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GlobeMed, our Q4 2012 Poverty and Health beneficiary, shared this report to tell us how they are using funds donated by Foundation Beyond Belief members. FBB members donated $7,565 to GlobeMed last quarter.

GlobeMed is deeply grateful and inspired by the support from Foundation Beyond Belief. The generous donation of $7,565 from Foundation members will help us provide 37 travel grants to financially disadvantaged students to attend the 2013 GlobeMed Global Health Summit.

Each year, the GlobeMed Summit brings together hundreds of undergraduates, partner organizations, and supporters for a weekend of discussions, workshops, and lectures with thought leaders in global health and social policy. Over the course of the weekend, GlobeMed students are equipped to be more effective leaders, partners, and change-makers. Together, Summit attendees are challenged by one another to share their boldest visions for a healthier and more just world.

This year’s Summit theme, The Student Momentum, will focus on the unique position of young people as agents of change because of, and not despite, their role as students. Together, we will discover the possibilities and explore the challenges that lie ahead.

With your contribution, we are able to lower barriers so that all students may have the opportunity to engage in this transformational learning experience. Thank you for your investment in our world’s future, Foundation Beyond Belief!

Olivia Koshy, Director of Development
GlobeMed

By AJ Chalom

What does grow mean? To get bigger, to expand your horizons, to impact more people. In the GlobeMed community, GROW means GrassRoots On-site Work. GROW internships serve many purposes, but they are the main face-to-face vehicle that GlobeMed chapters have with their partner communities. Every summer, students from GlobeMed chapters, who have been planning all year, fan out across the world to conduct projects in partner communities. The experiences vary greatly depending on the partnership’s needs and the maturity of the chapter’s relationship with their partner.

No matter how these GROW internships occur, they impact the students, individuals, and communities long into the future. Caroline Nguyen is a GlobeMed “lifer.” She has experienced GlobeMed as a student, as co-president of her UCLA Chapter, as a GROW internship participant, and as a National Office intern. Learn about UCLA’s partnership with Nwoya Youth Center in Anaka, Uganda.

Caroline describes in her own words her summer’s experience and the values she witnessed during her GROW internship:

• Humanity (in terms of kindness, warmth, and unity) exists.
• Partnership is based in respect, trust, honesty, and friendship.
• The work that we do is necessary and irreplaceable.

She writes, “In Anaka, people opened up their homes and hearts to us, welcoming us with open arms and endless love. Walking down the roads, we could expect (and reciprocate) a wave or a greeting of “Apwoyo” (which means pretty much everything — hi, bye, thank you). In the villages, we were invited to eat at every house we came across, whether we had given them forewarning of our arrival or not. Everywhere that we traveled, we were treated with sincere kindness and unfailing love…”

She continues describing her understanding of the partnership created by GlobeMed, GlobeMed at UCLA, and the Nwoya Youth Center: “Partnership is a continuous effort that has its foundations in mutual effort and appreciation. We came to understand the Nwoya Youth Center and the Anaka community much better through open and honest conversations with community members and staff. We learned so much through having simple conversations and connecting personally as well as professionally.”

Caroline realizes the lasting impact of the work she has accomplished, not just on GROW, but in many of her roles with GlobeMed: “The Nwoya Youth Center does truly incredible work. Having seen the community and the resources and knowledge that the residents have (or lack), it was clear to me that the outreaches to schools and condom awareness sessions, among all of the other programs, serve an important purpose. In a country where the HIV+ rate is actually increasing, education may be everything. And education is exactly what the Nwoya Youth Center provides….”
               
GROW internships connect students with the communities they have been partnering with; they work closely with these communities to create a project that is needed, wanted, and meaningful within the partner community. Every summer, more than 300 student interns participate in GROW internships, with the program continuing to expand. The experience’s impact is long lasting for participants and beneficiaries alike. Caroline’s experience is but one of many.

GlobeMed is our current Poverty and Health Beneficiary, and they are accomplishing glorious things. “Empower students,” says their mission statement—and it’s been happening. The chapter at Colorado College certainly exemplifies that.

With a partnership that just launched this fall, students at the school have paired with the Western Organization of People Living with HIV/AIDS. Leaping right in to the action, some of their members are also currently abroad in Ghana, blogging away. The writing, though, is the least of the action as they visit hospitals, examine infrastructure, and learn, learn, learn.

Say Alyssa and Sarah:

Why, you might ask yourself, do women not have access to a hospital in one of the most developed and westernized countries on the African continent? Good question; I’ve been asking myself the same one all day. Within the Akatsi District, there are almost 200,000 people, and there is one doctor. And he’s a pediatrician. What is causing this? While I’m not expert, I’ve made some assumptions . . .

Read the rest here.

