From Child Slave to Film Director
At the age of four, he worked nine hours, seven days a week; he was "paid" a bowl of stale rice a day, which he shared with his widowed mother in a bamboo hut on the roadside. Few odd jobs later, he ended up at Muktaneer -- a shelter for homeless children -- where the seven year old not only got food but also time to play! His favorite toy was the "camera". And three year later, Sahiful Mondal'... posted on Jul 18 2006, 2,097 reads

Class of One
Before her first day at school in New Orleans, Ruby Bridges' mother told her: "Now I want you to behave yourself today, Ruby, and don't be afraid." Ruby and her mother went to the school, where so many people were outside shouting and throwing things. She seemed to be remembering her mother's words as she entered the school without showing any fear at all. Despite the fact that it was 1960, there ... posted on Jul 17 2006, 2,548 reads

From Prison Bars to Bar Exam
He spent twelve years in a Texas prison -- for a crime he didn’t commit. And now he has graduated from law school and headed towards a career in criminal justice -- the field that tragically let him down. Christopher Ochoa was freed after law students had his case reinvestigated and proved him innocent. Today the 39-year-old is inspiringly free from anger or bitterness and very clear about the v... posted on Jul 13 2006, 2,276 reads

Humble Grocer Donates Millions
Waldemar Kaminski spent a lifetime running his family's small East side grocery store. He never stopped working there -- not even after quietly making millions in the stock market. During his long life, Kaminski donated millions of dollars to relatives and friends in need, as well as making generous contributions to a cancer organization. His one condition? No one was to know of his generosity unt... posted on Jul 11 2006, 3,068 reads

When Travel Is The Best Medicine
For years Michael McColly had no bed, no furniture and lived out of a suitcase. When he contracted H.I.V. in 1995 doctors warned him against traveling. But McColly decided to heed his inner voice instead. "Travel has become my antidote: the farther I go the more aware I become of what has kept me alive -- my desire to be in and of the world ... If I had listened to the fears of people I know or re... posted on Jul 06 2006, 1,887 reads

The Boy Who Saved Seven Lives
It made headlines, and broke hearts worldwide. Highway robbers shot Nicholas Green, a freckle-faced, 7 year-old from California holidaying in Italy. He died two days later. The story might have ended with that tragedy, but his parents Reg and Maggie Green made a very different decision, and one that had a dramatic impact. They donated their son's organs to seven Italians -- among them a mother who... posted on Jul 03 2006, 2,070 reads

Kindness Repayed, and the Birth of a Star
Sandy Greenberg was struck blind while studying at Columbia University. How did he manage to stay in school? His roommate read his textbooks to him -- every night. Not a commitment that many would find easy to make. Sandy went on to graduate with honors. Not long after he got a call from his roommate, who told him unhappily that he no longer wanted to be in grad school -- he wanted to sing instead... posted on Jun 28 2006, 3,395 reads

Mystic of the Holocaust
Little is known of the external life of Etty Hillesum, a young Jewish woman who lived in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation, one of the millions who suffered during the Holocaust. This obscurity is in contrast with her well-documented internal life. Etty Hillesum wrote in her diary: "Sometimes when I stand in some corner of the camp, my feet planted on earth, my eyes raised towards heaven, tears... posted on Jun 26 2006, 2,133 reads

Seven Year Old Surgeon
Deemed by some to be "the cleverest boy in the world" a boy from a small village in India performed his first successful surgery at the age of seven! Akrit Jaspal speaks four languages, he is trying to find a cure for cancer and is studying for a bachelors in science. His hero is Spiderman, and Akrit is now twelve years old. Well aware of his special gifts, this ambitious young humanitarian says, ... posted on Jun 23 2006, 3,862 reads

Doc Pauses Surgery, Gives Patient Blood
Open heart surgery does require a patient's heart to be opened, but how often is it that the doctor's heart must also be open? Dr. Samuel Weinstein had started a critical operation on an 8-year-old patient about 12 hours earlier, when they started running out of the rare-type blood to give the boy. So what does Dr. Weinstein, who was volunteering his cardiac surgery skills in El Salvador, do? He t... posted on Jun 17 2006, 1,626 reads