help!

Jaron Malyon (R) and Yevgeni (L) talk with a Ukrainian woman in the host home’s courtyard.

Even though the organization is relatively new, it has made a huge impact on families who have members with disabilities. And with the latest influx of Ukrainain refugees to the village, Peer to Peer is as busy as ever.

“Now, the people who need us here are Ukrainian refugees who have left everything behind. So many have come to our village. We welcome them to our community and offer them our hand.”

One way he knew he could empower the local refugees is through helping them create their own sustainable source of food through gardening, especially those who are sheltering with more elderly locals.

L: A Ukrainian woman and her son with disabilities at a host home in Moldova. R: The kind elderly man hosting them in his home.

“In the eastern region of Moldova, most people have a small house in the village with a garden plot, many of whom belong to elderly people who can no longer grow their own food. These elderly villagers are opening their homes to host hundreds of refugee families but cannot support them with food or other necesities.”

“Our goal is to create a sustainable food source for our refugee guests right here from our own soil.”

“You know, my daughter passed away last year, but her spirit lives on through our work.”

📷 cred: Patrick Petro

Click here to learn more and support LHI’s work for Ukrainian refugees.

Faces of Ukraine (Part 4)

written by: Jaron Malyon, LHI Director of Monitoring and Evaluation

Jaron Malyon has been on the ground in Moldova , Romania, Hungary and Poland as part of LHI’s senior admin team as they establish an immediate response to the Ukraine refugee crisis. He speaks fluent Russian and has been incredibly instrumental in creating several local partnerships.

“Help to Ukrainians. Free food and drink.” Sign outside of pop-up transit shelter supported by LHI at a border crossing from Moldova to Romania.

It’s not usually my role to be dispatched to crisis zones, but having lived in Moldova, Hungary, and Russia, it made sense this time. I’ve relied heavily on longtime friends in the region to understand the refugee situation as it unfolds and pinpoint areas where we can contribute.

At LHI, we’re always looking for the gaps in aid/service provisions, which is why I went to Moldova first. The int’l humanitarian response has largely focused on Poland—rightly so, given the massive number of refugees—but Moldova has been completely overwhelmed (in the early days, especially).

The first wave of refugees (mostly wealthier Ukrainians) have largely transited through Moldova and Romania to other destinations, but many in the subsequent waves (mostly poorer) are staying, at least for a while, confused, traumatized, with little resources and no connections abroad, trying to figure out what comes next. One man in a shelter with his wife and babies, told me, “The thing I need most now is advice!”

While orgs and volunteers have mobilized to meet the urgency of the situation, working 20-hr days to evacuate, feed, and shelter refugees, there’s hardly been time to think about what comes next. As we’ve seen from conflicts in other parts of the world, long-term crises will play out for years in countries neighboring Ukraine, even if they aren’t pulled directly into this war. As a Hungarian friend said the other day, “Hungary didn’t know what to do with 400 Afghans in November. How on earth will they deal with tens of thousands of Ukrainians now?”

At LHI, we’re grateful, honored, and moved by the trust so many donors (including family and friends!!) have put in us to get funds to the front lines and make a meaningful difference for as many people as possible.

📷 cred: Shannon Ashton

Click here to learn more and support LHI’s work for Ukrainian refugees.

Jaron Malyon on the ground with LHI in Moldova.

Faces of Ukraine (Part 3)

written by: Shannon Ashton, LHI Board Member

Shannon Ashton has been on the ground in Moldova with LHI senior admin team members Hayley Smith and Jaron Malyon as they establish LHI’s immediate response to the Ukraine refugee crisis.

Shannon, a professional photographer, has photographed LHI's projects and initiatives in 5 different countries since 2015. Many of LHI's most iconic photos were taken by her.

A local volunteer serves her homemade soups and breads to Ukrainian refugees crossing from Moldova to Romania.

It takes a village, people! I’m filled with utter amazement at the endless giving and love I have been a witness to during my time on the ground here. The countless micro-offerings of love given by complete strangers.

The young adults working round the clock in a pop up refugee centre in Chisinău. The teenager serving as a translator in his spare time. The kindness and comfort given by a Russian driver facilitating relief efforts. Aid workers running buses in the middle of the night out of Odessa to get people to safety. The business partners in Iasi opening a refugee centre in shopping mall in Romania at their own expense. The young Moldovans forming a grass roots task force tackling all sorts of problems. The vested volunteer at the Ukraine border tirelessly answering questions into the night. The man passing out flowers to all the women refugees on International Women’s Day.

