While working on her Masters degree in 2019, Greshma Pious Raju had an amazing opportunity to do...
Diane Callaway: Life is Delicious
Faith in the Unknown Inspires One Woman to Make Life More Delicious for All Faith is what it takes...
A New Story for a Forgotten Animal
When Tracey Glover was seven, she and her Dad surprisingly stumbled upon kittens in a flower...
A Thank You from Our Hearts to Yours
Each week, we choose a changemaker to feature whose actions and intentions are creating a kinder,...
A Voice for the Voiceless Creates Space for Wildlife to Flourish
At the age of seven, Jeremy Gregory wanted more than anything to save the harp seals and blue...
One Extraordinary Alzheimer’s Organization Adapted to Challenges and Touched Even More Lives
When Lydia Guo joined National Alzheimer’s Buddies (NAB) as a neuroscience student at Wellesley...
A Powerful Voice Leading the Fight Against Diabetes
Bridget Saffold, a registered nurse and Superhero in the fight against diabetes, is working hard...
Love in Education and Beyond: Irene Greaves
When students need to learn how to add or subtract, we teach them Math. When they need to know how...
Poetry on the Streets: Melanie Faranello
“Set up on a street corner, at a bus stop, in a park with my Smith-Corona vintage blue typewriter,...
It Takes a Village: Cecelia Rich
A long career in social work gave Cecelia Rich a firsthand perspective on the many issues her...
When the Students Become the Teachers: Student-Led Ed
In the summer of 2020, Kerry Dolan, an assistant principal at a Chicago high school, received a...
Jose German-Gomez: Bounty in Small Packages
Jose German-Gomez is a retired corporate accountant, environmental activist, and master gardener....
Amanda Cats-Baril and Anne McGuinness: United for Women’s Empowerment
In 2014 Amanda Cats-Baril and Anne McGuinness were working in Nepal in the humanitarian sector...
Pigs & Kids: Allie Gadziemski
Allie Gadziemski is a homeschool mother of four sons, all of whom are vegan and passionate about...
Antonette Franceschi-Chavez and Marysol Perez: Finding Equity through Literacy
In the United States, the ratio of high-quality, age-appropriate books in low-income communities...
Finding Sanctuary in Stories: Rosa Sabido
After living in the United States for more than 30 years, Rosa Sabido was facing deportation. She...
Teaching the Value of Veganism: Alysson Augusto
While attending philosophy school in 2013, Alysson Augusto studied the countless consequences of...
Obrobibini Peace Complex: A New Form of Global Deepening
Since 2017, Dr. Christian Andres has worked to turn two hectares of land in Busua, Ghana, into a...
Material Innovation Initiative: Redefining Sustainable Materials
Each year, over 3.6 billion animals are killed, sheared, or plucked to supply leather, fur, wool,...
Youth for Aarey: Fighting for the Last Green Space in Mumbai
The Aarey Forest, part of the Sanjay Ghandi National Park, is home to 15,000 indigenous peoples...
Studio Kunukku – Woodblock Printing’s Revival
Last week’s Fashion Week in Rome featured pieces by a designer who used a nearly extinct craft to...
Ruben Diaz: Transgressing Oblivion in the Amazon
Deep in the Ecuadorian Amazon, an ancient culture is struggling to survive. The Sapara people are...
Black Girls Dive: Empowering Young Women in STEM
This fall, the Black Girls Dive Foundation will observe its first young woman, Skye Garrett, go...
The Alukakin Women’s Group – Giving the Gift of Learning
Each day in Uganda, 30 million people survive without access to electricity. In rural communities...
Community Gardening: Bringing Sanctuary to Refugees in Tijuana
On Sunday, June 20, we celebrate World Refugee Day; an opportunity to honor those fighting for...
Fresh Minds Radio Program – Bringing Awareness to Mental Health
When mental health advocate Mercy Mkandawire was invited to discuss mental disorders on a radio...
