Beneficiary Spotlight: Refugees from the Americas

by Brigid Rowlings, LHI Communications Director

Images from shelters on the southern border of the United States that LHI supports.

Refugees crossing the southern border of the United States has long been a prominent issue in the American media. It has gained more attention recently as the number of asylum seekers and refugees arriving in the United States has increased, and as officials grapple with repealing the Covid-era Title 42, which has allowed the U.S. government to quickly turn refugees back to prevent the spread of Covid 19.

While differences of opinion about immigration are real, and conversations about immigration vital, the facts remain: People are being forced to flee their homes. They come with very little. When they arrive, conditions for refugees on both sides of the border are harsh. Many of those hoping to enter the United States wait along the border in makeshift encampments with little access to food, water, and sanitation. Once refugees and asylum seekers arrive in the United States, border shelters and charitable organizations are able to offer some assistance, but the sheer number of arrivals puts a strain on their resources.

Why do refugees from countries like El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela risk such danger and hardship? The answer can only be that conditions in their home countries are so bad that anything else seems better.

What is compelling people to leave their home countries? We could write extensive pieces on countries like El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, and Nicaragua. And, in fact we did publish an entire blog post on the factors pushing people to leave Venezuela. But, to give you an overview of the major issues, we will confine ourselves to outlining the major issues and providing you with just a few specific examples.

Political Instability and Oppressive Regimes

Many people seeking asylum in the United States are fleeing oppressive governments. For example, since 2007, Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega has ruled the country with an increasingly authoritarian hand. Freedoms of individual people and the press have become more and more limited, and Ortega has even jailed his political opponents. 

As we detailed in an earlier blog post, Venezuela president Nicolas Maduro ensured his own re-election by barring opponents from running. Since then, Venezuelans report continued persecution of those who oppose Maduro, including protestors. 

The political situation is arguably worse in Haiti. The 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse created a power vacuum that has paved the way for gangs. 

Eduardo shows some of the scars that remain after he was attacked by local gang members with machetes for not agreeing to sell drugs through his family’s fruit stand in Honduras. Photo provided by Their Story is Our Story.

Gang Violence

In the absence of any strong central government in Haiti, around 200 gangs have established influence across Haiti, including controlling an estimated 60% of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. These gangs have committed acts of physical and sexual violence. They have forced people out of their homes and blocked access to safe drinking water, food and health care. 

Gang violence is also endemic in places like El Salvador and Honduras. In 2019, in partnership with Their Story Is Our Story, we told you about Eduardo, who was attacked by gang members after he refused to sell drugs from his family’s fruit stand in Honduras. Fleeing often seems like the only option for people like Eduardo who are threatened, attacked, and even killed if they refuse to pay, join, or do the bidding of local gangs.

Economic Instability

Unsurprisingly, in places where governments are not stable, neither are economies. In Nicaragua and Venezuela, inflation, declining wages, and rampant unemployment have left people unable to support themselves and their families. Essentials like food, clothing, and medication are often in short supply.

An estimated 60% of Guatemalans live in poverty. This is partly due to a decade of “land grabs”. Small farmers in Guatemala have been driven off their land by more powerful people who want to develop their land into larger, industrial farms. Indigenous Mayan people living in the Guatemalan highlands have been particularly susceptible to these government-sanctioned “land grabs”. When targeted communities protest the seizure of their ancestral lands, leaders can be arrested or assassinated. 

Natural Disasters

Farmers in Guatemala have not only suffered from land grabs, but also from droughts, floods, hurricanes and cold snaps. Guatemala is not alone. According to this Washington Post article, Latin America and the Caribbean experienced 175 natural disasters between 2020 and 2022. These events have led to loss of life, damage to housing and infrastructure, crop damage and food shortages, and lack of access to clean water.

Pallets of aid on their way from the LHI Aid Warehouse in Utah to Team Brownsville in Texas.

How LHI Helps

LHI works in partnership with several shelters in places like Texas and Arizona to provide aid to refugees and asylum seekers. One partner, Team Brownsville, told us in December: “We are receiving up to 600 people every day and the need is so great…Our greatest need is for blankets,warm clothing and shoes. We quickly and gratefully gave out all the jackets, hoodies, winter kits, socks, underwear and shoes that you sent. We tried to hold back some for when it got even colder, but as the numbers grew, that became impossible.” Thanks to our donors and volunteers at the LHI Aid Warehouse in Utah, we were able to send more aid to Team Brownsville.

