Humanist Action
We are nothing without you
This week is National Volunteer Week! We here at Foundation Beyond Belief and Humanist Action: Ghana are nothing without our volunteers, so we are thrilled to celebrate them this week and every week! Want to join us? We'd love to have you! With this HA: Ghana volunteer year rapidly coming to an end, the current…
Read MoreFBB reacts to San Antonio mayor’s comments
Earlier this month at a mayoral forum, the current mayor of San Antonio, TX, Ivy Taylor, was asked by a representative of SA Christian Hope Resource Center what she saw as the deepest systemic causes of generational poverty. Her answer was disappointing. “Since you’re with the Christian Coalition, I’ll go ahead and put it out…
Read MoreI acknowledge you
Of the many different cultural adjustments to be made when coming to Ghana, one of the most important is understanding the process and significance of local greetings. There is a list of about ten different, basic greetings and connected conversational pieces to learn. These are relatively easy to learn and use, but the biggest challenge…
Read MoreWhen a humanist is asked to pray
In Ghana it is customary to start and end every meeting with a prayer. What kind of meeting doesn’t matter: PTA meeting, building project meeting, NGO planning meeting–they all start and end with a prayer. Ghana is one of the most religious countries in the world, so while there are Christians, Muslims, and traditionalists, it’s…
Read MoreBeyond Belief Network March Team of the Month
The Beyond Belief Network Team of the Month for March was Fellowship of Freethought-Dallas (FOF). The group picked up trash along their two mile stretch of adopted highway in Dallas and provided a meal for the residents at one of the AIDS Services of Dallas facilities, as they do every month. In addition to those…
Read MoreGold mining in Northern Ghana
There are many gold mines, both legal and illegal, in Ghana. Currently, there are a lot of debate surrounding the safety and ethics of mining practices with workers getting hurt or becoming ill, and foreigners taking advantage of the heavy local need for work. One occupational safety issue is the use of mercury to extract…
Read MoreTeacher training day in Northern Ghana
The photograph above depicts training day for volunteer teachers in over 50 small villages in the northern region of Ghana. In our previous post delineating the Principles of Service of our Humanist Action: Ghana, one of the things discussed was the creation of sustainable change. The goal of HA: Ghana's work in Ghana is not…
Read MoreDeveloping HA: Ghana’s Principles of Service
At the end of 2014, I wrote the article below for American Atheist magazine. It was the fifth piece in a series about Pathfinders Project, the year-long global service and research trip intended as the first step toward the Humanist Action: Ghana. I submitted the first four articles to the magazine from the field as…
Read MoreGhanaians and the practice of tribal marking
As a kid between the ages of eight and ten, I used to follow my mum to her friends’ baby naming ceremonies in Tamale, Ghana. Here in Ghana, babies aren’t given names until seven days after they are born. On that day there is a naming ceremony that the whole community is invited to. I…
Read MoreHumanism at work
We're all in this together which is why at Foundation Beyond Belief, we are transforming lives and putting humanist values into action through global service. We are a humanist charity that promotes secular volunteering and responsible charitable giving. Guided by the principles of secular humanism, our mission is to unite the humanist community in volunteering…
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