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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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David Carroll tracks turtles to reveal what nature has to say to humans
Scientist David Carroll doesn't publish academic papers but tells turtles' stories through his art and writings.
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Muoy You, who escaped Cambodia's killing fields, now teaches self-respect and integrity
Muoy You has opened Seametrey Children's Village in Phnom Penh to help restore Cambodia's culture.
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Cle Ross is bringing youth baseball back to an inner city
Cle 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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She lost her brother, but found a life - helping kids in the Philippines
Her brother's death inspired a foundation that supports an orphanage in the Philippines
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Refugee in U.S. educates 3,000 children back in South Sudan
Dominic Deng Diing, who escaped the violence in Sudan, raises funds to help schoolchildren there.
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Pernille Ironside goes to war zones to free child soldiers
Around 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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Saving monarch butterflies stirs the 'poetical soul' of Homero Aridjis
Homero 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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Why Tracy Cosgrove opened day-care centers in Thailand
A 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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'Tinha' Carvalho uses martial arts to show kids from Rio slums a wider world
A celebrity gym owner in Rio de Janeiro teaches martial arts to entice kids from the favelas to stay in school.
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Bob Hentzen walks to help poor children across Latin America
Bob Hentzen is walking nearly 8,000 miles across Latin America to find sponsors for needy kids and the elderly.
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Hilton Kelley helps clean up Texas Gulf Coast town
Hilton Kelley balances fighting air pollution with job creation and talking with chemical and oil companies in Port Arthur, Texas.
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Abigail Falik wants students to take a year off doing good abroad
Volunteering abroad between high school and college in a 'Global Citizen Year' helps students learn teamwork and leadership skills
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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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In Pakistan, Asher Hasan brings innovation to health-care cost, at $1.80 per month
Pakistan's low-income families can buy inexpensive health-care insurance through his Nava Jeevan (New Life) program.
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He helps Polish poor and disabled get wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs
A 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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John Alston turns kids in hoodies into a choral band of brothers
An after-school program in Chester, Pa., gives at-risk teenagers a music education – and much more
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After the Haitian earthquake: saving priceless murals, artifacts, and other treasures
Cori Wegener is trying to save Haiti's treasures in a kind of Doctors Without Borders effort to preserve its "soul."
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Pewee Flomoku saw Liberia's child soldiers through a camera lens. Now he promotes peace
Photojournalist 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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Publishing children's books – and delivering them by elephant
Sasha 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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Using a wood chipper to save cheetahs, Africa's most endangered big cats
Laurie Marker cuts down thorn bushes and gets farmers to change from herding dogs to guard dogs to protect cheetahs.
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He's raising hope in southern Sudan by boosting crop yields
As 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 performers
John 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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A Nobel Peace Prize winner finds spiritual values in planting trees
Nobel 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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'Girl Talk' youth program counters school bullying with mentoring
As 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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Using hands-on philanthropy to bring Haiti relief
Millionaire contractor James Ansara wanted to do something for Haiti, so he's building a hospital as his charitable work.
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