To learn more about LHI’s Border Aid program, click here.

Beneficiary Spotlight: Rohingya Refugees

by Brigid Rowlings, LHI Communications Director

LHI Founder and Director Hayley Smith visited Rohingya refugees living in refugee camps in Bangladesh in 2017.

Before I started researching this blog post, I had no idea what an emotional experience it would be. I was shocked and saddened by simply reading the history of the Rohingya, a religious and ethnic minority from Rakhine State in the country of Myanmar (or Burma, the commonly accepted name of the country prior to 1989, and the name that some people within and outside of the country prefer to use). Those feelings were only compounded when I found this online exhibition from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum that tells the story of the Rohingya through their own words, photos, and cell phone videos. 

A Quick History of Burma/Myanmar

Prior to joining the LHI team, I was a History and Social Studies teacher. That makes me prone to believe that to understand the present, you have to first understand the past. So, let me give you a quick history lesson. Like many countries in Southeast Asia, Burma was colonized in the 19th century. Although the Burmese fought to maintain their independence, they ultimately lost their autonomy to the British in 1885. As a British colony, Burma became a target of the Japanese during the Second World War. Battles raged in the country, causing mass destruction and hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties. Finally, a few years after the end of World War II, Burma declared its independence in 1948.

Initially, Burma operated as an independent republic, but in 1962, the military staged a coup d’etat. Burma, or Myanmar as it has been called since 1989, has been under direct or indirect military control since then. This is when trouble for the Rohingya began.

The Rohingya: From Belonging to Marginalized

The Rohingya assert that they are a people indigenous to Rakhine State in western Myanmar. In fact, the name “Rohingya” may mean “inhabitant of Rohang”, the early Muslim name for Rakhine State. And, in the early days of Burmese independence, the first Prime Minister, U Nu, recognized the Rohingya as Burmese nationals. Rohingya people held public office, served as judges, and were police officers.

That all began to change when the military took over Burma. At that time, all people living in Burma had identity cards. The Rohingya’s cards identified them as Burmese citizens. But, in the early 1970s, the military began confiscating the Rohingya’s identity cards. This left them with no proof of citizenship.

Then, in 1982, the government passed a new citizenship law. This law excluded the Rohingya and other ethnic minorities from citizenship. Soon, the government refused to even call the Rohingya by that name, first identifying them as “Islam” and then, insisting that they were immigrants from Bangladesh, calling them “Bengali”. 

Targeted Persecution

In 1991, the government launched a “Clean and Beautiful Nation” campaign. In reality, this was a campaign of violence against the Rohingya. The military killed and raped Rohingya people and destroyed their homes. 200,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh. In 1992, many Rohingya returned home to Rakhine State, but were subjected to forced labor and physical abuse. In order to monitor and control the Rohingya population, Rohingya people had to obtain official permission to marry, and at times were limited to having only two children.

In June, and then again in October 2012, anti-Rohingya citizens as well as members of the military and police burned Rohingya homes and mosques and attacked Rohingya people. Survivors were driven into internment camps and forced to rely on humanitarian assistance for food and medical care.

Meanwhile, anti-Rohingya rhetoric intensified in newspapers and on social media. Rohingya people were called “fleas” and “thorns” and accused of trying to destroy Buddhism, the majority religion.

Then, on August 25, 2017, the government launched a planned attack against the Rohingya. More than 9,000 men, women and children were killed. According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 80% of world-wide sexual violence in 2017 was attributed to the gang rape of Rohingya women. As the Rohingya people fled Rakhine State, they took cell phone video of their homes, property, and mosques being burned to the ground.

After years of persecution in Burma, or as it is now known, Myanmar, the Rohingya primarily live in the world’s biggest refugee camp in Bangladesh.

The World’s Largest Refugee Camp

An estimated 700,000 Rohingya fled their homes and sought refuge in Bangladesh. Because they were running for their lives, few managed to bring along any possessions. People traveled on foot, carrying children and the elderly, sometimes wading through chest-deep water. When they arrived in Bangladesh, they joined the 300,000 Rohingya that had fled previous waves of violence. Today, over a million Rohingya people live in temporary shelters with little access to clean water and sanitation in what has been called the world’s largest refugee camp.

