All People Making a Difference
Own a home in just four years? This program does it.In Cleveland, worker-owners at Evergreen Cooperatives can buy homes without a loan, keeping workers near their jobs and helping revitalize neighborhoods.
On former battlefields, Vietnam's pepper crop yields a brighter futureRoots of Peace provides Vietnamese farmers with training, seeds, and tools that have helped their pepper orchards to thrive.
Difference MakerPeg Hacskaylo created a haven for survivors of domestic abuseThe District Alliance for Safe Housing (DASH) in Washington, D.C., provides a launching pad for restarting women's lives.
In rural Africa, climate work brings political power to womenIn Mali, women have become central to efforts to adapt to climate change. Their work is gradually helping them increase their political clout too.
Difference MakerMel West promotes a vehicle that gives dignity and mobility to disabled peopleThe rugged, hand-powered wheelchairs, made by volunteers, are distributed in more than 100 countries.
For young girls, an education; for older women, jobsA successful businessman in the US, Virendra Singh returned to his home in India to found a nonprofit group that educates girls and employs older women.
School gardens fight hunger in developing countriesGovernments and private groups are seeing the potential of school gardens to help overcome a nutritional crisis.
World鈥檚 most endangered big cat may be on the reboundThe number of Amur leopards has more than doubled since hitting a low in 2007, researchers in Russia and China say.
Difference MakerTeresa Goines started Old Skool Cafe to bring jobs 鈥� and a sense of family 鈥� to youthsShe鈥檚 helped change the lives of more than 300 at-risk youths in an impoverished neighborhood of San Francisco.
New-style roller derby puts an emphasis on communityIn modern roller derby, the women skaters are part of every aspect of the operation, including choosing charities to help that are close to their own hearts.
Take dams off rivers 鈥� but keep the electricityMany hydroelectric dams produce modest amounts of power yet do enormous damage to river life. Why not build solar and wind farms in the drained reservoirs?
Nonprofit group fills empty New York spaces with artNo Longer Empty involves the local community and then comes up with a theme for its art exhibitions that relates to local history.
To save forests, a tea factory brews up a new way to dry teaThe Makomboki Tea Factory in Kenya has stopped burning firewood and switched to a greener and cheaper fuel 鈥� biomass briquettes.
Handicrafts from beyondBeanie warm a head, lend a handThe social clothing company makes beanies and accessories that support artisans in Bolivia and help provide meals, supplies, and dental care to children in need.
Difference MakerSarah Chayes battles a worldwide scourge: deep-rooted corruptionThe former reporter and social entrepreneur in Afghanistan is now trying to bring about a sea change in US foreign policy.
Students document the stories of Holocaust survivorsNew York City high school students in the The 'Names, Not Numbers' oral history project record interviews with the vanishing survivors of the World War II Holocaust.
TechGirls: talented teens from North Africa and the Middle East visit the USThe exchange program aims to engage, inspire, and empower a new generation of women and girls in the science, technology, engineering, and math fields.
HistoriCorps engages volunteers as a 'workforce for saving places'Volunteers help to 'save the last great places' while experiencing the great outdoors.
As oceans heat up, so does a search for 'super corals'The world鈥檚 coral reefs are increasingly threatened by warmer and more acidic seas. Scientists looking to create species with the best chance to survive.
William Schulz: The UUSC stands with those in needThe Unitarian Universalist Service Committee is marking 75 years of helping people worldwide.