All People Making a Difference
Skoll World Forum 鈥� watch liveThe annual Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship April 9 to 11 brings together top thinkers from Malala Yousafzai to Richard Branson. Watch sessions live here.
Agnes Vertes tells her story as a Holocaust survivorAgnes Vertes, who survived the Nazi Holocaust in Europe as a child, is one of many Americans sharing their stories now, while they still can.
Difference MakerBob Hansman's inner-city art program became so much moreCity Faces, started as an arts activity for St. Louis kids, now includes help with homework, library skills, basic cooking, and other classes.
Erika Flint knows firsthand about giving dignity to the needyFlint 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 womenAfter 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 millionsBy providing housing to its homeless, Charlotte, N.C., saved $1.8 million, research at the University of North Carolina鈥揅harlotte found.
Why Doug Friedlander moved from New York to the Mississippi Delta 鈥� and stayedThe three keys to successfully helping out in a new community, he says, are being humble, volunteering constantly 鈥� and sharing the credit.
Difference MakerSam Bracken's Orange Duffel Bag project helps at-risk former foster kidsBracken, 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 missionDeborah 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 TanzaniaDavid 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 complainingThe 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 woesSome 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 coexistAn 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, TexasHis 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 peopleThe founder of the nonprofit University of the People, an online, degree-granting institution, wants to educate the world 鈥� for free.
Razia Jan fights to educate girls in rural AfghanistanReturning 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鈥檚 orphansThe 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 sanitationWorking 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 slaveryShe left her full-time marketing job to join the global fight against human trafficking and modern-day slavery.