Sohibjamol Rakamova is an unlikely chess champion. In her native Tajikistan, chess is a game of status and nobility. Many children are enrolled in chess training at the same time they go to nursery school, but this wasn’t the case for Sohibjamol. She grew up in the...

Nearly ten years ago, Bethany Fancher packed her bags and flew to Hyderabad, India, and then continued into the countryside to the village of Chandrakal. She didn’t know what to expect; only that the orphanage where she had agreed to teach art was home to about sixty...

This is a story of brotherhood. Raoul Vecchio is an architect and engineer. One day in his native Italy, Raoul had a chance encounter with an artist named Jali Diabate. As they talked, a synergy emerged that would meaningfully shape both their lives. Jali is part of...

When the pandemic came, some people drank about it, some people wrote about it — and some people planted potatoes about it. In the heart of South San José, next to a housing project for low-income seniors, is a small community garden on land belonging to St. Stephen’s...

Before she was a banker, Tiffany Kirk was an elementary school teacher. She never really stopped being an educator, but her classroom looks very different today. These days, Tiffany spends a lot of her free time teaching financial literacy in the community. Her work...

Earlier this year, Laura Lavigne awoke from a vivid dream about contagious red hearts. In the dream, anyone who received a red heart was filled with a deep sense of peace. The hearts were spreading quickly throughout the world. This vision of something that “went...

Fontoh Desmond Abinwi did not grow up in a home or country that had great material wealth, yet he knew that the rich biodiversity in his native Cameroon was something much more valuable. Cameroon is home to plants and animals seen nowhere else in the world; the black...

Jessica Gonzalez Castro is a reader. One book in particular has shaped the trajectory of her life. After reading “Animal Liberation” by Peter Singer, Jessica was moved to learn how she could be a more effective activist for animal rights. So it was with great...

Racheal Inegbedion was visiting a home for people with disabilities when she saw something that changed her life. “When someone visits, the residents sing a welcome song and share in a prayer with their guests,” remembers Racheal. “One of the young women, who had a...

The evening of August 4th was like any other for Beirut-based Malak Yacout. Then, buildings around her began to shake, pink smoke filled the sky, and a deafening explosion felt more than 270 kilometers away rocked the city. Instantly, 300,000 people became homeless,...

One day, Chimwemwe Chitambala heard a knock on her door. She was living in a student hostel, studying business and economics at the University of Zambia. Chimwemwe opened the door, and found a woman selling fruits and vegetables. These traders, known as “UNZA Veg” in...

On a warm night in late July, Sarah Reidenbach and Kate Kuzminski got into “Clifford,” their big red mobile veterinary unit, and headed to the parking lot of a hotel in Sonoma County. It was long past office hours for most professionals, but Sarah and Kate aren’t...

From Darel Scott’s desire to make both nature and the environmental movement more inclusive, Earth in Color was born. Earth in Color started as an art festival on a farm to celebrate people of color and their cultural connections to the natural world. That day under the spring sun—filled with art, food, music, and connection—highlighted the importance of people of color being able to see themselves through this lens of health and sustainability.

Like many of us, Miracle Adesina watched the COVID-19 pandemic spread through the lens of social media. As a healthcare professional, what he saw coming through his social feeds gave him great cause for concern. Part of the problem, Miracle felt, was that critical health messages were not available in many of the 70+ indigenous languages throughout Africa. The Pollination Project supported Miracle’s translation project with a seed grant.