When she found herself suddenly wealthy, the Indian philanthropist founded Pratham Books, a nonprofit publisher that uses innovative ways to put low-cost books in the hands of millions of kids.
Sweet Beginnings, a growing business on Chicago's West Side, provides just released prisoners with job experience making honey and other products.
The New York City native quietly champions legal reforms in Southeast Asia, a region where the rule of law is often weak and governments are criticized for their human rights records.
A retired salesperson saw how the act of knitting, and a supportive environment, could calm inmates and even help them give back to society.
She started One Simple Wish in her home to help people grant 'wishes' to kids in foster care.
The secondary school principal helps her students not only excel in science and technology, but become respectful, mature young adults.
On northern California's spectacular coast a free camp for low-income children provides hands-on science education and team building 鈥� along with 'nonstop fun.'
Roberto Bosch's volleyball school was getting nowhere. Then he invited kids from the slums to join for free.
He sold his mansion, Porsche, and yacht and set off for Cambodia to provide food, shelter, and education to destitute children.
His Kindness Not Weakness outreach program challenges diverse audiences to show the kind of 'warrior' strength needed to practice nonviolence.
Hip-hop, graffiti, break dancing, and journalism programs give teens in Colombia a safe way to express themselves 鈥� and avoid violence.
Helmuth Caspar von Moltke, son of an anti-Nazi hero, uses the family estate in Poland to teach teenagers about democracy and protecting human rights.
Juvenile book author Walter Dean Myers writes stories troubled teens can identify with. He knows their world because he once was one of them.
Ant么nio Carlos Costa was happy as a pastor in suburban Rio de Janeiro. But violence in a city slum changed his life forever.
Pam Koner started a nonprofit group that helps families who want to aid less-fortunate families.
Sunita Narain has learned that being an environmentalist in India means being an advocate for the poor 鈥� and for immediate action.
Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward campaign aimed to launch China into a Communist utopia. It ended in famine that killed tens of millions 鈥� a disaster that Beijing is still reluctant to acknowledge.
While living in Palm Springs, Calif., with retirement looming, Bill Morse chose to move to Cambodia to help activist Aki Ra rid the country of land mines that kill and maim.
When journalist Mae Azango wrote about a secret women's circumcision ritual in Liberia, she received death threats.
Pastor Jean Enock Joseph doesn't shy from Haiti's toughest problems. His message: Haitians have the ability to help themselves.
Mario Morino wrote a little book that's had a big effect 鈥� urging nonprofit groups to prove that they're really doing what they say they're doing.
Christo and Lanie de Klerk have founded the Baby Moses sanctuary for abandoned babies in South Africa.
Yevgenia Chirikova found out a national forest was quietly being sold off. What she did to try to save it may change Russia forever.
2012 Goldman Environmental Prize winner Ma Jun enlists ordinary Chinese to help clean up China's pollution.
Nina Olson is the National Taxpayer Advocate 鈥� the voice of the public at the IRS. She's trying to help you navigate the tax code you love to loathe.
