Annual Report for 2023 Activities

Our nonprofit activities in 2023 were highlighted by three significant changes that will assist us in organizing our mission, direction, and strategies in upcoming years. The alterations were:

• In May the Board of Directors agreed to change our name from Humanist Global Charity (HGC) to Humanist Mutual Aid Network (HuMAN). This move will indicate to recipients and funders that we aim for sustainability in our gifting, and our priority is to work with humanist groups that help other humanists.

• We intensified our search for reliable on-the-ground partners that earn our trust via efficient completion of projects. We anticipate working with 15-20 partners in 2024.

• A “Selection Team” was established to determine which proposal projects get funded and which ones do not. The members are Susan Kuchinskas, Cameo Wood, Rick Thomas and Werner Haag. The Selection Team has been extremely valuable in advising Hank Pellissier (project director) with their priorities. Notable is their desire that humanists-at-risk and promoting humanism deserve top consideration.

Who did we support in 2023?

Nigeria humanists received more funding ($12,455) than any other nationality. The bulk of our gifts to this most populous African nation went to our three Safe Houses in Abuja, Minna, and Maiduguri.

Abuja Safe House, established three years ago with the now-imprisoned Mubarak Bala, received funds for its juice drink startup, plus medicine for their jailed leader. Minna Safe House impressively launched multiple projects; most impressive is its Tai Solarin Humanist School that quickly expanded its enrollment to 85 children, necessitating a lease on a larger building. Maiduguri Safe House received funding to complete construction of a new house where six humanists can live freely, avoiding Islamic rituals and the dangerous scrutiny of neighbors in this sharia-zone city plagued by Boko Haram.

Uganda received the second-most funding ($9,924). The majority of the allocations went, once again, to a Safe House, in Mipigi. We paid the room & board for dozens of women who needed shelter because they were abused by their husbands, plus we delivered sustainability funding for the group’s HGC Community Garden, HGC Grocery Store, and Mpigi Motorcycle Repair Shop. Additional Uganda funding supported mushroom-cultivating and bee-keeping workshops offered by both Eco-Agric in Kampala and the Humanist Initiative Project in Kasese.

India was the third-highest recipient ($9,561). Our support here went mainly to three humanist schools in multiple states: APNA School in Bihar, Sikshit School in Uttar Pradesh, and Blossom Academy in Kerala. Our donors provided these schools, and their local rural communities, with funds for community gardens, sewing machines, sanitary pads, self-defense workshops for girls, cooking utensils for lunch preparation, and numerous sponsorships of the at-risk Dalit (untouchable) and Adivasi (tribal) students. We also constructed an Atheist Library at APNA School with funds primarily donated by the Facebook page Atheists United.

Nepal received the bulk of its funding ($3,840) to aid poverty-stricken Dalits in the slum areas of Kathmandu. Our partners there belong to Atheist Republic Nepal (ARP) and/or Nepal Association of Secular Humanists (NASH). Additional recipients include an encampment of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, and a small orphanage (14 children) in a suburb of Kathmandu. Nepal is an impoverished nation: our gifts included blankets, warm clothes, sanitary pads, school supplies, work gloves, mosquito nets, and vocational classes.

Chad ($2,465) is one of our newest and most exciting partners. Every project we supported was skillfully executed and documented. Achievements include 1) a water well for a thirsty community, 2) malaria medicine for children and mothers at a refugee camp, 3) a “free pantry” at the refugee camp, 4) a workshop on Zai regenerative farming offered to rural women, and 5) dental hygiene supplies delivered to 100 children - half of them were abandoned street kids.

USA Appalachia ($2,100) - Via our partners Appalachia Mutual Aid, we funded a community dinner every month in Berea, Kentucky. Additionally, we gave the group cash for NarCans, money for Plan B morning-after pills, and support to build and stock three Free Pantries.

USA Indigenous ($2,355) - Our primary recipient was an indigent-led mutual aid group: South Sound Street Medics in Tacoma, Washington. We provided them with cash for gasoline and food, plus t-shirts to deliver to USA native reservations and First Nation communities in Canada. We also funded “Women With Bows” - a Pomo tribal group in Northern California, and we provided food to a Cherokee community center.

Kenya ($2,990) received funding, for the fourth consecutive year, for the 22 parentless students at the Humanist Orphan Centre in Kumasi. We also provided fertilizer and organic pesticides for its HGC Fruit Garden. Our work there is in collaboration with the Center for Inquiry.

Zambia ($1,065) funding went primarily to a regenerative garden near Lusaka. We enabled the humanist director to offer free workshops in composting and no-till farming to single mothers and at-risk girls.

Africa Humanist Grants - Three dozen SubSahara humanist individuals received funding for their educational, entrepreneurial, and humanitarian endeavors.

Liberia ($755) - Sarafina, a kind and business-savvy humanist in Monrovia, cares for 15 street kids (many of them toddlers) in a bare-bones building called the Mind2Love Secular Orphanage. We delivered food funding to this group, plus cash for a freezer where she stacks and sells fish from a local river. In December we gave her more funding for a corn-mill.

Mozambique ($250) - We were contacted by three survivors of a town terrorized by Al-Shabab; we gave them food that they shared with 175 neighbors and the humanist population quickly swelled to 15. That’s what ‘doing good without god’ can do.

Additional nations we delivered funds to include The Philippines ($1,374), Bangladesh ($1,752), Myanmar ($1,350), Mexico ($1,200), South Africa ($760), Turkey ($930), Tanzania ($920), Ghana ($550), Democratic Republic ofCongo ($450), South Sudan ($450), Palestine ($250), Rwanda ($220), Afghanistan ($203), Malawi ($150), Niger ($110), Benin ($110), Gambia ($100), Malta ($100), and Sri Lanka ($50).

Our Goal in 2024 is to add new humanist partners from other nations - we are currently examining fresh applications from Ethiopia, Peru, and Zimbabwe. We’re also trimming support to nations that have received exorbitant amounts, and we’re saying goodbye to partners that have received sufficient amounts to become sustainable - congrats!

We Thank Everyone who contributed to our success in the last year: our partners, our Board members, our staff, and most of all, our deepest gratitude to our donors. Without you we wouldn’t exist, and none of these humanist humanitarian activities would have happened.

THANK YOU for helping us save, aid, elevate and enlighten the lives of thousands of people.