Some Rohingya have stayed in Rakhine State in Myanmar. The community remains segregated from the rest of the population. Rohingya are prohibited from traveling, even to the next village, without permission. This limits their access to education, markets, and employment. 

Volunteers at the LHI Aid Warehouse in Utah preparing to send aid to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

How LHI Helps

The Rohingya people living in Bangladesh are stateless—they are not recognized as citizens of Myanmar or Bangladesh or any other country. This status, along with fear of persecution, means the Rohingya people cannot return to Myanmar. It also means that the Rohingya often cannot access education, medical care, or employment or provide for their families without the help of humanitarian organizations and aid.

Lifting Hands International provides some of that aid through our Beyond Borders program. This starts at our volunteer-powered humanitarian aid warehouse in Utah where we collect, sort, pack, and ship supplies to refugee families living in camps in Bangladesh and other areas around the world. 

If you’d like to find out more about how you can join us in helping Rohingya refugees, click here.

To find out about volunteering at our warehouse in Utah, click here.

Beneficiary Spotlight: The Afghan People

by Brigid Rowlings, LHI Communications Director

Children wait in line for LHI school packs to be distributed in Afghanistan.

If I’d been born in Afghanistan

I remember distinctly when I learned about the history of Afghanistan-in a hurry! It was late at night on September 11, 2001. I was a third year high school history teacher in Annapolis, MD. In the morning, I had to face my students and explain what had happened and what was likely to happen next. 

As I researched, I realized that if I had been born in Afghanistan, all I would have known my entire life was at best turbulent shifts in political power, and at worst, armed conflict. I learned that the government in charge of Afghanistan at that time, the Taliban, rose to power on promises of peace. That peace was at a price: the Taliban instituted a totalitarian and oppressive regime. And, on September 11, President George W. Bush stated that the United States believed the Taliban was harboring the leader of Al-Qaeda, the group responsible for the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and for the hijacked plane downed by passengers in Pennsylvania.

When I put myself in the place of an Afghan woman my age-I was 24 at the time-I felt great empathy for the Afghan people. I suppose that my empathy has only grown over the last 21 years. While perhaps my Afghan counterpart felt some hope in the two decades after 9/11 as the United States and other countries supported a shift to a democratic government, that hope was dashed when the United States completed its withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan in the summer of 2021.

The current humanitarian crisis

During the two decades of international intervention, the Taliban had never completely gone away. They were simply held at bay by an emerging democratic government and Afghan military force supported by US troops. But, the United States began a withdrawal of troops that culminated in President Joe Biden’s announcement that full withdrawal would be completed before September 11, 2021. Unfortunately, the Afghan military was not strong enough to stand on its own. On August 15, 2021, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani left the country as the Taliban entered the capital, retaking the country and taking thousands of citizens in Kabul by surprise. Some Afghans feared repercussions for things as ordinary to us as attending school or university while female or finding work as an interpreter for the U.S. Army. Others, especially women, feared a return of the oppression and violence of the first Taliban regime. Day after day, desperate Afghans tried to escape. Land routes quickly became clogged, and ultimately, were blocked by the Taliban. The only route out of Kabul was the Hamid Karzai International Airport. Thousands of people flocked to the airport, only to be met by Taliban forces denying them entry. Even citizens of other nations and Afghans who had documentation that allowed them to board planes found it difficult to impossible to get through the airport gates. Tens of thousands of Afghans ultimately made it out. Thousands more who were eligible for evacuation were left behind when the final US military cargo plane took off from the Kabul airport two weeks later.

This infographic describes the steps Afghans wishing to enter the U.S. under the Special Immigrant Visa program must take. According to the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, around 18,000 Afghan nationals who provided service to the U.S. government and their family members are waiting for their special visas to be approved. Meanwhile, they remain stuck in Afghanistan or as refugees in other countries. (Image credit: USCRI)

In the wake of the Kabul airlift operation, the US Department of Homeland Security launched Operation Allies Welcome, an effort to safely resettle vulnerable Afghans and those who worked with US troops in the country. The process involves rigorous screening and vetting prior to receiving humanitarian parole into the US. Individuals and their dependents who then receive Special Immigrant Visas are admitted as lawful permanent residents who can begin the resettlement process through the Afghan Placement and Assistance Program. 

