Search results for: grief

Heather Applebury is the team captain of the North Bay Skeptics Light the Night team, a student at UC Davis, and a blogger. North Bay Skeptics walked at their Light the Night event in Santa Rosa, CA, on October 13. The ten-member team shattered their $1,000 fundraising goal by more than $600! Heather shared her thoughts about atheist grief and the Light the Night event in this piece originally posted on her blog, Heathen Flower.

Last night I had the privilege of being a part of Light the Night for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, but more importantly I was allowed to be a part of someone grieving.  As long as you’re not a sociopath, every human experiences this, usually multiple times during their lifetime. . . .

When I finally came to terms with my lack of belief, one of the things I had to do was grieve the loss of my grandmother again, who died when I was only ten.  I don’t think I ever actually believed I would see her again, but I was continually told that I would, and I wanted so badly for it to be true.

This finality is just one of the reasons that I try so hard to cultivate my relationships with people, and try to choose wisely who I spend my time with.  I believe it’s a miracle that my insignificant self is alive, and I intend to cherish every moment I can with as many of the people I love that I can.

Read the full piece here.

By AJ Chalom, Humanist Giving Program Coordinator

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, our current Poverty and Health Encore beneficiary, works to ensure that the roots of suicide are addressed in the media, with grief counseling, in research, and with prevention. The pieces of the puzzle don’t fit if you look at suicide only by statistics, or from a position that doesn’t consider the intimate facets of people’s lives and relationships.

There is no one cause of suicide. David Brooks, in his op-ed in the New York Times, tries to wrap the causes of suicide up in a neat package. He cites that depression treatment has increased, but so have suicide rates. He tries to correlate the differences in suicide rates among nationalities and ethnic groups. He uses the death of Marilyn Monroe as the cause of the uptick in suicides in the month after her death.

However, professionals working within the field of suicide prevention were frustrated and bewildered by his comments. Robert Gerbia, the executive director of American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, responds in a letter to the editor, “What is most disturbing to those of us who work in the field of suicide prevention is that he is perpetuating the myth that suicide is a rational and selfish act carried out by the weak. It’s another example of misunderstanding the reality of mental illness.”

A person’s decision to take their own life is not driven by one reason, but a host of events, experiences, and illnesses. These lives cannot be explained or rationalized in 500 words or 500 pages regarding suicide, since suicide does not have one cause, or a common cause between people. AFSP does provide community awareness and support in their outreach efforts. On Veterans Day, they encouraged members of congress to record messages to veterans regarding resources on suicide prevention, citing high rates of suicides among military veterans.

The work of AFSP cannot be summarized in this one piece of writing. The angles, facets, and depths of the issues of suicide prevention, mental illness treatment, and grief support are different for every person touched by suicide.

Learn more about the work being done by AFSP by visiting their website or following them on Facebook and YouTube.

As of Jan 1, 2011, our more than 700 humanist members have donated over $83,000 to 37 charities working to improve this world and this life. Let’s meet our first slate of beneficiaries for 2011.

This quarter’s beneficiary in ANIMAL PROTECTION is the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. Founded by Dian Fossey in 1978, The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund is dedicated to the conservation and protection of gorillas and their habitats in Africa. DFGF supports continued research on the gorillas and their threatened ecosystems and provides education about their relevance to the world in which we live. In collaboration with government agencies and other international partners, we also provide assistance to local communities through education, health, training and development initiatives.

Our first beneficiary in the new CHALLENGE THE GAP category is the Interfaith Youth Core. IFYC builds mutual respect and pluralism among young people from different religious traditions by empowering them to work together to serve others. People of differing worldviews interact with ever-greater frequency. That interaction tends either toward conflict or cooperation. Where so many of these interactions tend towards conflict, the Interfaith Youth Core aims to introduce a new relationship, one that is about mutual respect and pluralism. Instead of focusing a dialogue on political or theological differences, we build relationships on the values that we share, such as hospitality and caring for the Earth, and how we can live out those values together to contribute to the betterment of our community.

