Prosper Women’s Ministry Partners with Safe Harbor Project
Kara SchofieldLocal Refugee Program for Ukrainians gains support in North Texas
Featured Photo: Lina Gulyy (L), Project Manager of the Charity Fund Safe Harbor, and Gina Hema (R), a leader of the women’s organization of the Church of Jesus Christ in one Prosper congregation. Photo was taken upon the delivery of household items and clothing to the nonprofit, which helps refugees from Eastern Europe as they arrive in the Dallas area. Photo courtesy of Gina Hema.
In February, women from a Prosper congregation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints provided household items and clothing to a new refugee program in Frisco called Safe Harbor Project. This nonprofit organization focuses on helping families or individuals from Eastern Europe who come to the United States to rebuild their lives. Lina Guylyy, Project Manager of Charity Fund Safe Harbor, heads the endeavor with support from the Salvation Church in Frisco, a Christian congregation focused on worship services and ministry to the Russian-speaking population in North Texas.
Thus far, Safe Harbor Project has assisted eight families and two single men to establish themselves in the Dallas area, providing transportation and temporary housing, collecting donations to help the families set up house, and assisting them with paperwork and language translation as provisional guests of the United States government. The refugees qualify for work authorizations as funding is available through Safe Harbor Project, which enables them to find employment and move into their own apartments.
Members of the Prosper congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints responded generously with short notice to provide some goods for the immediate needs of Ukrainian refugees being served by the Safe Harbor Project of Frisco. Photo provided by Kara Schofield.
Gulyy knows how it feels to be a refugee; her own family fled to Ukraine from civil unrest in Tajikistan when she was young. Like many all over the globe, she felt a tug on her heart last year as she watched events unfold in Eastern Europe. She feels she was guided by God to this calling and continues to work diligently on behalf of her new friends as they arrive in this country, hoping for peace and a promising future.
The war in Ukraine began on February 24, 2022, and in the first six weeks alone, 11 million Ukrainians (approximately 25% of the total population) were displaced from their homes, 90% of those being women and children. To date, approximately one-third of the total population has been forced to flee, according to USA for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency (UNRefugees.org).
The women of the Church of Jesus Christ are planning a second round of donations to Ukrainian and Eastern European refugees in March as part of their annual celebration of the founding of the Relief Society, one of the largest and oldest operating women’s organizations in the world. Founded in 1842, the motto of the organization is “charity never faileth.”
Safe Harbor Project’s ongoing needs can be found on their website SalvationMission.com and on JustServe.org, a free service maintained by the Church of Jesus Christ that links community volunteer needs with volunteers.
Kara Schofield lives with her husband, nearly grown youngest, and the family doodle in the Prosper Texas Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She can often be found at one keyboard or another: writing, documenting personal and family history, accompanying school choirs, and learning how to play jazz music. Her greatest joys are her four children and their spouses, a sizable extended family, pies, mountains, and Jesus Christ.
