All People Making a Difference
Difference MakerWyatt Smith makes a deal with his students: Learn Chinese. Go to China.Birmingham to Beijing sends inner-city high school students in Birmingham, Ala., on a study abroad in Beijing 鈥� if they first learn Chinese.
Expat Syrian doctors help bind up the wounds of warDoctors in Syria describe being targeted in bombing campaigns and risking death, detention, and torture to treat the wounded, whether civilians or fighters.
Matt Damon's humorous video spotlights sanitation crisisActor Matt Damon vows to go on a 'toilet strike' to publicize the need to bring clean water and better sanitation to millions of people around the world.
Yale graduate takes low-paying job as a village official in ChinaQin Yufei forgoes a high-paying career in New York or Beijing to lead a rural Chinese village, setting an example for corruption-free local government.
Caliber Collection fashions jewelry to take guns off the streetsJessica Mindich designs jewelry made from guns confiscated by the Newark, N.J. police. In turn she donates money to back to the police department to get more guns off the street.
How to keep youths down on the farm? Offer incentives.The average age of farmers is rising. Nonprofits are at work on ways to show youths in developing nations how farming can be entrepreneurial, profitable, and desirable.
Difference MakerThang Dinh Tran loves maps and Vietnam. That may put him in the eye of a storm.His passion for all things Vietnamese has combined with his passion for old maps, placing him at the center of a territorial dispute between Vietnam and China.
Can biogas spark a revolution on India's farms?One farmer in India shows how turning the gases emitted by cow dung can become a clean, renewable fuel that saves him money, increases his productivity, and boosts his profits.
In Haiti, laws of physics meet a culture of magicPost-earthquake construction in Haiti must address the dichotomy of American efficiency versus Haitian tradition.
Changing the face of aid, literallyOxfam America wants to depict aid recipients as potential entrepreneurs and 'job creators,' not victims. But visuals of people suffering still pull in more donations.
Indian-American looks homeward to help the needyRakesh Agarwal, a successful businessman, has a track record of philanthropy in western North Carolina. Now he's extending his work to include his home country of India.
As aid to Haiti slows, a private coffee co-op scores loans and turns headsCOOPCAB, a Haitian coffee co-op that now includes 5,000 members, markets its products internationally while investing money in local reforestation efforts.
Difference MakerRodney Jackson hikes high into the Himalayas to help snow leopardsRodney Jackson and his team take 20 to 30 yaks, each loaded with 250 to 300 pounds of gear, into the Himalayas to study snow leopards, which take the word 'elusive' to an extreme.
Maasai herders breed fewer, stronger cattle to resist climate changeTo withstand more-intense droughts herders in Tanzania cut the size of their herds and cross-breed for resilience and resistance to disease.
Removing Colombia's landmines, one by oneSince 1990, more than 10,000 Colombians have been wounded or killed by landmines, including 982 children. Britain's Halo Trust expects to be one of the first NGOs to start clearing mines in the next several months.
To tackle polluted runoff, cities turn to 'green' strategiesUrban stormwater runoff is a serious problem, overloading sewage treatment plants and polluting waterways. Now, many US cities are creating innovative green projects 鈥� such as rain gardens and roadside plantings 鈥� that mimic the way nature collects and cleanses water.
The man who stopped the desertFor decades Yacouba Sawadogo has been using a traditional method to replant trees and help stop the Sahara Desert from overtaking Burkina Faso.
Difference MakerRachel Goble helps stop sex trafficking of impoverished childrenThe SOLD Project helps young girls in Thailand avoid becoming prostitutes through mentoring and education.
'Solar Mamas': Barefoot College women turn on the lights in off-grid villagesBesides learned to install and repair solar equipment, rural women at India's Barefoot College can learn about clean water, health care, handicrafts, communication, and more.
A new approach to suicide prevention: promote happinessInstead of talking about death and depression, Samaritans, a Boston-based suicide-prevention group, is focusing on the opposite 鈥� life and happiness 鈥� in a publicity campaign.