Last chance to support our fourth-quarter beneficiaries

The year is swiftly drawing to a close—this is your last chance to distribute your donations among our five featured beneficiaries for the fourth quarter of 2013. Here’s a quick look at this quarter’s amazing beneficiaries:

Water Ecuador is working to improve access to clean water in rural Ecuador. Their water centers help the local communities in a number of ways: Each center provides affordable, clean water (up to 8,000 liters every day) at about one-fifth the price of water shipped in from a major city, and then they use the revenues generated by water purchases to pay for maintenance of the water center and the water manager’s salary. Pathfinders Project will be working with Water Ecuador in 2014 to help with clean water education and construction of their newest water center. 

Bat Conservation International is leading the crusade to educate people about the importance of bats to our ecosystems, and to protect bats from the many threats facing them today. White-nose syndrome is an epidemic decimating North American bat populations—BCI is working to stop the spread of the disease through education and outreach. They also work to protect bat habitats, like the Bracken Cave in Texas, where a new housing development could mean disaster for the local bats.

Roots and Wings International improves access to education for indigenous people in Guatemala. Their college scholarships allow students to train for skilled professions and then return to their home community to put their education to work. In 2011, FBB members funded a grant to RWI that established their Foundation Beyond Belief scholarship. Our FBB scholar, Miguel Lamberto Sohom Tzáj, has used the scholarship to study medicine at University Rafael Landívar en Xela. Each donation of $3,800 is enough to fully fund a scholarship, so FBB member donations in the fourth quarter of 2013 will likely be enough to fund two or three new RWI scholarships. 

Apopo approaches human rights with a unique blend of science, technology, and animal activism—they train African giant pouched rats to search for landmines and screen for tuberculosis. Apopo’s HeroRATs start their training at just four weeks old, beginning with socialization and moving on to honing their exceptional sense of smell. The program creates local jobs in areas such as Thailand, Angola, and Dar es Salaam, where trainers are hired from local populations to work with the organization.

The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice is an interfaith coalition that promotes reproductive health and choice. They focus on the ethical reasons for choice and personal responsibility, using their beliefs to support reproductive rights, and they fight against the often religiously motivated reasoning used to oppose reproductive access on both national and state levels. Recently they’ve been speaking out against overly broad religious exemptions in the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and calling attention to the plight of immigrants and undocumented workers, who are vulnerable to violence and have limited access to contraception and reproductive health care.

This quarter’s Small Grant is funding our new FBB Kiva.org account. Starting in 2014, funds raised for this grant will be used to create a Foundation Beyond Belief microfinance account, which will immediately make a significant number of $25 loans. Our goal is to use only secular microfinance institutions (MFIs) and concentrate on loans that have fast repayments (6 to 9 months). The Foundation Beyond Belief Kiva account will join the Atheists, Agnostics, Skeptics, Freethinkers, Secular Humanists and the Non-Religious team.

The Pathfinders are currently in Ghana working with Leo Igwe’s camp for those accused of witchcraft. According to Conor Robinson, the director of Pathfinders Project, “The visit to the camp for alleged witches has been even more meaningful than expected. Internet is limited, but we are working hard to collect the heartbreaking stories of these victims of superstition and prepare them to be shared. The human rights abuses suffered by these women are unimaginable. There is no redress and very little aid.” Earlier this quarter, they worked with Kasese Humanist Primary School, Mustard Seed School, and Isaac Newton High School in Uganda, and the Alliance for African Women’s Initiative in Ghana. Click here to support their ongoing worldwide service trip.

Our year-end fund drive is off to a great start! Thanks to generous donors, we’ve raised about half of our goal of $15,000. Your donations to our year-end drive support our Humanist Giving program, the 80+ secular teams doing volunteer service as part of our Beyond Belief Network, our Humanist Crisis Response program, and the Pathfinders Project and Humanist Service Corps, launching in 2014. Click here to make a donation and get our fifth year of compassionate humanism off to a roaring start.

Don't forget to sign in to your account and allocate your donations for the fourth quarter (on the right side of the page, choose "Manage Donation").