Making a Difference
Sure, Bono and Richard Branson can change the world. But there are millions of individuals making a difference who are not rich or famous. This section is for that unheralded community – “to honor the decency and courage and selflessness that surround us,” as Editor Richard Bergenheim described the Monitor’s journalistic mission in 2005.
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Difference Maker
David Carroll tracks turtles to reveal what nature has to say to humansScientist David Carroll doesn't publish academic papers but tells turtles' stories through his art and writings.
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Difference Maker
Muoy You, who escaped Cambodia's killing fields, now teaches self-respect and integrityMuoy You has opened Seametrey Children's Village in Phnom Penh to help restore Cambodia's culture.
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Difference Maker
Cle Ross is bringing youth baseball back to an inner cityCle Ross is turning an eyesore in Kansas City, Kan., back into a baseball park to get urban kids off the streets and teach life lessons.
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Difference Maker
She lost her brother, but found a life - helping kids in the PhilippinesHer brother's death inspired a foundation that supports an orphanage in the Philippines
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Difference Maker
Refugee in U.S. educates 3,000 children back in South SudanDominic Deng Diing, who escaped the violence in Sudan, raises funds to help schoolchildren there.
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Difference Maker
Pernille Ironside goes to war zones to free child soldiersAround the world children are forced to serve in military groups or as laborers or worse. UNICEF's Ironside has set some of them free.
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Difference Maker
Saving monarch butterflies stirs the 'poetical soul' of Homero AridjisHomero Aridjis, one of Mexico's top environmentalists and poets, has led the battle to save the habitat of monarch butterflies, Pacific gray whales, and sea turtles.
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Difference Maker
Why Tracy Cosgrove opened day-care centers in ThailandA plucky British ex-pat in Pattaya, Thailand, saw kids playing in the dirt while parents worked at a construction site. So, she set up day-care centers and orphanages for needy children.
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Difference Maker
'Tinha' Carvalho uses martial arts to show kids from Rio slums a wider worldA celebrity gym owner in Rio de Janeiro teaches martial arts to entice kids from the favelas to stay in school.
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Difference Maker
Bob Hentzen walks to help poor children across Latin AmericaBob Hentzen is walking nearly 8,000 miles across Latin America to find sponsors for needy kids and the elderly.
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Difference Maker
Hilton Kelley helps clean up Texas Gulf Coast townHilton Kelley balances fighting air pollution with job creation and talking with chemical and oil companies in Port Arthur, Texas.
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Difference Maker
Abigail Falik wants students to take a year off doing good abroadVolunteering abroad between high school and college in a 'Global Citizen Year' helps students learn teamwork and leadership skills
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Difference Maker
Marc Gold travels Asia paying it forward through little acts of kindness'Shoestring philanthropist' Gold pairs tiny but powerful donations with acts of kindness
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Difference Maker
In Pakistan, Asher Hasan brings innovation to health-care cost, at $1.80 per monthPakistan's low-income families can buy inexpensive health-care insurance through his Nava Jeevan (New Life) program.
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Difference Maker
He helps Polish poor and disabled get wheelchairs and prosthetic limbsA visit to Poland gave David Shirkey an idea to become a one-man charity, giving the poor and disabled a wheelchair or prosthetic limb.
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Difference Maker
John Alston turns kids in hoodies into a choral band of brothersAn after-school program in Chester, Pa., gives at-risk teenagers a music education – and much more
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Difference Maker
After the Haitian earthquake: saving priceless murals, artifacts, and other treasuresCori Wegener is trying to save Haiti's treasures in a kind of Doctors Without Borders effort to preserve its "soul."
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Difference Maker
Pewee Flomoku saw Liberia's child soldiers through a camera lens. Now he promotes peacePhotojournalist Pewee Flomoku captured images of child soldiers and the other horrors of war in Liberia. Now he's working on free and fair elections.
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Difference Maker
Publishing children's books – and delivering them by elephantSasha Alyson hauls (sometimes by elephant) children's books in the local language to kids in rural Laos eager to learn to read.
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Difference Maker
Using a wood chipper to save cheetahs, Africa's most endangered big catsLaurie Marker cuts down thorn bushes and gets farmers to change from herding dogs to guard dogs to protect cheetahs.
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Difference Maker
He's raising hope in southern Sudan by boosting crop yieldsAs southern Sudan heads toward independence, Driuni Jakani works to promote peace, small farming, and the rights of women.
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Turning Bolivian street beggars into proud performersJohn Connell teaches skills from the circus, like juggling, to street kids in Bolivia. They earn money and go to school more.
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Difference Maker
A Nobel Peace Prize winner finds spiritual values in planting treesNobel laureate Wangari Maathai, who founded the Green Belt Movement, says spiritual values are the key to healing ourselves and our environment.
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Difference Maker
'Girl Talk' youth program counters school bullying with mentoringAs a teen Haley Kilpatrick felt the sting of school bullying herself. She started the youth program 'Girl Talk' to stand up to it.
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Difference Maker
Using hands-on philanthropy to bring Haiti reliefMillionaire contractor James Ansara wanted to do something for Haiti, so he's building a hospital as his charitable work.
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