I met Moses Hyneh just a few weeks after he arrived in Minneapolis from his native Liberia.

Moses and his family fled their home in Liberia in 1990 after his two brothers were executed during the First Liberian Civil War. He and his family walked to the neighboring country of Ivory Coast, where they lived in refugee camps for 12 years, waiting for another country to take them in. When civil war came to Ivory Coast in 2002, Moses’ family was separated. Moses’ wife went looking for their three missing sons. In 2004, with no knowledge of where his wife or sons might be, Moses was granted Temporary Protected Status and was allowed to come to the U.S.

Moses was settled in Minneapolis because his adult daughter was a student in Minnesota. Sadly, shortly before Moses arrived in Minneapolis, his daughter was found dead in her apartment. Upon arriving here, Moses got a job washing dishes at Open Arms of Minnesota. It was two years before he was able to locate his wife and two of their sons in another refugee camp in Africa. (Their third son has never been found.) Moses brought his family to Minneapolis, became a U.S. citizen in 2008, and since arriving has worked multiple jobs.

Every one of his employers has said that Moses is the hardest working person they have ever seen. Most recently, he worked a full-time job as a fork lift operator by day, and a dishwasher at The Woman’s Club of Minneapolis at night. Working physically demanding jobs for 60 or more hours a week never dampened Moses’ spirit. He had to work hard, he said, to support his family in the U.S. and his 103-year-old, mother who still lives in Liberia. At 69 years of age, Moses seemed inexhaustible. But all of that changed a few weeks ago.

Moses awakened one morning to pain shooting from his lower back to his toes — pain unlike anything he had ever experienced. He couldn’t stand or walk, and couldn’t stop crying from the pain. A trip to the emergency room and a stay in the hospital didn’t provide any clues to what is wrong. Moses remains in pain, can only stand for a few minutes at a time, and walks slowly and carefully with a walker. What is more painful for him, however, is not knowing how he is going to provide for his family.

Moses is hopeful that physical therapy will allow him to return to work, though the days of working overtime and two jobs are probably behind him. He worries that the only jobs he might be able to get at this point in life are physical jobs at which he can no longer excel. Meanwhile, the mortgage is due, his wife and grandchildren need to eat, and his mother needs her medications.

In the 18 years since Moses arrived in the U.S., he has worked harder and longer than many Americans do in their entire careers. Beyond all he has done for his family and his church, he has given back to the city and country that took him in after his 14 years living in refugee camps. Now we can give something to Moses.

Gifts to this campaign will keep food on Moses’ family table. After so many years apart, these gifts will keep family member together, under the same roof — the roof of a house they now own. And they will make the life of his 103-year-old mother in Liberia just a little bit easier.

Thank you for helping Moses — the hard-working man who helps so many others.