Humanitarian Center Tour - Part One

 I wanted to write about this weeks ago but so much was going on that I wasn't able to so I thought I would write about it now as it was such a wonderful thing. I had never been to this place before but have heard about it so I called to find out times and address so we could take a tour. 


It is a HUGE warehouse where they take in donations or buy items to donate to victims of disasters or people in hardship around the world.

They run stores with the donations that are taken in of used items. At the second hand stores, they train people who may need help learning skills They start them out sorting, then pricing, then on the floor putting items out and then working the cash registers. Once they are trained, they help them get job placements with other companies. 

I have a friend who is Russian who ended up at a woman shelter. She got a job working at the second hand store and once trained, they helped her get a job. Since getting a job, she was able to obtain a drivers license, she bought a car and is working on buying a home.

Without the store that is run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, she would never be in the place she is with her two daughters. She is hoping to adopt her nieces children who's parents died and are living in Russia in an orphanage. 


When the girls and I went to our local Humanitarian center, they talked about how they donate their items many times to the larger based Humanitarian Center  in Salt Lake City as they can get them where they need to be to help those in need.  

The local center told us about how they toured the larger center and were impressed with what they saw. I told Princess number six that perhaps we could take a tour on our road trip. I was glad we made that happen. See our trip to the local humanitarian center here. Ok, so you can't see that here because when I looked to find the post, I realized that I hadn't ever posted that post. So, I will post it later this week. :-) 


It is so funny that I thought I had posted that already. So, anyway, we went on the tour and I have to tell you, I was VERY impressed. They have a flag hanging on the wall from each country of their current employees at their warehouse. They bring in refuges from other countries or those in need, and let them work sorting the clothes by type (winter, summer) and by sizes so that when there is a disaster, they can send clothes approprate for the climate and season. 

This allows the refugee to learn the language and marketable skills while making money. They teach English classes as well. 

While touring, we saw many different nationalities and colors of people and many in native dress. We weren't allowed to take photos of the workers for obvious reasons but it was amazing to see the items they have stock piled. 

They bundle the clothes like large bails of hay. They have blankets they have made and packaged for distribution to victims as well, you can see a blanket in one of the photos. This part of the tour was just in the main floor of the building. Tomorrow, I will post about the second floor. To be continued...