February 24th officially marks three years that Ukraine has been living through a nightmare. The war hasn’t stopped. The suffering hasn’t stopped. The need hasn’t stopped. Yet, international support is shrinking. Major funding sources have been cut, including critical U.S. humanitarian aid. Many organizations that once provided lifesaving assistance are scaling down or pulling out entirely. But Utah nonprofit, Lifting Hands International (LHI) remains committed to continuing high-impact aid programs throughout Ukraine, including-in frontline villages.
“Today, like every day since the invasion, LHI’s teams are delivering aid in Ukraine. Humanitarian aid is so much more than the initial emergency response,” says LHI Founder and CEO, Hayley Smith. “Every box of food, every warm blanket, every session with a psychologist, or every surgery in a hospital we stock with supplies after a missile attack is more than just aid – it’s a message: you are not forgotten.”
LHI’s teams have met elderly people living in damp basement shelters along the frontlines with only tea and bread to eat. They’ve met families forced to choose between being hungry in a basement shelter and getting shelled. In response LHI has delivered food and medicine to frontline villages and hospitals. “Some of the aid we purchase in Ukraine and some we send from Utah,” explains Smith. A full-size shipping container of aid donated by Utahns just arrived in Ukraine, and another shipment is scheduled to leave LHI’s warehouse in American Fork before the end of the month, marking LHI’s 20th shipment to Ukraine since the start of the invasion. Each shipment is packed full with brand-new items, including handmade quilts and blankets, warm clothing, hats and gloves, adult diapers, hygiene items, crutches, wheelchairs, and other items that people have requested.
“There’s another war happening in Ukraine, one that doesn’t make the headlines. It’s the battle inside people’s minds,” says Smith. Children who flinch at every loud sound. Mothers who haven’t slept in months. Grandparents who have buried all of their descendants. Widows drowning in such grief they cannot speak. “Trauma in Ukraine runs deep, and its scars aren’t always visible. That’s why we focus not only on delivering food and supplies but on helping people heal,” says Smith. “It is not just about survival — it is about dignity, about holding onto the last piece of a life that war has not yet stolen.”
