February 2020 Humanity's Team Newsletter
Welcome to Humanity's Team Newsletter where you can find a brief glimpse of a few things happening in our organization.
Did you ever wonder how Groundhog Day started?
Adapted from the History Channel
Falling midway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, February 2
is a significant day in several ancient and modern traditions. The Celts, for instance, celebrated it as Imbolc, a pagan festival marking the beginning of spring.
Then as Christianity spread through Europe, the tradition evolved into Candlemas, a feast commemorating the presentation of Jesus at the holy temple in Jerusalem. In certain parts of Europe, Christians believed that a sunny Candlemas meant another 40 days of cold and snow.
Later Germans developed their own take on the legend, pronouncing the day sunny only if badgers and other small animals glimpsed their own shadows.
When German immigrants settled Pennsylvania in the 18th and 19th centuries, they brought the custom with them, choosing the native groundhog as the annual forecaster. The men trekked to a site called Gobbler’s Knob, where the inaugural groundhog became the bearer of bad news when he saw his shadow.
Nowadays, the yearly festivities in Punxsutawney are presided over by a band of local dignitaries known as the Inner Circle. Its members wear top hats and conduct the official proceedings in the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect. (They supposedly speak to the groundhog in “Groundhogese.”)
Then as Christianity spread through Europe, the tradition evolved into Candlemas, a feast commemorating the presentation of Jesus at the holy temple in Jerusalem. In certain parts of Europe, Christians believed that a sunny Candlemas meant another 40 days of cold and snow.
Later Germans developed their own take on the legend, pronouncing the day sunny only if badgers and other small animals glimpsed their own shadows.
When German immigrants settled Pennsylvania in the 18th and 19th centuries, they brought the custom with them, choosing the native groundhog as the annual forecaster. The men trekked to a site called Gobbler’s Knob, where the inaugural groundhog became the bearer of bad news when he saw his shadow.
Nowadays, the yearly festivities in Punxsutawney are presided over by a band of local dignitaries known as the Inner Circle. Its members wear top hats and conduct the official proceedings in the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect. (They supposedly speak to the groundhog in “Groundhogese.”)
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Make a Difference Corner
Sewing machines made their familiar and rhythmic thumping around the world to help protect Australian animals where over a billion perished due to the wildfires and millions of others either lost their young or the young lost their mothers.
Volunteers from around the world have made cloth pouches for young kangaroos and other marsupials so they can heal. The response has been so successful that the Australian Animal Rescue Guild had put this report out:
At this time, the Australian Animal Rescue Guild says: UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE ALL CRAFT HUBS ARE CLOSED FOR STOCKTAKE. WE URGE YOU TO HOLD ONTO YOUR ITEMS OR PLEASE CONTACT YOUR LOCAL RESCUES TO SEE IF THEY NEED ITEMS.
Complimentary Program Series
Access your capacity to Transcend personal and Intergenerational traumas with acclaimed spiritual teachers Thomas Hübl & Joan Borysenko, Ph.D.
Country Coordinator
Humanity's Team Rwanda
Rwanda Clubs for Peace organization is a non-governmental organization, founded in 2004 and recognized by the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) in 2017 with Legal personality No 79/RGB/NGO2017. It was founded by 3 secondary teachers committed to empowering Youth in Peace building, human rights and good governance.
Rwanda Clubs for Peace promotes youth empowerment and peace-building through capacity building development programs such as leadership, conflict and management/resolution.
Our target group is Youth specifically in secondary schools, teachers and school leaders. When we started in 2004, only 4 Youth Peace Clubs were working with us. But as the days went on and on, the number of Youth Peace Clubs kept increasing day after day, which means today we are working with 105 Youth for Peace Clubs in 5 districts of the western province.
Rwanda Clubs for Peace organization is a non-governmental organization, founded in 2004 and recognized by the Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) in 2017 with Legal personality No 79/RGB/NGO2017. It was founded by 3 secondary teachers committed to empowering Youth in Peace building, human rights and good governance.