We got stuck in the exodus, in a near 5-hour crossing from Moldova to Romania in the middle of the night. Nearly all the vehicle plates queued with us were Ukrainian, along with many buses carrying more Ukrainians. And pictured here, the townspeople at a Moldovan border town opened a makeshift rest depot providing home cooked meals and a smile for crossing refugees stuck in long border queues. Here they offered warm shelter and delicious warm meals as if everyone entering was a welcomed guest visiting their home. They treated us the same. I shall never forget the special moments shared in this little shack. So much love.

There is such good in the world. Even in this place of darkness we find ourselves in, there is something good to find. The people helping.

Click here to learn more and support LHI’s work for Ukrainian refugees.

LHI Founder/Director Hayley Smith (L) and Shannon Ashton (R) in Moldova.

Faces of Ukraine (Part 2)

written by: Hayley Smith, LHI Founder/Director

LHI founder/director Hayley Smith is on the ground in Moldova with other senior admin team members to establish LHI’s immediate response to the Ukraine refugee crisis. She has been visiting several sites run by local organizations to see how we can support both the orgs and also their beneficiaries.

She talked to Oxana at a shelter in Chișinău, Moldova. This is the transcription of their conversation.

Oxana from Odessa. She was so warm, so generous, so kind, so soft-spoken, so humble. Photo by Shannon Ashton.

[You can hear Oxana come down the rickety stairs from the attic apartment of the shelter to a storage room that is now an improvised living room]

Hayley: “Hi! I’m Hayley”

Oxana: “Hi, I’m Oxana” [Oxana knows English]

Hayley: "I want to hug you, but I don’t know if that’s okay, with covid and all”

[Oxana comes in for a long, strong hug]

Hayley: “Where are you from?”

Oxana: “We are from Odessa. We arrived tomorrow, I mean yesterday. We don’t know how many days I will stay. I hope maybe 10 days. I hope that the problems with Russia will be over. I’m here with my daughter. She’s five. Four families live in the apartment."

Hayley: “Are you traveling to family?”

Oxana: “No, I don’t have any family in Europe. I have friends in Poland. I have a sister in California [indicates her shirt], but I don’t know how I can get there. I don’t have a visa. And her husband is Filipino. They aren’t citizens and don’t have a way to get us there. I would rather arrive to Ukraine. I don’t want to live in another country. All of my friends and family are in Ukraine [5 second pause] I don’t understand yet what happened. I don’t understand yet. It happened very fast. I didn’t think it was possible. I still can’t believe. My mind can’t believe why? Why? Why did this happen? It’s very shocking. It’s just political things and we suffer. Now I think about my child. What will happen? What about her future? We can’t live like this forever. I very hope that God will see everything and I can maybe stay 10 days. I very hope and go to my country."

Hayley: “Are your parents in Ukraine? How are they?”

Oxana: “My parents are okay. My husband is live in Ukraine. He wants to live with us but he can’t. And my mother and father I want them to come but they say no, no. Go! We will stay here. It’s our country, it’s our town. My sister, very younger than me, and she says 'Go sister! Go Go Go! Very Faster! Go! No No!' She is very afraid. She has two children and my child. 'Faster! Go with your child now!'"

Hayley: “Do you talk to your husband everyday?”

Oxana: “I talk to my husband everyday. Morning. Afternoon. Evening. We say every day. ‘How is the town?’ ‘What is it like now?’"

Hayley: “Is everything okay there so far?”

Oxana: “No, this is the start. Because Odessa is a very big town, very important, and they want to control port. It is a strategy town or something like that. Because other town like Kharkov and Kyiv are in the middle, but Odessa is on the sea. It is where they can come into Ukraine. We will be safe here and hope the God."

Hayley: “And you have a child?”

Oxana: "Yes, you see my child is playing [upstairs]. She is good. She said, 'oooo! We have so many plans!' She has other girls to play with. She don’t understand. Maybe better this way."

Click here to learn more and support LHI’s work for Ukrainian refugees.

Hayley visits shelters in Chișinău, Moldova

Faces of Ukraine (Part 1)

written by: Shannon Ashton, LHI Board Member

Shannon Ashton has been on the ground in Moldova with LHI senior admin team members Hayley Smith and Jaron Malyon as they establish LHI’s immediate response to the Ukraine refugee crisis.

Shannon, a professional photographer, has photographed LHI's projects and initiatives in 5 different countries since 2015. Many of LHI's most iconic photos were taken by her.

This is Anna who arrived yesterday in Moldova on a bus from Odessa, Ukraine. Early in the dark hours of the morning of February 24th, a "rocket bomb" was dropped on the Odessa airport 7 kilometers from where she lives. Her apartment shook with force, and even though it was dark outside the sky lit up as if it were the sun. They spent three days in a bomb shelter where they couldn't wash or do anything. After a few days she took her son and left Ukraine for Moldova. She didn't want to leave, and had to leave her mother and ailing grandmother behind. They all told her to get out while she could even though they could not. She packed her son's things, enough to last through summer. She currently waits in a shelter in Chisinau hoping to get on a bus to somewhere. Maybe Poland? Spain? She isn't quite sure. 

