All People Making a Difference
- A Bigshot with a big goal: Get kids thinking
A simple build-it-yourself camera teaches science and art.
- Difference MakerRosemary Nyirumbe runs a school for young women fleeing slavery
St. Monica Girls’ Tailoring Center in Uganda teaches skills that allow women to earn a living for themselves – and often for the children they bore as slave 'wives.'
- Molly Cantrell-Kraig uses a car as a vehicle to transform women
Her Women With Drive Foundation helps women whose only barrier to self-sufficiency is the lack of transportation.
- How an ex-girlfriend's round-the-world ticket helped launch a global charity
Jordan Axani is leveraging his viral story about a free airline ticket for a Canadian named "Elizabeth Gallagher" into a campaign to raise money to help others travel. Here's why it just might work.
- Founder of D.C. Central Kitchen tries feeding Los Angeles
Robert Egger's L.A. Kitchen aims to reduce food waste and unemployment while combating hunger and isolation among older adults.
- Philanthropist couple saved 3,000 migrants at sea
Christopher and Regina Catrambone launched the Migrant Offshore Aid Station to rescue migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea into Europe.
- Walden Pond, where Thoreau lived simply, goes solar
Walden Pond, considered the birthplace of the environmental movement, will have a new visitor center, powered by solar energy, that includes a charging station for electric cars.
- Farhana Yamin's simple yet radical idea: zero emissions
Ms. Yamin has been a key actor in getting that ambitious goal into the discussion of carbon emission reductions under way at the UN climate talks in Lima, Peru.
- Difference MakerNalini Shekar put aside retirement to help India's waste pickers
In Bangalore, India, Nalini Shekar has organized lowly waste pickers wandering the streets into a cohesive group of waste-management professionals.
- Toys for Tots: creating 7 million smiles a year
A Marine Corps Reserve effort helps families.
- Education is key to protecting children in West Africa
People need to feel free to ask questions, to voice their opinions, and to understand the role they can play in changing practices such as child marriage, says a Muslim leader and child protection specialist.
- Lava Mae provides mobile showers for homeless people
Funded by Google and Indiegogo, a San Francisco nonprofit turns old buses into much-needed shower facilities for those living on the streets.
- A decade after a devastating tsunami, new forests protect Indonesia's coast
The tsunami that struck Indonesia in 2004 obliterated vast areas of Aceh Province. But villagers there have used an innovative microcredit scheme to restore mangrove forests and other coastal ecosystems as a natural barrier against future killer waves and storms.
- Difference MakerPeter Schumann's puppets speak out on big issues
As a boy Peter Schumann carried his hand puppets with him when he fled the Russians. Now he's one of the foremost practitioners of experimental puppet theater in the world.
- Inventor hopes to clean the air with giant purifiers
In Lima, Peru, now hosting UN climate talks, Jorge Gutierrez is showing off his air-purifying 'super tree' device that he says can convert as much carbon dioxide into oxygen as 1,200 trees.
- Religious leaders vow to eradicate modern-day slavery
An anti-slavery drive, led by Pope Francis, receives the backing of a wide array of the world's religious leaders.
- Prospector Theater helps disabled people entertain new prospects
A restored theater in Ridgefield, Conn., provides customers with a great moviegoing experience while employing people with developmental disabilities.
- California police chief connects cops to the community
In Richmond, Calif., a police chief has employed several steps that have greatly reduced violent crime as well as the need for police to use deadly force.
- Fort Drum goes wood powered in a push for renewable energy
It's the first green energy project to come online since the Pentagon's 2012 commitment to develop 3 gigawatts of renewable energy on military bases by 2025.
- Difference MakerChen Hui-jie runs a political campaign – at age 16
A teenaged girl in Taiwan serves as a campaign manager for a city council candidate, and provides a model of civic activism for cynical teens.