Rwanda Clubs for Peace promotes youth empowerment and peace-building through capacity building development programs such as leadership, conflict and management/resolution.
Our target group is Youth specifically in secondary schools, teachers and school leaders. When we started in 2004, only 4 Youth Peace Clubs were working with us. But as the days went on and on, the number of Youth Peace Clubs kept increasing day after day, which means today we are working with 105 Youth for Peace Clubs in 5 districts of the western province.
In the beginning, our mission and objectives were to fight and prevent genocide ideologies among youth in schools, as it was only some years after the Genocide against Tutsi happened in Rwanda where more than a million Tutsi were killed because of their ethnicity. So we came in to bring our contribution to rebuilding the country torn apart by genocide and mass killing.
We targeted the youth because they are many, active and listen quickly. We all know well that when youth learn how to build peace around the school and their communities, When they grow up, they can help to build sustainable peace around the world.
How We Do What We Do First of all, we visit a school and meet the school leader. Then we introduce ourselves and explain clearly what we do and how we do it and why. Then we request partnership with the school by showing the role of the school in peace-building and human rights. Then once agreed, we plan a date when we will come and meet all students, teachers and explain the purpose of our visit. After this meeting, we initiate the Youth Peace Clubs.
We conduct regular meetings of Students, by visiting about how the club is operating and the support that the school is providing there. There are also teachers in charge of discipline and culture that are conducted by Rwanda Clubs for Peace Organization. This to show them the importance of Educators in Building sustainable Peace and to promote human rights at the school level.
Genocide Memorial Visits In order to continue thinking on how human rights were violated in Rwanda, How the leadership at the time in 1994, were not valuing human rights and what our history can teach us about our Future, we organize Genocide Memorial visits, where Youth can see really how people were killed by their relatives, parents, leaders, etc.. and here students learn a big lesson and say never again not only in theory but in practice.
Supporting Genocide Survivors and Orphans In order to continue to empower our students to become good and active citizens, we also encourage them to volunteer and provide their support to the needy people. Here they build kitchen gardens, toilets, provide food, clothes and do some cleaning (hygiene) in the compound of those needy people.
Community Work (known as UMUGANDA and is also the name of the national monthly day) in which the people of Rwanda are required to take part in the national cleanup day on the last Saturday of every month. In order to continue to make our schools, communities, roads clean, all students in their sectors, join the entire community and do community work. This allows them to know the community around the school, meet local leaders, and the community takes this opportunity to know that students are not only studying but also to support the community. After this, they sing and dance together.
Football for Peace Tournament We all know that if there is something that attracts many people in the World is sport but specifically football (soccer). That is why we also chose to use Football, which is our annual event. It gathered all youth from schools that we work with and it takes 3 months--from June till October. Here students do not play as fun, but there is a message.
We, first of all, explain the reason for the event and take one minute of silence to remember all sportsmen and women killed during the genocide then play. From this, many things have changed positively. Discipline, school attendance, fighting drugs, and the relationship among students at school level have impeccably increased. No more bullying, quarreling or fighting, All these things have changed. School leaders and local leaders acknowledge our activities in schools.
Since February 2019 we started Global Sport, where we invite the young, adults and old people to come together and do sport as to fight some diseases, and build their bodies. We meet every Saturday and Sunday morning. Hereafter the sport, doctors test people for some diseases and provide some advice and tell them what to do. We also update the community about our work and more specifically encourage them to take their kids to schools. We have got 5 students who dropped from school but promised to go back in this past January.
In brief, this is what we do.
Attached are some pictures. Ladislas Yassin Nkundabanyanga Humanity's Team Country Coordinator, Rwanda
We targeted the youth because they are many, active and listen quickly. We all know well that when youth learn how to build peace around the school and their communities, When they grow up, they can help to build sustainable peace around the world.
