- Tonia Tewell founded Holding Out HELP in 2009 to assist refugees out of polygamy.
- Her nonprofit has helped thousands escape from sects like FLDS and Kingston group.
- Tonia’s personal experiences inspired her mission to provide safe passage without judgment.
The Harriet Tubman of Utah doesn’t necessarily look like the sort of person who spends her life rescuing refugees. There are no discernible hard edges to her. She’s not a tough talker. Get her going and she’ll brag about her three daughters and her husband Larry. She smiles a lot; cries at the drop of a hat.
But underneath Tonia Tewell’s benign soccer mom exterior beats the heart of a person who would crawl through red tape and around barbed wire, whatever it takes, to help provide safe passage for people fleeing polygamy.
How many has she helped — standing arm in arm with the donors, volunteers and like-minded people who work with her — since starting her nonprofit, Holding out HELP, in 2009?…