Unadilla Community Farm – A new generation of farmers
Our Changemakers of the week are the farmers of Unadilla Community Farm in Edmeston, New York. The...
Now You Hear Us – The voices of our youth
“From the highway all I can see is the road, but I know that beyond this lies camps with tents and...
Sanjoh Rose Egbe – The Survivors Project
Rose is from Cameroon, has a university degree in history, and is a survivor of human trafficking....
Engage Globally: planting trees to save a community
Northern Ghana is a region that faces many intersecting challenges: severe poverty, illiteracy,...
Smitha Daniel: Protector of the Forest Babies
Smitha Daniel was working in wildlife rescue and rehabilitation when she found an animal she had...
Hear Your Song: empowering kids through songwriting
Daniel Rubins is a musician and heartivist. He founded Hear Your Song, a non-profit organization...
Human rights, dignity, & menstrual health: 3 women changing the world.
Millions of women and girls in the world have little or no sanitary protection. Lack of...
Polifacética: the Spanish voice of conscious activism
Poli Sotomayor is a Mexican activist, social media influencer, singer, writer and member of our...
Ngọc-Trân Vũ: bringing a healing narrative in the Vietnamese-American community
My mind is PonderingMy heart is VietnameseMy soul is an ArtistMy conscience is a Healer -...
Rodolfo Alvarez: Building ‘Eden’ in Guatemala
When Rodolfo was fifteen, he began volunteering at a summer camp called Viamistad. For the first...
Seeds of responsible citizenship
Active citizenship, community empowerment and volunteer experiences: how three Italian women are...
Women’s Day: Honoring our Changemakers
March 8th is International Women’s Day, and this week we are celebrating all our female...
Hands of Honour: The Legacy of Paul Talliard
There are people who are born with a light inside, capable of illuminating the path of those who...
The Bree and Me Project: Camille Licate
“Bree is a rooster, but he is an intelligent, feeling Being that craves love and peace, just like...
Jacob Cramer: From “Bingo Boy” to “Letter Boy”
When he was 10, Jacob Cramer lost one of his favorite people on earth: his grandfather. After the...
Celebrating Black History Month: Five Changemakers to Know
This week, we want to use this space to amplify changemakers whose work has special relevance to...
Songs & Smiles: Eric & Sheryl Kolb Bring Joy through Sing-Alongs
Eric and Sheryl Kolb lost Sheryl’s grandmother, Olive, to Alzheimer’s in 2006. Just two years...
Waging Peace: Mary Liepold and Eli McCarthy
In the midst of so much chaos and confusion that descended on America’s capitol last week, it...
A Hidden Ecosystem: Tamara Blazquez Haik
One day several years ago, photographer and animal activist Tamara Blazquez Haik was walking home...
Dorcas Apoore: Hope by the Basketful
Dorcas Apoore grew up in Northern Ghana, in a remote village so small that it isn’t even on a map....
Birthing a New Dream of Equality
When she became pregnant at 18, Maria del Mar Jaramillo felt her dreams come crashing down around...
Save the Food, Feed the People
In a shed in downtown Merced, California, there is a random refrigerator overflowing with an ever-changing bounty of persimmons, lettuce, celery, and other locally sourced whole fruits and vegetables. Everything in the fridge is free; twenty-four hours a day, anyone can visit to pick up what they might need. “The People’s Fridge” is a volunteer labor of love, organized by Erin Meyer and Steve Roussos.
Going the Social Distance
Growing up, Jenna Bardroff’s best friend was a potbellied pig named Arnie. When she made the...
The Vilka Chess Club
Sohibjamol Rakamova is an unlikely chess champion. In her native Tajikistan, chess is a game of...
Immunity Gardens: The Painting That Came to Life
Nearly ten years ago, Bethany Fancher packed her bags and flew to Hyderabad, India, and then...
