Art Students Gift Portraits to Orphans
Compassion: a word worth a thousand pictures. Striving toward a more compassionate society, the Memory Portraits program organizes advanced high school and university-level art students in creating original portraits for children living in orphanages around the world. Given that children who have been abandoned, neglected, abused, or orphaned usually have few personal keepsakes, the purpose of the... posted on Dec 25 2006, 3,433 reads

Booker Prize Winner's Vision
Booker Prize winning novelist Ben Okri is often hailed as one of Africa's greatest writers. His first-hand experiences of civil war in Nigeria inspired much of his writing which encompasses with ease the mundane and the metaphysical, the individual and the collective. Okri's interest in education has led him to publicly and poetically stress the importance of self-discovery and intuition in the le... posted on Dec 19 2006, 1,929 reads

The Vibrancy of Generation Next
The BBC's Generation Next season on World Service radio is a week of special programming dedicated to understanding and exploring the world of the under 18s -- the next generation. From an Antarctican's concerns for the seventh continent, to a Lebanese teenager's campaign to clean up an oil-slicked beach, from Indian pupils' initiative to green the country's most polluted city, to a poll on how un... posted on Dec 10 2006, 1,401 reads

Inventing Auto-Erasing Paper
Recycling is a necessary initiative, but Anthropologist Brinda Dalal at Xerox’s Research center looked one step further in considering the monthly average of 1,200 pages printed by an average office worker. Dalal investigated usage patterns of photocopying and found that 44.5 percent are for daily use -- assignments, drafts or e-mail, and that 21 percent of black-and-white copier documents were ... posted on Dec 08 2006, 1,557 reads

Imprisoned Men Knit for Kids in Need
In a heartwarming and unusual gesture of generosity, over 30 men who are inmates in an American jail are spending their hours with yarn unraveling at their feet, knitting stocking caps, blankets and booties for children in need around the world. Lavender caps, purple-pompom stockings, hats in stripes and bumble-bee colors -- these prisoners have knitted more than 300 hats this year, about half wit... posted on Dec 03 2006, 1,639 reads

Soccer as a Tool for AIDS Prevention
Created over the summer of 2006, Lusaka Sunrise is a 7 minute short film that examines how soccer/ "football" is fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa. Through the work of several organizations, the powerful and commonly accessible platform of soccer is facilitating the spread of knowledge and providing African youth with the skills, understanding, and community support to live HIV-free. Lusaka Sunrise take... posted on Dec 01 2006, 1,781 reads

Portraits For the Homeless
For those struggling to afford a place to live, posing for family portraits can seem like a luxury. But this fall at a homeless shelter in California, people did exactly that. On the other side of the camera were local photography students -- who had been learning not only about lighting and shutter speeds but also about ethics, service and the power of images to catalyze social change. Before eve... posted on Nov 29 2006, 1,646 reads

Teen Amputee Dances Her Dream
It was just a tiny misstep during a dance class routine. But it was enough to cause Nathalie Calderon’s right foot to spin backward 180 degrees. "My teacher nearly fainted," said Nathalie. But the determined Central Florida girl just asked for a screwdriver — and with a few twists, her foot was again righted. Nathalie, who was born without the lower part of a tibia in her right leg, wears a pr... posted on Nov 28 2006, 1,977 reads

One Mother, Thirteen Kids
Mothers have a special ability to give, and Susan Tom is an exceptional mother. A 53-year-old single mother in California, 11 of Susan's 13 children are adopted, many of whom suffer from disabilities and life-threatening diseases. She never planned her current life this way, "I think when I found I could survive raising four kids, it was not that great a leap to get another one. And once I’d pro... posted on Nov 24 2006, 1,733 reads

A Collection Of Free Knowledge
A unique web-based teaching and learning environment is geared to change the way educational materials are developed and used. Connexions is a rapidly growing collection of free scholarly materials and a powerful set of free software tools that helps authors publish and collaborate, instructors rapidly build and share custom courses and learners explore the links among concepts, courses, and disc... posted on Nov 18 2006, 1,766 reads