WHEN DO WE SHIP AID RATHER THAN BUY IT LOCALLY?
Our top priority is to get timely, effective humanitarian aid to refugees who need it in the most efficient way possible. Sometimes this involves purchasing aid locally. But frequently it is more impactful for us to collect and prepare aid at a remote location before shipping it to those in need.
When do we buy locally?
When we gift goats to Syrian refugees through our #GatherForGoats program, for instance, it makes sense for us to buy goats locally. We work with partner NGOs in Jordan to purchase high-quality milk goats from local herds, relying upon independent Jordanian goat experts to check each goat’s age and health to ensure that it will thrive in the desert environment of north Jordan. Buying locally helps us find hardier goats and saves on transportation costs.
In Greece, we acquire aid supplies from local markets.
Similarly, in Greece, where we manage a multi-faceted refugee center benefitting 1200+ Yazidi refugees, we purchase most of our aid locally. We do so because shipping into the European Union involves a lot of red tape and entails paying high customs fees. Instead, we shop local markets for good deals on bulk purchases, or sometimes we place large orders of needed aid that we ship in from larger cities where prices are cheaper. We are also extremely grateful for occasional shipments of in-kind aid contributed by donors located within the EU. At times these aid shipments of diapers or clothing or food come directly to us, but frequently they come to us via partner organizations such as IHA (InterEuropean Human Aid Association).
When do we ship and why?
In other instances, however, it just makes more sense for us to collect aid remotely and ship it to where it’s needed. We primarily do this out of our Humanitarian Aid Warehouse in Utah. There, we have a team of long-term volunteers who have become experts at collecting aid from throughout the region, packaging it precisely to the specifications of those in need, and shipping it to the refugees in greatest need around the world.
Carlissa and Traci, volunteer co-directors of warehouse operations in Utah.
There are many advantages to this system:
FLEXIBILITY: Having a central location for aid collection allows us to flexibly and rapidly respond to refugee crises around the world as they develop; lifting the hands that are hanging lowest, wherever they may be. When the Rohingya refugee crisis hit Bangladesh, our Beyond Borders program was poised and ready to begin redirecting aid to help those in need. When Central American refugees were overwhelming the humanitarian aid networks at the southern US border, we quickly made partnerships and began sending help through our Border Aid program. When a hurricane devastated the Bahamas in 2019, driving thousands from their homes, we had the infrastructure in place to get aid to those who were suffering.
SPECIALIZATION: Having a team in Utah who are specialized in collecting, organizing, and shipping aid means those on the ground can focus on what they do best: helping refugees. The primary focus for front-line humanitarians is caring for refugees, and every hour they spend sorting through a hodge-podge of donations takes away from that effort. We support those on the ground by ensuring everything we send them 1) is in very good condition, 2) has been specifically requested by them as an unmet need, and 3) is labeled and organized so it can be immediately distributed upon arrival.
Blankets and other items made by volunteers in the US are distributed to refugees around the world.
EFFICIENCY: Frequently enough, the items we send are simply not possible to obtain for a reasonable price at the location where they are needed. Sometimes this is because of exorbitant import fees in countries that don’t produce the type of aid items that are most needed. Or some types of aid items would be too expensive anywhere except that we can get them made cheaply through donated labor in Utah (e.g. high-quality hand-made quilts gifted by our partners at Stitching Hearts Worldwide).
INCREASED IMPACT: Because we rely on volunteer labor, bulk purchases, discount shipping, partners who get aid through customs for very cheap, and in-kind donations from service groups and local businesses, we find that every $10 we spend on our humanitarian aid infrastructure enables us to acquire, pack, ship, and distribute about $250 worth of aid. We love seeing our impact get multiplied in that way, and we’re so grateful for all those who make that magic possible.
Volunteers assemble kits of aid supplies.
OPENING DOORS: While we are still a young and relatively small organization, the impact of our humanitarian aid shipping efforts has been far-reaching. And this has provided an opportunity for us to forge partnerships with a wide variety or organizations in Utah (e.g. IRC Salt Lake, CCS Salt Lake, Granite Education Foundation), throughout the US (e.g. Church World Service, various shelters at the southern US border), and around the globe (e.g. Helping Hand for Relief and Development, Human Relief Foundation). And sometimes these new partnerships open doors to new opportunities, as happened with our Gather for Goats program in Jordan, which grew out of our shipping efforts there.
BUILDING BRIDGES: Finally, one of the goals we aim for in our work is to provide ways for our supporters to lift their hands in service. Providing such service can build strong bridges of understanding and empathy. Through our years of operation collecting aid in Utah and the surrounding region, we have partnered with hundreds of church groups, service clubs, NGOs, local businesses, university clubs, and others who have come together to assemble kits and help us send parcels of goodness to refugees around the globe.
Interested in volunteering at our Humanitarian Aid Warehouse in American Fork, Utah? Click here to learn more!
“It is amazing that the refugees stay sane. First the bombs, perhaps the “battle” around them, their casualties, their naked helplessness; then the flight, leaving behind everything they have worked for all their lives; then the semi-starvation and ugly hardship of the camps or the slums; and as a final cruelty, the killing diseases which only strike at them.”