What I've Learned From the Children in My Life
In 1989, eighteen-year-old Shaheen Mistry arrived in Mumbai for a visit from the United States. After a poignant encounter with the city's street children she called her parents in the US and announced her decision to stay in India for good. Shaheen went on to found the inspiring non-profit Akanksha, dedicated to educating and empowering children from underprivileged backgrounds. Today she heads T... posted on Dec 16 2012, 21,739 reads

Grandmother Power: A Global Phenomenon
"All over the world grandmothers are forming activist groups to tackle intractable issues: poverty, illiteracy, environmental degradation, disease, injustice and violence. Never before have grandmothers campaigned so vigorously or universally to make the world a better place." Paola Gianturco spent three years interviewing and photographing 120 activist grandmothers across 15 countries on 5 contin... posted on Dec 15 2012, 16,933 reads

The Elephant Whisperer
Lawrence Anthony, the acclaimed South African conservationist passed away this March. His funeral turned out to be as extraordinary as his life. Two herds of wild elephants traveling single-file through the bush turned up at his home after he died. Elephants are known for mourning their dead. During his lifetime Anthony had managed to enlist Africans wanted as war criminals to protect northern whi... posted on Dec 09 2012, 10,936 reads

What Motivates Philanthropists?
"From wartime child refugee to self-made multi-millionaire and philanthropist, Dame Stephanie Shirley's life has been more eventful than most. She arrived in London at the age of five, just weeks before the outbreak of World War II -- one of thousands of Jewish children fleeing the Nazis and coming to Britain as part of the Kindertransport --and was brought up by loving foster parents."I know very... posted on Dec 05 2012, 5,160 reads

The City That Ended Hunger
"To begin to conceive of the possibility of a culture of empowered citizens making democracy work for them, real-life stories help -- not models to adopt wholesale, but examples that capture key lessons. For me, the story of Brazil's fourth largest city, Belo Horizonte, is a rich trove of such lessons. Belo, a city of 2.5 million people, once had 11 percent of its population living in absolute pov... posted on Nov 27 2012, 74,709 reads

See Good Intentions
"Recognizing the positive intentions in others, we feel safer, more supported, and happier. And when others feel that you get their good intentions, they feel seen, appreciated, and more inclined to treat you well. But it can be hard to recognize the goodwill in others. We're busy and distracted and stressed. Positive aims are often buried beneath negative behaviors. The brain's innate negativity ... posted on Nov 25 2012, 14,658 reads

Knitting Behind Bars
"The first warden Lynn Zwerling approached with her idea recoiled as if she might bite. The second wouldn't meet with her. The third claimed to love the idea, then fell out of touch. Outrageous, said the fourth. The fifth, Margaret Chippendale, at a minimum-security men's prison outside Baltimore, didn't have much hope for Ms. Zwerling's plan either. "She brought the program to me and told me: 'Yo... posted on Nov 24 2012, 10,207 reads

Soil, Soul and Society
Nearly 50 years ago, Satish Kumar walked from India to the United States for peace, starting at the grave of Mahatma Gandhi and ending at the grave of John F. Kennedy. He walked without money, trusting in the kindness of strangers to support him. "Peace comes from trust. Wars come from fear." He advocates making peace with soil (nature), soul (yourself) and society (others) because the future well... posted on Nov 17 2012, 3,819 reads

The Action of Light
"The working class daughter of a Jewish mother and Sicilian father, Joan Di Stefano was working to help with the bills at fourteen. A few years later she was "slinging drinks" to pay tuition for her classes at the San Francisco Art Institute. At seventeen, while working at Macy's in downtown SF, on her lunch-breaks she often visited a bookstore around the corner. That's where she picked up a copy... posted on Nov 14 2012, 5,404 reads

Transforming Bullies -- with Babies
"Teacher Raya patrols a group of giggly kindergarten students, looking each so deeply in the eye that many squirm and bashfully reach for her toes. Her father carries her in his arms. Raya is not quite five months old. She's teaching them about being kind and how to talk about their feelings so that later, they don't terrorize each other. Teacher Raya, as they call her, is a "volunteer" with Roots... posted on Nov 10 2012, 7,210 reads