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This post is part of our Humanist Perspectives series. In this series, we invite guest contributors to explore active humanism and what it means to be a thoughtful, engaged member of society. Please share your thoughts in the comments!

Don’t Hide Your Humanism
by Jen Hancock

I had a really great experience today that I want to share with you. I was at the local museum with my son and when I was answering his questions about rifling in cannons (long story) and two women with young kids looked at me and said “she’s seems to be smart and know a lot of stuff, we need to hang out with her.” So, we did. They had a boy about the same age as my son and they got along well and my son delighted in showing him around the museum.

But here is what was really cool, aside from meeting some people who are excited to meet someone who is clearly a geek in a museum. While we were watching the kids explore the discovery center, the grandmother asked me what I did and I told her–I’m a writer. About what? Humanism. I told her about my book–and she said it sounded wonderful. So far so good. Emboldened, I told her that my book is in use at the Royal Military College of Canada. She then turned to me and told me she was going to tell her son about the book because he is a colonel in the Coast Guard and he would probably like to know about the book. Wow! So, chance meeting in a museum, I’m open about my humanism and not only do they not shy away and politely excuse themselves, they are interested in helping me promote humanism in the US military!

Read the rest of this post at Happiness Through Humanism.

Jen Hancock is a writer, speaker, and humanist. She seeks to promote humanism by making it relevant to the very real problems people face every day. The central theme to her writing is about how being a good person has benefits here and now and how approaching life as a humanist can actually help people become happier, more productive citizens of the world.

Foundation members help save Nepali children’s home on the brink

Twenty-two children from the poorest areas of Nepal are housed at the Orphan Welfare Center in Kathmandu. When the owners ran out of funds, the home was threatened with eviction and the children were withdrawn from school for want of nominal tuition fees. Soon money ran out as well for clothing and food.

“The 22 children are currently crammed into a crummy three bedroom flat,” said Scott MacLennan, executive director of third quarter beneficiary The Mountain Fund. “We found a donor to move them into a beautiful five-bedroom home, but we still didn’t have funds to cover the daily needs of the kids. Then Foundation Beyond Belief came along, and we can pay for food and new clothing for the kids and re-enroll them in school.”

Most of the children in the home are “economic orphans” whose parents are still living but are unable to care for them. They are from the three most impoverished districts in Nepal, the poorest country in South Asia, with a median per capita income of less than $400 per year.

“These are the poorest of the poor,” said Scott. “Your support will help us to feed, clothe, and educate these kids. I wasn’t sure where I would get funds for this until your organization came into the picture. Thank you so much for this!”

Mountain Fund will keep us informed on the progress of the home, including additional pictures and updates. 

Learn more from UNICEF about the conditions and status of children in Nepal

Visit Mountain Fund website

By Sikivu Hutchinson
Editor of blackfemlens.org

The L.A. Times news item was buried at the bottom of the page in the bloodlessly tiny print reserved for marginalia. A 7-year-old black girl named Aiyanna Jones had been murdered in her sleep by the Detroit police after a military-style raid on her home. In the wake of the shooting, neighbors and loved ones placed stuffed animals in front of the house in memoriam. Rows of stuffed animals stared out from Associated Press photographs of the crime scene in dark-eyed innocence. In black communities across the nation, Aiyanna’s death elicited a firestorm of outrage from activists critical of police misconduct and excessive force. Recalling New York, Los Angeles, Oakland, and scores of other cities where black lives have been cut down by trigger-happy police officers, many condemned the murder as yet another instance of law enforcement’s criminal devaluation of black lives and “inner city” communities.