Raoul & Jali: Keepers of Memory
This is a story of brotherhood. Raoul Vecchio is an architect and engineer. One day in his native...
Friendship Blooms Eternal
When the pandemic came, some people drank about it, some people wrote about it — and some people...
Tiffany Kirk: Building Community for the Formerly Incarcerated
Before she was a banker, Tiffany Kirk was an elementary school teacher. She never really stopped...
Gratitude Goes Big: Laura Lavigne
Earlier this year, Laura Lavigne awoke from a vivid dream about contagious red hearts. In the...
A “to-do” list, not a wish list: Fontoh Desmond Abinwi
Fontoh Desmond Abinwi did not grow up in a home or country that had great material wealth, yet he...
Compassion Made Visible: Animal House
Jessica Gonzalez Castro is a reader. One book in particular has shaped the trajectory of her life....
Racheal Inegbedion: Building A More Inclusive Nigeria
Racheal Inegbedion was visiting a home for people with disabilities when she saw something that...
Malak Yacout: Beirut’s “The Volunteer Circle”
The evening of August 4th was like any other for Beirut-based Malak Yacout. Then, buildings around...
“Embrace Her:” Microfinance in Zambia
One day, Chimwemwe Chitambala heard a knock on her door. She was living in a student hostel,...
“Ruthless Kindness” Offers Compassion to Human & Non-Human Animals
On a warm night in late July, Sarah Reidenbach and Kate Kuzminski got into “Clifford,” their big...
Darel Scott Sees an “Earth in Color”
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.
Miracle Adesina: COVID-19 Public Health Information for Indigenous People
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.
Lucas Akol: Protecting the Most Vulnerable Children During COVID-19
Lucas Akol’s son, who has sickle cell disease, inspired him to become a community educator and support for other families. During COVID-19, Lucas is providing these at-risk children and families with food and hygiene supplies to stay safe.
You Can’t Be What You Can’t See: The Minnesota Black Community Project
In some ways, the story of the Minnesota Black Community Project is a tale of two men named Walter Scott. Only one of them has had their story told.
Eric Miller’s ‘The Lawn Academy’ Changes Lives in Detroit
For Eric Miller, the path to a young person’s potential runs through the yard of a neighbor in...
Jennifer Myers Has a “Way With Words”
Jennifer Rae Myers learned the power of words from her father, Raymond Banks. A writer himself, Raymond raised Jennifer to value the art of communication. He took her to the library after school, encouraged her to read, and showed her through example how to advocate for historically disadvantaged people through language. In third grade, her essay on Harriet Tubman won a writing contest on American heroes, a moment she still recalls as the point in which she realized the gift her father’s encouragement had offered her.
Assi Flaviurs’ Health and WASH Project Creates a Safer Future for the Children of Cameroon
For the 180 children and 10 staff members who constitute Bome Primary School in Bamenda in the North West Region of Cameroon, going to the bathroom safely and privately is a luxury. As they do not have access to safe and private toilets, for the past 5 years, they instead have had to rely on an old, open dilapidated tent next to their school.
A Heart of Compassion: Donatella Gelli’s Wildlife Sanctuary Takes in Animals Abandoned Due to COVID-19
The force that moves me is compassion,” said Gelli, a TPP changemaker whose sanctuary—which, in part, rescues domestic animals who were abandoned because their owners feared they could carry the coronavirus–was awarded funding by TPP’s COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund. “I cannot see any living thing suffering. I cannot. I’m not able to pass by if I see someone or an animal suffering.
Ponselvan Thanapal Battles India’s Caste-Based Discrimination in the Time of COVID-19
She only had enough food left to feed her family for one week. This 35-year-old widowed woman, let’s call her Amara, and her family live in Dharavi, India. You may know Dharavi—it was the slum featured in the movie “Slumdog Millionaire.” This woman lost her husband due to alcoholism a few years back, and since then she has had full responsibility for the caregiving and support of her three children.