In August the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) launched a new programme for “Regional Humanist Hub” grants. We have now awarded 7 grants in the current round of funding and plan to re-open the same process next January, focusing this time on Africa as IHEU’s new priority region for 2018.
As part of its Growth and Development Plan, the IHEU has awarded a total of £6000 to support projects and events promoting humanism and the work of humanist organizations. For 2017 the Board of IHEU set Latin America as our priority region.
The 2017 Humanist Regional Hub grants awarded follow below:
Latin American Humanist Congress in Guatemala
A grant of £3000 has been awarded to Humanistas Guatemala toward a planned Latin American Humanist Congress in Guatemala during the first months of 2019.
This Congress will be the very first Humanist event with such a scope in Latin America, a region where the Humanist and secular movement has grown exponentially in recent years.
For example, looking just at the first 8 month of 2017, IHEU Member Organizations in the region passed from 7 to 13 – and in the meanwhile more Latin American organizations sent their applications to become member of the IHEU.
Oscar Pineda, Vice-President of Humanistas Guatemala, said:
“When we started Humanistas Guatemala nearly 4 years ago, we made it one of our long-term goals to host a well-thought out and well-organised gathering of Latin American humanists, in order to get to know each other in person, talk about our common interests, and share our experiences.
“It always seemed like a very distant goal, but one worth a shot. Now, thanks to the grant we received from IHEU, we are one step closer towards making this idea a reality in 2019.”
Latin American Freethinkers meeting in Peru
In the same region, the IHEU has decided to award 4 travel grants of £400 each to IHEU Member Organizations in order to help them attend the first Latin American Freethinkers meeting that will take place in Arequipa (Peru) on 24-26 May 2018.
The meeting is organized by the Freethinkers Association of Arequipa, applicant member of the IHEU.
The first two travel grants have been made to Bogotà Atea and Humanistas Guatemala.
Two further travel grants are still available. To be eligible organizations must be IHEU Member Organizations (or applicant members) in the Latin America region who are attending the conference. Deadline: 25 October. For all enquiries please contact us (in English or Spanish) at [email protected].
Atheist Society of Nigeria Convention “Road to Reason”
The third grant of £900 has been awarded to the Atheist Society of Nigeria (ASN), applicant member of IHEU.
ASN will use this grant to help twenty university students from different areas of Nigeria to attend ASN National Convention “Road to Reason”. The deadline for students to apply for the travel grants is 14 October – all information can be found on ASN website.
The Convention will take place on 11 November at the University of Lagos and the IHEU will be present virtually with a video-message from its Growth and Development Officer, Giovanni Gaetani.
Calistus Igwilo, President of ASN, said:
“This grant will cover the travel costs and 2 nights hotel accommodation for 20 students from 10 different Nigerian Institutions.
“During the Convention there will be a session with the student delegates where we will train them on setting up ASN branches in their various institutions, and equip them with skills to manage and sustain branches.
“We are very grateful to IHEU for awarding us this grant. This grant is a cornerstone to our vision of creating a vibrant youth population in Nigeria that will champion critical thinking and rational reasoning in national discourses.”
Report on “Secularism and Freedom of conscience in Russia”
The fourth grant of £500 went to another IHEU applicant member, the Russian cluster of the Brights movement, better known simply as Brights Russia.
This year Brights Russia published on its website the outcome of two years of research on the status of secularism and freedom of conscience in Russia. The e-book (in Russian) is available for free download on Brights Russia’s website.
With this grant the IHEU is helping Brights Russia to fully translate the report into English. Once translated, the book will be made available for download on the IHEU website.
On behalf of Brights Russia, Eugene Tsygankov said:
“Brights Russia is a completely volunteer-based strictly non-commercial community. For this reason, we can continue our work promoting humanism and naturalistic worldview only thanks to donations.
“We are thankful to IHEU for the grant which allows us to translate and publish our extensive research on the topic of state worldview neutrality, which is often neglected in our country. With this translation we will make our research on Russian secularism available for readers around the world.”
New grants upcoming
Commenting the award of the Regional Hub Grants, IHEU Growth and Development Officer, Giovanni Gaetani, said:
“We were really pleased by both the number and the quality of the project proposals received by many different organizations from all over the world.
“This process confirmed to us that the Humanist movement keeps on growing fast at all levels and in every region of the world.
“We are planning to open the same tendering process early next year, focusing this time on Africa as IHEU’s new priority region for 2018.”
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