How LHI Helps

When Afghan families are transitioned into residential housing, US Federal law requires refugee apartments to be fully furnished before families move in. However, unless the long list of housing items are donated, the cost of furniture and household supplies comes out of the family's already humble living stipend. That is why LHI has partnered with the International Rescue Committee to assist with housing setup for refugees being resettled in Utah through our Afghan Refugee Aid program. Carlissa, our co-director of Utah operations and Anne, our warehouse manager of local aid, coordinate donations of household items and lead teams of volunteers who set up apartments. Carlissa recently shared a story of a particularly memorable set up on our blog.

LHI Volunteers load a container of international aid

What of the Afghans left behind? It is estimated that 3.5 million Afghans are internally displaced due to years of war, violent conflicts, economic problems, and natural disasters. Most lack adequate food, water, shelter, health care, and find few opportunities to pursue employment and education. LHI's International Aid program ships and distributes containers of critical aid supplies to these families in Afghanistan.

Beneficiary Spotlight: The Syrian People

by Brigid Rowlings, LHI Communications Director

Walker, LHI COO, and Hayley, LHI Founder and Director, along with Hisham from our partner HHRD distribute school supplies to Syrian children who live in camps in northern Jordan.

Lifting Hands International’s mission is to provide aid to refugees at home and abroad. LHI supports refugees who come from a wide range of locations and cultures but share a common experience—having to leave everything behind, flee their homes, and try to start over somewhere else.

Our second installment of our beneficiary spotlight series focuses on the people of Syria.

The Syrian Civil War Begins

In 2011, inspired by the success of the Arab Spring uprisings in Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt, some pro-democracy Syrians decided to try their hand at peaceful protest against the oppressive regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Unfortunately, these protests were met with violence from the Assad regime.

Tensions escalated between the Assad regime and opponents. Bodies such as the United Nations and the Arab League attempted to stop the violence through negotiations and brokered cease fires, but these efforts all failed or deteriorated. The European Union and the United States imposed sanctions and embargoes against Syria, but war broke out. 

Refugee Crisis

The “life-vest graveyard” on Lesvos, Greece, during the height of the influx of Syrian and other refugees into Europe. Photo credit: Shannon Ashton, who accompanied us on this trip in December 2015.

As a result of these hardships, 13 million Syrians, half of the country’s population, fled their homes. Half of those 13 million Syrians fled to neighboring countries. The other half are displaced within Syria, living in camps. While people started fleeing Syria fleeing in 2011, the crisis didn’t really make the news until 2015, when more than a million refugees made their way to Europe on rubber dinghies.

Eleven Years On

Many Syrians cannot return home, even if they wanted to. The war is still going on and has become central to the international power dynamics between democratic countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, both of which support the opposition, and authoritarian-leaning countries such as Russia and Iran, which support the Assad regime. 

Moreover, years of war and sanctions have led to the collapse of the Syrian economy. Before the war, Syria was considered a middle income country. Now, over 80% of its population lives in poverty. In addition, key infrastructure such as roads, sanitation systems, electric and water treatment plants, housing and schools have been destroyed. 

How LHI Helps

This kiddo was telling the BEST jokes in Arabic! Hayley and Walker visit a small Syrian camp in northern Jordan.

Lifting Hands International helps internally displaced Syrians and Syrian refugees by sending humanitarian aid to places like Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey through our International Aid program. This aid includes items such as clothing, hygiene kits and baby kits. 

Over 2 million Syrians fled to neighboring Jordan. Many of those refugees come from southern Syria, a region that is home to generations of goat and sheep herders. When Syrian refugees left home, they all had to leave their flocks and farms behind, only to be stolen by the regime. 

A strong Syrian mama and her family welcome their two new milk goats courtesy of our generous donors! Madaba, Jordan.

LHI runs our Gather for Goats program in rural Jordan, where many Syrian families have settled. This program provides Syrian families in Jordan with milk goats that provide a consistent source of nutritious milk. And families often sell the baby goats, generating income that leads to more self-sufficiency. 

To learn more about what our Gather for Goats program means for Syrian refugees in Jordan and to watch a video of Hayley distributing goats to families, click here

Beneficiary Spotlight: The Yazidi People

by Brigid Rowlings, LHI Communications Director

This Yazidi family was one of the to seek refuge in Greece in 2017. They have since been resettled in Germany.

