So, this was 2020.

It’s been a hard year for all of us, right?

We want to start the last month of this unparalleled year off right and give you a recap on what we’ve been up to, the things that happened for Humankind International, and what we’re looking forward to in 2021.

The year has sped by - it’s not just us, is it? A LOT happened for us in early 2020, and in the hyperspeed year that it was, we haven’t been keeping you folks up to date…

So let’s gooooo:

January:

In early January 2020, we received our charitable number - this means we’re now a recognized charity! We worked for a few years on this, compiling paperwork, making phone calls, coordinating information and meeting with lawyers. This accomplishment is all thanks to the extremely hard and dedicated work that our board members Janet Racz, Lauren Reeves and past board member, Anne Mahon, did to make this happen.

Read more about it in our blog post here: https://humankindintl.org/latest-news/we-are-now-officially-a-registered-charity

Board member and HKI co-founder Muuxi Adam travelled to Dadaab in January to conduct Humankind’s yearly visit to the school. He took a lot of awesome photos - view some of the best ones and read more about the trip in our blog post on it here: https://humankindintl.org/latest-news/co-founder-muuxi-adam-visits-humankind-academy

February:

Our mighty chair, Abdi Ahmed, stepped down from his position and board member Jen Glenwright volunteered to fill the position (she’s been doing an awesome job!).

Read more about the transition and Jen here: https://humankindintl.org/latest-news/introducing-our-new-board-chair

March:

Ugh, we all know how March 2020 went. We had to ask ourselves many times, “What do we do?” Humankind Academy in Dadaab, Kenya shut its doors due to COVID, and we had to seriously re-think what we were going to do about our largest source of donations, our annual fundraising dinner.

April:

We officially cancelled our annual fundraising dinner - and successfully pivoted. We thought long and hard and had several brainstorming sessions to figure out how we were going to raise the almost $11,000 that all of our awesome supporters help us raise at HKI’s annual fundraising dinner. We launched a fairly small-scale social media campaign to see if we could do it entirely virtual…. and it was a total success!

Read more about our virtual campaign, and how you helped make it happen here: https://humankindintl.org/latest-news/virtual-campaign-a-success

August:

Board members Kayla Buehler and Alyssa Etsell worked throughout the summer to move Humankind International’s old website to a new platform and design a new version from scratch.

Read more about what a new website means for HKI and where you can find the information you may need in our blog post on it here: https://humankindintl.org/latest-news/we-launched-a-new-website

September:

In September, Humankind Academy was still closed, and our students were starting to show malnourishment from lack of nutrition. While they attend Humankind Academy, they’re fed two meals per day but because there was no school to attend, this was missing.

Learn more about how we adjusted and created a food hamper program in our blog post on it here: https://humankindintl.org/latest-news/delivering-food-hampers-to-our-students

October:

Our board member and HKI co-founder, Abdirizak Adam, went to Kenya in October and visited Dadaab Refugee Camp.

Read more about his trip and what we were able to do while there here: https://humankindintl.org/latest-news/abdirizak-visits-kenya

And now it is December…

In January 2021, Humankind Academy students will be returning to school.

Learn more about what that means in our blog post about it here: https://humankindintl.org/latest-news/what-does-2021-hold

Giving Tuesday Challenge

We don’t know what 2021 has in store, but we do know that we will need to continue doing what we’re doing, and if 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that we may be required to show up in ways we’re not used to, and we’re willing and ready to rise to that challenge. Food security is a bigger issue than we realized, and we’d like to continue providing that service to the community as much as we possibly can.

For Giving Tuesday, we’re wondering if you’ll accept a challenge.

The challenge? Can you get at least five of your friends to donate at least $20 to Humankind International?Are you up for it?

Tell your friends you accept the challenge and ask them if they will too! Let us know if you accept the challenge by tagging us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and adding #GivingTuesdayHKI.

TODAY ONLY, Canada Helps, the organization that our donations go through, will add an extra $2 onto any $20+ donation. Start the #GivingTuesdayHKI challenge by donating here: https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/humankind-international-inc/