All People Making a Difference
- Erika Flint knows firsthand about giving dignity to the needy
Flint is executive director of the Watertown (N.Y.) Urban Mission, which works quietly to help people get back on their feet so they can take care of themselves.
- Rafiatu Lawal: education empowers African women
After persevering through her own challenges, Rafiatu Lawal now helps other young women in Ghana pursue their dreams.
- Karen Lange: volunteering 'helped my soul and heart to heal'
She volunteers at Baltimore's Moveable Feast, which provides nutritious food to home-bound people living with chronic physical problems.
- If homeless people had a safe place to live, taxpayers could save millions
By providing housing to its homeless, Charlotte, N.C., saved $1.8 million, research at the University of North Carolina–Charlotte found.
- Why Doug Friedlander moved from New York to the Mississippi Delta – and stayed
The three keys to successfully helping out in a new community, he says, are being humble, volunteering constantly – and sharing the credit.
- Difference MakerSam Bracken's Orange Duffel Bag project helps at-risk former foster kids
Bracken, himself a former foster child, started Orange Duffel Bag to offer life coaching and other help to teens dealing with the challenges of homelessness or foster care.
- Born in prison, she's back behind bars on a mission
Deborah Jiang Stein, author of 'Prison Baby,' created the unPrison Project to help women in prison find their self-worth and realize that they can set goals and change their lives.
- Son of baseball great Jackie Robinson finds Sweet Unity in Tanzania
David Robinson's Sweet Unity Farms coffee co-op is farmer owned and operated. It's profits have been invested back into projects from solar panels for electricity to water management and irrigation.
- Nicole Javorsky overcame challenges by doing, not complaining
The 18-year-old aspiring trapeze artist founded Cubs for Coping, which makes and donates handmade teddy bears to young people in hospitals, shelters, and clinics.
- Toilet tech fair takes on global sanitation woes
Some 2.5 billion people still have no access to modern sanitation. But beyond providing proper facilities future toilets may become profit-generating resources that create electricity, fertilizer, or fuel.
- In Colombia, cows, crops and timber coexist
An ambitious program in Colombia shows that mixing grazing, agriculture, and trees can coax more food from each acre, boost farmers' incomes, restore degraded land, and make farming more resilient to climate change.
- Difference MakerFernando Garcia bridges the gap between residents and law enforcers in El Paso, Texas
His Border Network for Human Rights doesn't just point out problems but proposes solutions. It could become a national model for dealing with immigrant rights.
- Shai Reshef is bringing the university to the people
The founder of the nonprofit University of the People, an online, degree-granting institution, wants to educate the world – for free.
- Razia Jan fights to educate girls in rural Afghanistan
Returning to Afghanistan from the US, Razia Jan stood up to opposition and founded the Zabuli Education Center, which now has a roster of more than 400 girls in kindergarten through ninth grade.
- A rainbow for China’s orphans
The Rainbow Program is a groundbreaking partnership between the Chinese government and international nonprofit groups that's helping China reimagine its entire child welfare system.
- In Kenya, selling human waste could revolutionize sanitation
Working directly with residents of Mukuru, one of Nairobi's largest slums, Sanergy has developed a promising new method to improve sanitation through low-tech, low-cost toilets that create organic fertilizer.
- Gloria Shin works to end modern-day slavery
She left her full-time marketing job to join the global fight against human trafficking and modern-day slavery.
- Difference MakerAndrew Stoloff's Rubicon Bakery gives a second chance to ex-cons
Rubicon Bakery, a moneymaking business owned by Andrew Stoloff, employs 105 full-time staff, some with only a sixth-grade education and many having served time in prison.
- Turning over a new leaf in the rainforest
Under intense pressure from customers and conservation groups, forest-products giant Asia Pulp & Paper has embarked on a series of changes that could significantly reduce deforestation in Indonesia and serve as a model for forestry reform.
- Local advisers deliver products and profits to Cambodia's rural farmers
Lors Thmey, which means 'new growth' in Khmer, teaches local entrepreneurs how to advise small farmers by providing farming necessities and technical know-how that boosts incomes.