Lifting Hands International’s mission is to provide aid to refugees at home and abroad. The refugees LHI supports 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.

We’d like to introduce to you some of our beneficiaries, starting with Yazidis.

Who are Yazidis?

Yazidis are a religious minority found in northern Iraq, southeastern Turkey, northern Syria, and parts of Iran. There are approximately 700,000 Yazidis in the world. Yazidis practice a religion that incorporates elements of ancient Persian religions as well as Islam and Christianity. The Yazidis believe in one god, but the central figure in their faith is Tawusî Melek. The nameTawusî Melek translates to “Peacock Angel.” Tawusî Melek serves as an intermediary between man and god. The Yazidis have experienced persecution for centuries because their religious beliefs differ from those of the Muslim majority.

Why did Yazidis flee their homes?

“Before the genocide I was living in Sinjar. We didn't know the IS soldiers were coming. They came out of nowhere. We just had a phone call and they said flee, because they will come and kill us. Can you write this down? One thing I want to let the world know about Yazidis. Just to let the world know that we exist, that we are not hiding.” -Zaid

On August 3, 2014, the Islamic State (also known as ISIS and ISIL), invaded Yazidi communities in the Sinjar region of northern Iraq. Thousands of Yazidi men were killed and thousands more Yazidi women and girls were kidnapped and forced to marry ISIS soldiers or sold into sexual slavery. 

Yazidis who managed to escape being killed or kidnapped fled to Mount Sinjar. Cut off from food, water, and medical attention, and in the hot, hot sun, many Yazidi men, women, and children died. Some relief came when Iraqi, U.S., British, and French military helicopters dropped aid onto the mountain.

The U.S. launched a series of targeted air strikes, hoping to provide the Yazidis with a way off the mountain as the Iraqi Kuridsh military force, known as the Peshmerga, and the Syrian Kurdish security force, the YPG, established a safe corridor through which the Yazidis could pass into Syria.

This is Zidane. He was 15 when his family was trapped on Mount Sinjar for 8 days. Zidane was resettled in Germany. He was visiting his family in Serres, Greece when this photo was taken.

Today, many Yazidis remain displaced from their homes. The region remains unstable, and infrastructure and homes that were destroyed by ISIS in 2014 have yet to be repaired. 

Many Yazidis live in camps for internally displaced people in Iraq. Others live in refugee camps in countries like Syria, Turkey, and Greece. Some have been resettled in Europe and North America.

Yazidis at the LHI Community Center in Serres, Greece 

The LHI Community Center, or “the field” as it is affectionately known by visiting volunteers, is located just outside of two refugee camps in Serres, a town in northern Greece. For a time, these camps were populated exclusively by Yazidi refugees, though that has changed recently with the arrival of other groups of refugees. The LHI Community Center offers a space where camp residents can learn, heal, and have fun!

On any given day, community members can be found learning English or German, playing sports or music, or visiting the tea station. The Female Friendly Space hosts a regular spa day, but if that is not your thing, perhaps someone might hand you a screwdriver, awakening a new passion for carpentry. Yes, this happened to one Yazidi teenager quite recently!

Sufian, beloved soccer coach and community volunteer.

Kids love the activities at the Child Friendly Space. They have fun creating art and even participating in a social-emotional learning program. But most of all they love football (that’s soccer to you American readers!). Why do they love football? In large part, it is because of their coach, Sufian, a Yazidi refugee who volunteers at the LHI Community Center. Sufian trains kids and teens every single day that the Community Center is open. Thirty to forty kids flock to his practices each day, and when the center is not open, they show up at his door begging to play. 

It is not unusual for people who benefit from the services at the LHI Community Center to also serve as volunteers. People like Sufian and Abdullah, featured in the video below, enjoy being of service to their community.

This is what the LHI Community Center does for the Yazidis, and for any people who have fled their homes because their lives were in danger: it provides a place where they can find some relief from the daily stress and uncertainty every refugee faces. It provides a space where each person’s human dignity is honored and each person’s hope for the future is fostered. It provides a place for people to simply be themselves.

To find out how you can support the LHI Community Center and its beneficiaries, or how you can become involved as a visiting volunteer, click here!

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!