"Please share this with all the people who don't believe what is happening here is true." 

Her child playing in the background as we spoke, I began to feel such incredible sadness over the upheaval of their lives, having to flee for fear of imminent death. And being forced to leave loved ones behind never knowing if they'll see each other ever again. These lives, lacerated. And the millions of others whose lives are likewise being torn apart by this barbaric war in Ukraine. I am angry at the evil that is causing this. 

We met so many others just like her, and right now thousands more are pouring across various borders out of Ukraine throughout Europe. I have been a witness to many refugees all over the world over the years, and I can say in absolute that this could be any one of us. And that fact alone requires that I do my part to help.

Click here to learn more and support LHI’s work for Ukrainian refugees.

Hayley (L) and Shannon (R) in Moldova.

LHI Refugee Center in Greece: Library Expansion!

by: Hayley Smith, LHI Founder/Director

How does a collection of books in Persian, Greek, English, Arabic, German (and more!) pop up in the small northern town of Serres, Greece? We're here to tell you!

Come in and spend some time at the LHI Refugee Center library!

Some Background

Back when we established the LHI Refugee Center in 2016, we had a basket of books that were available to check out. As both our center and also book collection grew, we were able to establish what is now an airy, welcoming space just for the library.

The children’s section is adorable!

It's an impressive operation! The library is a fully cataloged, circulating collection! All of the books are labeled and organized into categories and languages. There's even an adorable children's book section.

The best part is, any resident from the camp can come check out a book!

Books are now available in Persian, Greek, English, Arabic, German, and more!

An Exciting Development

The two camps we work with recently transitioned from Yazidi-only to a mixed population, with most newcomers being Afghans. We needed Persian books for our library, and fast! So our team on the ground put their heads together and made a plan.

They reached out to an Italian organization called Negah, who then put out a call for Persian books. They brought in an incredible number of books from their supporters.

Edu, our education manager (who speaks Farsi!) also reached out to friends. Some books came from a teacher in Finland, others from a bookstore in Geneva, others from Hamburg, from Iran, and from the US.

And a really amazing donation was 10 signed copies of “The Last Girl” from Nadia's Initiative, an org that advocates for survivors of sexual violence and aims to rebuild communities in crisis. 

The library now contains several signed copies of “Last Girl!”

In total we've collected more than 400 books in Persian, coming from France, USA, Iran, Germany, Switzerland, Finland, and Italy.

The library at the LHI Refugee Center came about the same way all of our projects do: NETWORKING! Thank you to our team, donors and partner orgs for making this development possible!

Click here to learn more about the programs at our Refugee Center in Greece.

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.

We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Programming...

by: Hayley Smith, LHI Founder/Director

Thank you so much for donating to last week’s #GivingTuesday campaign! It was very successful and will help us keep our high-impact programs around the world running and helping those who need it the most. 

The leadup to the campaign brought back some interesting childhood memories. (It ties in at the end, trust me!)

Hayley as a young humanitarian (in the cute little heart dress).

When I was little, my parents didn’t let us watch a lot of TV, but we could get away with it if it was some historical documentary or nature show on PBS. We even got to stay up past our bedtimes every Sunday night to watch Masterpiece Theater all together. But every year brought the same phenomenon: I’m watching some Victorian drama and they’re about to kiss when I’m rudely interrupted just by the dreaded semi-annual pledge drive. 

They had some nerve to interrupt my shows, only to beg for money (although that commemorative Lawrence Welk VHS box set was a pretty tempting incentive). 

The first 50 donors will receive this limited edition Doctor Who plate!*

Fast forward a few decades. Social media has definitely changed how organizations like PBS and and even LHI raise funds. First of all, I don’t have to appear on live TV and threaten to remove Downton Abbey from our regular scheduling. But one thing remains true: LHI does truly depend on people’s individual and collective generosity to keep on going. We do not get government funding. And like many other nonprofits, we have to constantly find new donors, big or small, just to keep running.  LHI simply would and could not operate without supporters like you. 

Thank you to all of you who donated to our #GivingTuesday campaign last week. Because of a little click of the mouse, refugees all over the world get crucial humanitarian aid that they otherwise would not.   

Didn’t donate for #GivingTuesday? It’s never too late to donate to that campaign here on FB (link) or on our website (link).

*JK, you won’t actually receive the plate. But you will help make the winter a little more bearable for a refugee family somewhere!