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By Walker Bristol

It’s shocking how quickly any one of us can fall into homelessness—simply getting injured and fired can leave one unable to pay their bills, and thus left on the street. Modest Needs, our current Poverty and Health beneficiary, is reaching out to those who have been stricken by poverty to give them the small financial support they need to get back on their feet. And their model is tremendously effective: Two-thirds of grant recipients from Modest Needs become financially secure enough to make a donation to the organization later in their life. But it isn’t just this statistic that makes their mission so compelling—it is the personal stories of those helped.

Albert, a combat veteran evicted after underemployment left him unable to pay rent, was profiled as a part of the Modest Needs Profiles in Courageous Generosity series. A series of simple, unfortunate events left someone who many in this country would praise as an American hero for his service without a home or steady job, and no way to help support his family. And Albert’s one of many—almost a third of the homeless population are veterans.

After returning from service, Albert lived in Washington state and was working as a handyman, living paycheck to paycheck to support himself, his wife, and two children. When work slowed down in May 2012 and he was unable to pay his rent or utilities, Albert’s landlady kicked them out of their apartment. Albert “became a statistic—another homeless veteran.”

The Veteran’s Administration helped him get a truck to move his family and their belongings to a shelter, but the shelter wouldn’t be available to them for several days after his eviction—Albert needed help to afford a hotel room in which they could stay for the layover, to keep his family from living in a vehicle and to keep himself presentable while looking for work. He only needed a few hundred dollars, and he could potentially find a steady job while keeping his family off the streets.

$285, to be exact—and through a Modest Needs Emergency Fund grant, which aids those in immediate need without going through the longer application process, they were able to find a local hotel to stay in for those few days. Albert set out then to “pass on the kindness that [was] shown to him, and to do what he can to ensure that no one has to know what it is to be homeless.” And only two days after entering the shelter, Albert became a Modest Needs monthly donor.

His story is unique but not unprecedented: Veterans are often the recipients of support from Modest Needs, and the grants are often not nearly as big as you’d imagine, yet they can do tremendous work and inspire tremendous purpose. Albert has since found a new job and home, an achievement that could have either been hindered or even impossible by now without this small support from empathetic people. You can find more stories like his on the Profiles in Courageous Generosity page of the Modest Needs website. We have to continue to care about relieving poverty, for as we can see in Albert’s story, a tiny bit of misfortune can drown one in poverty overnight. It’s our responsibility to see ourselves in others, and help those who have been affected. Albert, and everyone Modest Needs has supported, is surely thankful for your empathy.

Foundation Beyond Belief is proud to introduce our new Family Resource Page. This constantly evolving page brings resources to humanist parents wishing to help their children develop compassionate engagement with the world around them.

In addition to general resources for encouraging generosity and mutual responsibility, this page will include books, online activities, and other resources related to the Foundation’s causes at a given time.

The drought and famine in the Horn of Africa is a major focus of our work for the rest of 2011, so we’re launching this page with resources to help kids learn about the region, the cultures, and the issues involved in that crisis, from geography to climate to a description of famine itself. We’ll also explore what the world is doing to help those in desperate need, and to plan for a future in which famine is relegated to the history books.

Our current poverty beneficiary, Responsible Charity, shares this story of how they’re supporting an impoverished young man with a serious injury and overwhelming medical expenses.

This is Ismail, a 25-year-old man from the slums of Kolkata who recently suffered a double-fracture open wound to his left leg. The bone pierced through the skin, and after treatment offered at Chittaranjan Government Hospital, which discharged him after a routine first-aid treatment, his leg was soon infected.

Ismail is the sole supporting family member for his aging parents. There are thousands of amputees in Kolkata — we can avoid adding one more to the list. Without our help, the family will dive deeper into poverty.

Name: Sarah Greer / The Greer Family

Location: Bethlehem, Georgia

Married for eleven years, my husband and I homeschool our three children, ages nine, five, and three. I blog about our adventures over at Raising Three Thinkers. We love all things science and technology, especially when they merge into the passions of our children: music, the oceans, and art.

How did you first hear about the Foundation? From Dale McGowan’s blog, The Meming of Life.

Why are you a member? For years we wanted to be part of something bigger than ourselves, but there were always too many worthy causes. We never felt like we could commit to just one or two things.  Foundation Beyond Belief gives us a chance to touch so many of the areas that are important to us, in any that we choose. Plus we want to show our support and promote non-theistic charitable giving.

Do you have some favorite cause categories? This has been the hardest part for us; we can’t decide how to split our monthly donation! So far, we’ve decided to support them all equally. But we love having the ability to adjust our contribution if a particular beneficiary resonates with us.

Any beneficiaries so far that particularly moved or interested you? This quarter, I was particularly happy to see Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s foundation in The Big Bang category. Reading her book Infidel was one of those defining moments in my life. She is such an inspiration, and I love being able to support her work in educating and fighting for the rights of Muslim women. As the mother of two young girls, I hope to pass along her incredible story of strength and courage.

As a family, we were also very pleased to see Marriage Equality USA as the Human Rights beneficiary for this quarter. It’s an issue close to our hearts as we have many dear friends and family that are being denied these basic civil rights.