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With the recent celebration of Family Humanitarian’s 12th anniversary, we thought it was the perfect time to take a look back at where we’ve been and a look forward at where we’re going.
Family Humanitarian experience (FHe) was formed in 2011 as an expedition-based organization serving the rural areas of the remote Polochic mountains in Guatemala. The idea was to provide an opportunity for families to serve together while lifting others in developing countries. FHe operated solely on expedition revenue with about half of expedition fees paying for humanitarian projects and the other half paying for personal expenses. We went into villages trying to sustainably provide whatever needs a particular village had to help lift themselves out of poverty. This model provided amazing, once in a lifetime experiences for hundreds of families, but we developed a desire to create highly impactful programs that would be ongoing year-round rather than just for a few weeks a year while we were volunteering.
After months (and even years) of research, we kept coming back to the clean water crisis that affects almost a billion people worldwide. Because clean water is the most basic of all human necessities and because no other progress is possible without it, it just made sense to focus our efforts on clean water. Additionally, when you think of the relative ease with which you can solve this problem combined with the shockingly low cost, it became clear that there was no other way that we could have such a profound impact on millions of lives! With clean water in place, families gain the time and health necessary to pursue educations, careers, and other things that allow them to escape poverty. We began to refine our mission to providing clean, safe water to everyone, everywhere and, where possible, to going one step further to selectively magnifying the effects of this clean water through educational programs and school construction.
Clean water is now the cornerstone of our organization. We have spent the last few years learning all we can about clean water and the best ways to sustainably provide it to as many people as possible and are anxious to continue refining our process. We have built thriving, year-round, clean water programs in several countries in Africa and are looking forward to opening many more. Our revenue now comes predominantly from donations and corporate sponsorships, and our expeditions are no longer our primary program – they simply support our long-term, ongoing clean water and education programs and allow individuals and families to see for themselves the enormous impact that can be made through the gift of clean water for life. We have even made a shift from Family Humanitarian experience (FHe) to simply Family Humanitarian (FH) with a new logo to better represent our evolving mission.
Finally, Family Humanitarian is proud to be among the top 1% of charities who have earned both a platinum seal of transparency from GuideStar and a 4 star rating from Charity Navigator, demonstrating our commitment to accountability and transparency. It is our belief that clean water is the best way to impact lives so profoundly, so easily, and at such a low cost. We are honored and grateful for the support that we have received from each of you. At about $2 per person, you can literally change a life forever for the cost of a soda! We look forward to working with all of you to provide clean, safe water to everyone, everywhere!
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