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Lifting Hands International supports, provides aid to refugees

Lifting Hands International supports, provides aid to refugees

There is an old saying: "You don’t realize what you have until you’re forced to leave it all behind."

This is a harsh reality for more than 40 million refugees who have been displaced from their homes because of war or persecution, according to the UN Refugee Agency.

This is where local nonprofit organization Lifting Hands International comes in to help, shipping aid to refugees abroad and assisting refugees in resettling locally.

Two local refugees, Oksana and Slava Melnyk, received much-needed support and supplies for their new home thanks to Lifting Hands International.

“In the first day of the war, we ran from our city,” Oksana Melnyk said.

Oksana Melnyk arrived in Utah with only one suitcase. Lifting Hands International provided her with everything she needed, including furniture, dishes, blankets and more. After receiving that support, she began working with the organization as a volunteer.

“It’s not organization, it’s life,” Oksana Melnyk said. “All things, Lifting Hands helped me.”

Donated items fill the Lifting Hands International warehouse that volunteers sort and assemble into kits for refugees. Whether that be to Lebanon, Ukraine, or Afghanistan, Lifting Hands ensures each camp receives exactly what they need for their refugees, along with messages of love.

The organization also provides evacuation vehicles, art and education spaces and even livestock, Anne Perkins, the organization's Local Aid Manager, said.

“We've seen a couple of families, that they started out with two goats,” Perkins said. “Over two years, they grew that herd and were able to sell off enough of that herd that they could move out of the refugee camp and rent an apartment with electricity.”

The other half of the warehouse provides aid to refugees in Utah. Lifting Hands helps set up their apartments.

“We stock the kitchen, we stock the bathrooms and make the beds so they can hit the ground and already have a bed to sleep in,” Perkins said.

Perkins said the generosity she’s witnessed from volunteers and donors is truly contagious.

“When the older lady comes in with a blanket and that's all she has, and she says, ‘I think I can go without this one,’ and gives it, that's always what makes us all tear up the most,” Perkins said.

Service Missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Elder Frischknecht volunteers at Lifting Hands International often. Frischknecht said he and other volunteers pitch in with everything from sorting boxes and moving items around the warehouse to a variety of other tasks.

“This has been my favorite service site, since before my mission, just because it’s a very friendly place,” Elder Frischknecht said.

The Lifting Hands International warehouse is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Perkins said anyone who wants to help can simply show up and volunteer.