PLEASE NOTE: Because this category is new in 2011, members wishing to support Challenge the Gap must log in and click on Manage Donation to allocate a percentage of their monthly donation.

Why is a humanist foundation supporting a religious organization?

In CHILD WELFARE, we are pleased to support generationOn, a newly-created youth service organization focused on igniting the power of all children to make their mark by creating meaningful change in the world. With service-learning and volunteer action at its core, generationOn mobilizes children of all ages, pre-school through high school, to solve real world problems through community service. Launched in October 2010, generationOn brings several existing youth service organizations under one umbrella, including Children for Children, our original choice for Q1 Child Welfare.

Our EDUCATION beneficiary is Roots & Wings International, a small, effective charity providing educational opportunities for indigenous people in Guatemala. Programs include college scholarships, tutoring, and computer literacy. “Education is the best tool to empower indigenous communities to break the cycle of poverty,” says founder Erik Swanson. It’s an idea also found throughout the humanist literature and often expressed by members who support our Education beneficiaries.

This quarter’s ENVIRONMENT beneficiary is Friends of the Earth. FOE and its federation of grassroots groups in 76 countries defend the environment and champion a more healthy and just world. The organization describes itself as “progressive environmental advocates who pull no punches and speak sometimes uncomfortable truths to power.” FOE’s current campaigns focus on promoting clean energy and solutions to climate change, keeping toxic and risky technologies out of the food we eat and products we use, and protecting marine ecosystems and the people who live and work near them.

In HEALTH we are proud to support First Candle, a U.S. national health organization uniting parents, caregivers and researchers nationwide with government, business and community service groups to advance infant health and survival. By supporting research in infant mortality prevention, First Candle’s impact goes well beyond the borders of the U.S., supporting the fight against stillbirth and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) in countries around the world. In addition to promoting safe pregnancies and the survival of babies through the first years of life, First Candle provides compassionate grief support to all those affected by the death of a baby.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation, this quarter’s HUMAN RIGHTS beneficiary, is dedicated to ensuring that all members of the United States Armed Forces receive the constitutional guarantees of religious freedom to which they and all Americans are entitled. Selected after a record number of nominations both from members and non-members, MRFF is uniquely positioned to address longstanding concerns regarding religious freedom in the U.S. military and has an impressive record of success in mounting legal challenges and raising public awareness. MRFF holds that no member of the U.S. Armed Forces may be compelled in any way to conform to a particular religion or religious philosophy, to witness or engage in any religious exercise, or to endure unwanted religious proselytization, and notes that the full exercise of religious freedom includes the right not to subscribe to any religion.

This quarter’s PEACE beneficiary is Nonviolent Peaceforce. NP trains and deploys unarmed civilian peacekeepers to conflict zones to reduce violence and protect civilians. NP envisions a world in which large-scale unarmed civilian peacekeeping using proven nonviolent strategies is recognized as a viable alternative in preventing and mitigating violent conflicts worldwide. NP’s primary strategy for achieving this vision is the creation of space to foster dialogue. NP currently maintains peacekeeping teams in Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and Sudan and is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.

Our POVERTY beneficiary this quarter is Women Thrive Worldwide, the leading non-profit organization shaping U.S. policy to help women in developing countries lift themselves out of poverty. Women Thrive develops, shapes, and advocates for policies that foster economic opportunity for women living in poverty. We focus on making U.S. international assistance and trade programs prioritize women. We bring together a diverse coalition of over 50 organizations and 25,000 individuals united in the belief that women are the key to ending global poverty, and empowering them is not only right, it’s also the most effective long-term solution to world poverty. 

Our tenth category as always is Foundation Beyond Belief itself. Participation in our charitable giving program is absolutely free. If this service is important to you as a member, we hope you’ll choose to designate a percentage of your monthly donation to support the work of the Foundation.

For more details, click on Current Beneficiaries.

Members: See an organization that especially moves you — or one you’d rather not support? Remember that you can change the distribution of your monthly donation at any time. Simply click on Manage Donation in the sidebar (while logged in).

Not yet a member? Join today at the giving level of your choice!