Humanitarian Center

Over the holiday break, we took a tour of the Humanitarian Center in Salt Lake City.  I'd never been there and learned a lot!  

Here we are waiting for our tour to begin.  Our Bishop was the tour guide and very knowledgable.   

Of the whole day,  the most memorable part for me was at the beginning of the tour where we were reminded of a story from the Bible depicted in this painting by Carl Bloch called Pool of Bethesda.  At a time when Christ went to Jerusalem for Passover, he decided to go to the famous pool that was known by rumor to be touched by angels and the first person in the water would be healed.  Jesus sought a man who was unable to walk on his own to the water and healed him.  We were told that the Humanitarian Center is our Church's program funded by donations and tithing to help those people in the world in need of aid.  One of the main missions of this program is to seek after those who need help and go to them as Jesus did.  

It reminded me of many times when I (not usually one to ask for help) had people approach me without being asked and offer services, food, money, time and anything I needed.  It's my new goal this year to "seek after" others on a weekly basis.  

This is a warehouse room where each square holds 1000 lbs of clothing compacted, sorted and ready to ship.  

These are the shoe bundles that are ready to ship.

The people who work at the Humanitarian Center are hired and often refugees from other countries.  I think he said there were 43 countries represented currently with workers there.  They spend the mornings working and the afternoons learning English.

The goal for those employed is to train them in a skill and transition them out to the real world within a short period of time.  I think it was a matter of months.  Here is the bulletin board of all those who were placed in jobs in 2011 after the Humanitarian Center.  

The sorting process for clothing.  All items donated to Deseret Industries and not sold are sent here.  If they are unwearable, they are fixed or sold to second hand stores for a profit.  That profit is then used to buy a blanket kit seen below.  It is one of the few charity programs that has 100% donations used to help others.  

The compacting room where the sorted clothes are compacted into 1000 lb bundles and bound and ready to ship.

The blanket kits made from the profits of the unwearable sold clothing.

The goal of the Humanitarian Center employees.  You can see on the right the end goal is the placement of a job to support themselves and their families.  

Haleigh in front of the bundles of clothes.  

"Take a picture of that for my blog!"  says Carter.  

A short video clip of the types of kits our church puts together and gives to other's in need.

Other initiatives of aid are below.  I took a picture of the stats from 2010.  My old AZ stakes were always doing these types of kits and I liked to see the numbers of how many they helped.  

Providing wheelchairs

Vision care including surgeries.

Immunizations

New baby and birthing care

Clean water initiatives which teach the town how to keep clean wells.

Food production and farming

Emergency response and first aid

The kits of food that last one family for one week.

The cleaning kits for hygiene and home care

The map that showed with dots all the countries where we have given humanitarian assistance through volunteers.  Hard to see but it was A LOT!

After a movie presentation, we loaded up with the group and went over a few blocks to "Welfare Square" which is funded entirely from fast offerings and offers food and clothing assistance to members of our church in need.

Here is a room with winter coats and other new clothing items.  

The Bishops Storehouse with boxed and fresh food, dairy and bread for those approved from their Bishops.  It is all free for those in need with permission.

Then we saw the laboratories and kitchens which test, make and produce the food on site.

Testing bread.  My kids thought it would be a cool job to taste test there. 

Some of the warehouse.

The toilet paper for the day.

The amazing smelling bakery

Haleigh taking a turn holding Wyatt.  That boy is getting heavy!

This silo holds wheat that rotates and empties every four years.

The cheese producing kitchens.  They were so clean!

The milk room

This is when we heard we get to drink some chocolate milk!  Her favorite.

I loved the tours and the quotes displayed there.  On our way back home we tried out a new BBQ place in Sandy which was very good.  We discovered Wyatt is definitely his father's son when it comes to ribs.