Google Inc. announced Wednesday that it’s providing $11.5 million in grants to 10 organizations working to end modern-day slavery and human trafficking.
Google said on its charitable website that its grants will “free more than 12,000 people from modern-day slavery” and prevent “millions more from being victimized.”
The Google blog said, “Modern day slavery is a multi-billion dollar industry that ruins the lives of around 27 million people.”
Military families at the Red River Army Depot joined together to help the children of Texarkana in a Toys For Tots drive that broke previous annual records. Members loaded Army trucks with 500 bicycles, 1350 toys, 6,200 non-perishable food items and $875 in cash contributions.
The depot dedicated the 2011 campaign to the memory of one of their own, Ryan Johns, who worked there but passed away Sept. 25, after spending his life helping others.
Several employees from the division wore shirts during the pickup ceremony with Johns’ picture.
Taylor’s son, Skylar, heard his mother talking about the Toys for Tots campaign and how the depot was dedicating it to Johns. He decided he wanted to play a part as well. The 9-year-old immediately emptied his piggy bank which contained $100 and donated it to help purchase toys.
Johns, who is remembered for his generosity, donated $1,000 to the Toys for Tots campaign in 2007.
Several depot members are already discussing how to make next year’s Toys for Tots Campaign better than ever.
“Toys for Tots is something very big at this depot and something we all take great pride in,” said Deputy Commander Patton Tidwell.
Toys for Tots begin in 1947 when Maj. Bill Hendricks and a group of Marine Reservists in Los Angeles collected and distributed 5,000 toys to needy children. The depot in Texas began its participation more than 20 years ago.
“The people at Red River are very loving and giving and are aware of all the support that the local community has given to this depot over the years,” said Mary Jayne Locke, depot coordinator for the campaign.
After an online poll and months of reporting on the most influencial news throughout the year, TIME magazine today named “The Protester” as its 2011 Person of the Year.
“No one could have known that when a Tunisian fruit vendor in a town barely on a map set himself on fire in a public square, it would spark protests that would bring down dictators in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya and rattle regimes in Syria, Yemen and Bahrain,” wrote Time editor Rick Stengel.
“That spirit of dissent would spur Mexicans to rise up against the terror of drug cartels, Greeks to march against unaccountable leaders, Americans to occupy public spaces to protest income inequality, and Russians to marshal themselves against a corrupt autocracy.”
It’s never too late to be recognized for bravery.
67 years after the US Army assumed she was killed when a bomb destroyed the hospital where she worked, a Belgian nurse who saved the lives of hundreds of soldiers during the Battle of the Bulge was given an American award for valor on Monday.
Augusta Chiwy, who is 93, received the Civilian Award for Humanitarian Service for helping wounded and dying American soldiers, often coming under enemy fire while combing the battlefields to find more of the wounded in the deep snow.
(READ the AP story in the New York Times)
Filipino-American Robin Lim, a midwife based in Indonesia, has won CNN’s coveted Hero of the Year award for 2011.
As founder of the Healthy Mother Earth Foundation health clinics in Indonesia, Lim, who is most often referred to as “Ibu” or “mother”, has helped thousands of impoverish mothers in the country with free birthing services from prenatal care, medical aid to delivery.
Is he asking for Change, or is he asking for change?
Filmmaker Sharon Wright creates a short film about a man as he affects multiple peoples’ lives with just one dollar.
Written and directed by Wright, the film proves that it doesn’t take much to be the change in someone’s life.
Some fish tales are hard to believe. But Tom Satre has the photos to back up the story.
Second Chance Ranch told the story on Facebook:
Satre told a reporter in Corvalis, Ore. that he was out with a charter group on his 62-foot fishing vessel when four juvenile black-tailed deer swam directly toward his boat.
“Once the deer reached the boat, the four began to… circle the boat, looking directly at us. We could tell right away that the young bucks were distressed. I opened up my back gate and we helped the typically skittish and absolutely wild animals onto the boat.”
Some fish tales are hard to believe. But Tom Satre has the photos to back up the story.
Second Chance Ranch told the story on Facebook:
Satre told a reporter in Corvalis, Ore. that he was out with a charter group on his 62-foot fishing vessel when four juvenile black-tailed deer swam directly toward his boat.
“Once the deer reached the boat, the four began to… circle the boat, looking directly at us. We could tell right away that the young bucks were distressed. I opened up my back gate and we helped the typically skittish and absolutely wild animals onto the boat.”
The Teddy Bear Toss is a grand tradition in Canadian minor league hockey, especially in Calgary where last week the junior league Hitmen were showered with thousands of stuffed animals for charity after scoring their first goal of the night.
Fans eager to toss the toys battled anticipation for 38 minutes until the first goal was scored. It then took 20 minutes for all of the 25,303 bears to be collected from the ice, the second-most in franchise history.
The Teddy Bear Toss is a grand tradition in Canadian minor league hockey, especially in Calgary where last week the junior league Hitmen were showered with thousands of stuffed animals for charity after scoring their first goal of the night.
