Welcome Bags for Refugee Children

I'm really excited to share that a totally local project here in Frankfurt, Germany, started by two young mothers in the nearby German ward, became so successful that it not only made news in Germany, but it also made the front page of the Deseret News/Church News in the USA!  

 Since Germany has pledged to assimilate 800,000 refugees, with half of them being children, these two young mothers decided they wanted to do something for the refugee children.  

Word spread and we senior missionaries were eager to participate, as well, by collecting used and new clothing, crayons & coloring books, toothbrushes & toothpaste, diapers, and toys. The "cage" in the basement of our Area Office building (where senior missionaries can check out books and movies) was soon transformed overnight into a storage space for donations.

Soon the cage was so full that we began taking up more space in the basement.  

Finally, after a few weeks of collecting donations--and by now other wards and stakes had come on board--D Day ("Dump-it-all Day!") had arrived.  Everything was taken to the Stake Center next door on Monday.  For three days volunteers opened hundreds of sacks and boxes,
spreading the clothing out on tables.

Thousands of items were then sorted per boy/girl and various sizes.

After three long days and hundreds of helpers, we were ready for the big launch!  Thursday we were to gather boy/girl & age-appropriate items and fill 1061 large bags which had been donated by IKEA!  The young man at the check-in counter was a nonmember,
one of many who volunteered to help on this project.

The well-thought-out process consisted of entering the cultural hall,
which was loaded with 1061 empty bags...

...and numerous helpers, standing ready at their posts.


Step one:  Pick up a bag that was labeled with either boy or girl and a specific age.

Step two:  Review the attached "shopping list" (toothpaste & toothbrush, diapers, blanket, towel, crayon/pencils, paper, numerous appropriate clothing articles, and a toy) and head to those stations where helpers would place the requested items into your bag.

Elder G is at the first stop, getting toothpaste & a toothbrush.  (It was kind of like "trick or treating," going from station to station and getting goodies dropped into your bag!)

In order to get the appropriate clothing for the child for whom you were "shopping," 

you then headed into the chapel,

where each row was marked according to various sizes and gender.

With your bag almost full, your next-to-last stop would be to pick up an age-appropriate toy.

One room was filled with nothing but thousands of toys, used and new, small and large!

Our final stop was when we handed our filled bag over to one of the fellows (three of them were refugees, themselves!) on the stage.  The bags were stacked in separate rows, each row destined to one of the six refugee camps.  Because the two young women had "done their homework," the lists of "wants and needs" for each camp was different.  Thus, our color-coded shopping lists were not only child-specific, but also camp-specific!  Such planning and organization was truly amazing!

Extra items not placed in bags were boxed separately, ready to be loaded into three trucks.

It was late that night before the three trucks were loaded and ready to head out.

These two young mothers were simply amazing!  Of the many, many hours they spent over at the Church, they usually had one baby on their back and another at their feet!  One of our senior missionaries, Sister Bausman, was also very, very helpful.  Many other senior missionaries were also able to serve a large number of hours as well as contribute financially.  Even nonmembers became aware of the project and contributed substantially.  It was an unbelievably satisfying event to see what came of a simple desire to serve a few and that ended up serving hundreds more!

And my favorite picture of all...

 Workers at one of the refugee camps happily presenting a gift bag to a mother and her baby!!!