With 50 different chapters on 50 campuses, GlobeMed is engaging more than 1,500 students to partner with organizations across the globe. This isn’t just a partnership in name. GlobeMed chapters on campus connect in a one-to-one model with a single group to support through ideas, funds, projects, and publicity. Connections are long term—more than the length of one leader’s time at the university. How’s that been working, we ask? It’s been working amazingly.

This post comes to us from Kate Donovan, one of Foundation Beyond Belief’s fall interns, with contributions from AJ Chalom. Kate is a student at Northwestern University, where she studies psychology and human development, and is the president of NU’s Secular Student Alliance.

It was a sort of cheerful hullabaloo when I visited the GlobeMed Annual Leadership Institute. No one made particular note of the girl who just appeared to be another student leader, but everyone smiled. A few minutes of confused wandering later, I’d asked two people for directions to the woman I was instructed to meet, been handed a cup of coffee and a conference packet, and was hoping I didn’t accidentally get recognized by any attendants from my university. GlobeMed is Foundation Beyond Belief’s current Poverty & Health beneficiary, and I had come to get a closer look at the organization.

GlobeMed is a network of university students who, through grassroots organizing and partnerships with local and international organizations, are fighting to improve the health of those living in poverty. Students had come from all over the United States to attend the Leadership Institute—representatives from 49 of the 50 chapters were present, all eager to meet each other and share advice and experience. As leaders, they had similar experiences and questions about group organization: “How do I engage thirty new members?” “I badgered all my friends to join!”

The Leadership Institute was inspirational for the student leaders, but it also focused on teaching the nuts and bolts of grassroots organizing, developing relationships with local leaders and businesses, and fundraising. Each school has a fundraising goal to provide a certain amount of support to their partner organization. The experienced leaders from established groups mentored the new groups trying to find their footing, and each student had their own inspiring story about why they were attracted to GlobeMed.

Runjhun Bhatia of USC told of another group that once installed fans in her grandmother’s home in New Delhi. Inspired by the ability of a few driven activists to create change, she sought out a group that could do the same, and found a home in GlobeMed.

Aliana Smith of Washington University talked about wanting to find a group that was “having a conversation” about improving the lives of others—something she didn’t find until she joined an established GlobeMed chapter.

GlobeMed is inspiring students to create a change in the world, and then tell everyone else how they’ve done it. From creating inspiring and moving programs on their campus, to the nitty-gritty of how to track success on an Excel spreadsheet, the Globe Med Leadership Institute was about motivating individual chapter leaders to succeed.

In Q4 of 2012, Foundation Beyond Belief raised more than $61,000 for some incredible charitable projects worldwide.

We supported Madre’s efforts to lift women out of poverty and empower communities, contributed to Globe Med’s international health projects, worked toward lifting men out of a cycle of poverty and crime with the Prison University Project, supported urban greening and agricultural projects with DC Greenworks, and lent our voice to the call for peace with Friends for a Nonviolent World.

We also helped crisis efforts in Haiti, New York, and Colorado, contributed to the Harvard Humanists putting humanist values into action, and supported Avivara’s education projects in Guatemala.

That’s a lot. But we could do so much more, with your help.

Foundation Beyond Belief exists as an expression of humanist values. We would like to make our voice louder, our contributions bigger. To do that, we need more members. Until April 7, we are asking you to reach out to a humanist friend and encourage them to add their voice to the cause by joining FBB.

Double the members means double the good works. Humanists unite!

See our member drive blog post for more details about joining FBB and inviting your friends to join.

In the final quarter of 2012, we supported a diverse array of organizations working toward a better world. They mobilized students to improve global community health, empowered women to uplift debilitated societies, established gardening programs to mend the DC environment, offered college preparatory courses to Californian inmates, and lobbied and engaged in direct action to inspire peace in policymaking. Their activities are made possible in part by your generous donations, which this quarter exceeded $61,000.

Our Human Rights beneficiary, MADRE, received the most donations this quarter, surpassing $8,000. We offered several small grant awards this quarter, including support for Avivara as they improve Guatemalan education and the Harvard Humanists VBB team for their Thanksgiving meal-packing event. Our Crisis Response program helped those affected by Superstorm Sandy in the eastern United States and in Haiti.

And so, the final Humanist Giving grant totals for the final quarter of 2012 are:

Our humanist members also supported the work of the Foundation itself through a voluntary distribution totaling $3,905 for the quarter. The Foundation also received $14,531 in donations from our Year-End Drive. We are so grateful for this generous support.

All of this is in addition to the incredible efforts of our Light the Night International Team, which raised $412,405 (and counting!) for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society in our first year with the program.

We just recently welcomed our new slate of charities for the first quarter of 2013 and are illuminating the stories that your donations make possible on our blog and in our weekly newsletter. No need to be a member to subscribe to our mailing list—just scroll to the top of the page and provide your email address! Click here to subscribe to our blog via your RSS feed. Thanks again, and we’re excited to see and share the stories your support brings us moving forward.