How We Do What We Do First of all, we visit a school and meet the school leader. Then we introduce ourselves and explain clearly what we do and how we do it and why. Then we request partnership with the school by showing the role of the school in peace-building and human rights. Then once agreed, we plan a date when we will come and meet all students, teachers and explain the purpose of our visit. After this meeting, we initiate the Youth Peace Clubs.
We conduct regular meetings of Students, by visiting about how the club is operating and the support that the school is providing there. There are also teachers in charge of discipline and culture that are conducted by Rwanda Clubs for Peace Organization. This to show them the importance of Educators in Building sustainable Peace and to promote human rights at the school level.
Genocide Memorial Visits In order to continue thinking on how human rights were violated in Rwanda, How the leadership at the time in 1994, were not valuing human rights and what our history can teach us about our Future, we organize Genocide Memorial visits, where Youth can see really how people were killed by their relatives, parents, leaders, etc.. and here students learn a big lesson and say never again not only in theory but in practice.
Supporting Genocide Survivors and Orphans In order to continue to empower our students to become good and active citizens, we also encourage them to volunteer and provide their support to the needy people. Here they build kitchen gardens, toilets, provide food, clothes and do some cleaning (hygiene) in the compound of those needy people.
Community Work (known as UMUGANDA and is also the name of the national monthly day) in which the people of Rwanda are required to take part in the national cleanup day on the last Saturday of every month. In order to continue to make our schools, communities, roads clean, all students in their sectors, join the entire community and do community work. This allows them to know the community around the school, meet local leaders, and the community takes this opportunity to know that students are not only studying but also to support the community. After this, they sing and dance together.
Football for Peace Tournament We all know that if there is something that attracts many people in the World is sport but specifically football (soccer). That is why we also chose to use Football, which is our annual event. It gathered all youth from schools that we work with and it takes 3 months--from June till October. Here students do not play as fun, but there is a message.
We, first of all, explain the reason for the event and take one minute of silence to remember all sportsmen and women killed during the genocide then play. From this, many things have changed positively. Discipline, school attendance, fighting drugs, and the relationship among students at school level have impeccably increased. No more bullying, quarreling or fighting, All these things have changed. School leaders and local leaders acknowledge our activities in schools.
Since February 2019 we started Global Sport, where we invite the young, adults and old people to come together and do sport as to fight some diseases, and build their bodies. We meet every Saturday and Sunday morning. Hereafter the sport, doctors test people for some diseases and provide some advice and tell them what to do. We also update the community about our work and more specifically encourage them to take their kids to schools. We have got 5 students who dropped from school but promised to go back in this past January.
In brief, this is what we do.
Attached are some pictures. Ladislas Yassin Nkundabanyanga Humanity's Team Country Coordinator, Rwanda
Humanity's Team A Course in Miracles Facebook page & Neale Donald Walsch book discussion group
This Facebook page
shares psychological tools of thought from A Course In Miracles. Regular posts include graphical quotations from the text and lyrical videos. Page is moderated by Tim Noe.
Join the Neale Donald Walsch book discussion group. This group meets every Sunday from 11am-12:00 noon Pacific Time. All are welcome. Group is moderated by Nannette Kennedy.
Here is the connect info. We are reading Neale Donald Walsch's book: Tomorrow's God. All are welcome. To find the time in your area: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter-classic.html
Here's the link to join the meeting: https://zoom.us/j/932973124
Or use your telephone: US: +1 646 876 9923 or +1 669 900 6833
Here is the connect info. We are reading Neale Donald Walsch's book: Tomorrow's God. All are welcome. To find the time in your area: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter-classic.html
Here's the link to join the meeting: https://zoom.us/j/932973124
Or use your telephone: US: +1 646 876 9923 or +1 669 900 6833
Meeting ID: 932 973 124
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Humanity’s Team is a tax-exempt organization in the United States under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Federal Tax ID: 86-1088741. Your donation is tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.
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