Fans eager to toss the toys battled anticipation for 38 minutes until the first goal was scored. It then took 20 minutes for all of the 25,303 bears to be collected from the ice, the second-most in franchise history.
Sixteen families in South Africa are likely to never forget this year’s 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children Campaign.
As the campaign drew to a close on Saturday, the families—most of whom can relate to issues the campaign seeks to address—had reason to celebrate as they were given their own houses.
The 16 recipients included people with disabilities, women and orphans, all of whom received houses from the government stocked with double beds, electric stoves, irons, kitchen pots and utensils.
Anticipation is building in the run-up to presentations of the best-yet evidence for the existence of the Higgs boson.
The famed particle is a missing link in current theories of physics, used to explain how everything gains its mass.
Rumours have been swirling about the findings for weeks, ahead of the announcement on Tuesday afternoon, even if it will likely yield only partial hints.
Krissi Fajgenbaum has helped thousands of low-income teens to look and feel their best, after watching a documentary about the poverty and unemployment in a nearby community.
She founded Teens 2 Teens, a nonprofit that collects gently used designer clothing to offer students in the poorest counties of North Carolina.
Krissi’s Kloset is the boutique where students from the Robbinsville school district can shop for free.
The government of Japan has pledged $17 million dollars to Afghanistan to provide more people with clean drinking water and electricity.
According to Afghan media reports, the money will be given to Afghanistan’s Ministry of Energy and Water to spend in Kabul and elsewhere.
Small dams will be built for creating electricity and water canals to boost agriculture.
Scientists have developed a vaccine that protects mice against a deadly form of the Ebola virus.
First identified in 1976, Ebola fever kills more than 90% of the people it infects.
The researchers say that this is the first Ebola vaccine to remain viable long-term and can therefore be successfully stockpiled.
Georgia may be best known for peaches and peanuts. But olives were once a homegrown commodity along the state’s 100-mile coast. They were introduced by Spanish settlers who planted olive trees at missions established in southeast Georgia in the 1590s.
A South Carolina chef said the freshness of the oil gave it a richness that imported olive oil, because of its age, doesn’t have.
Now, after more than a century, one family farm is growing an olive oil business in southwest Georgia, projecting 30 times the size of this year’s harvest within four years.
Christmas came early for three people in West Michigan when a stranger picked up the tab on some presents.
It happened Monday night at the Big Kmart in Plainfield Township. A woman, described only as “being in her 30s,” walked up to the layaway desk and asked, “Can I, you know, pay off some people’s layaway?”
A worker in the layaway department replied, ‘Well, are you trying to pick them up? ‘Cause you can’t pick them up if you don’t have an ID.”
And [the mystery woman] said, “Nope, I just want to help people.”
The day after the story aired on the local TV news, another secret Santa went to the Plainfield Kmart and offered to pay off 13 more layaway bills — to the tune of about $2,000.
(WATCH the video – with NBC advertisement – or read the story on MSNBC)
Christmas came early for three people in West Michigan when a stranger picked up the tab on some presents.
It happened Monday night at the Big Kmart in Plainfield Township. A woman, described only as “being in her 30s,” walked up to the layaway desk and asked, “Can I, you know, pay off some people’s layaway?”
Who will be named the Top CNN Hero of the Year and receive $100,000 to boost their selfless projects to help others around the world? Tonight we will find out.
All 10 finalists will walk down the same red carpet as the celebrities for the 5th annual CNN Heroes awards show broadcast LIVE on CNN.
Televised award shows normally hail athletes and entertainers for their latest career accomplishments. But tonight in Los Angeles, the celebrities will honor inspiring citizens working to make the world a better place.
The Top 10 CNN Heroes will each have their story told by celebrities, including The Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am, Jerry Seinfeld, Mary-Louise Parker, Miley Cyrus, Kid Rock and NFL Super Bowl champ and MVP quarterback Kurt Warner. (See all 10 heroes’ stories at CNNHeroes.com.)
Kid Rock will be performing the song “Care” from his platinum-selling album “Born Free,” while Miley Cyrus will be performing her triple-platinum hit “The Climb.”
Each person in the Top 10 receives a $50,000 grant. At the end of the tribute show, hosted by Anderson Cooper, one of the Top 10 will be announced as the CNN Hero of the Year and receive an additional $250,000.
The Hero of the Year was chosen by the public in an online vote that ended Thursday.
The CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute, hosted by Anderson Cooper, will air tonight, Sunday, Dec. 11, live at 8:00 PM ET.
“We hope to empower these selfless individuals to persevere in their humanitarian efforts to create progress,” said Jim Walton, president of CNN Worldwide.
Eddie Canales
Eddie Canales’ son was paralyzed during a high school football game in 2001. Today, Canales’ nonprofit, Gridiron Heroes, provides emotional and financial support to high school football players who’ve sustained life-changing spinal cord injuries.
Taryn Davis
Taryn Davis was just 21 when her husband, an Army corporal, was killed in Iraq. In 2007, she created the American Widow Project. To date, her nonprofit has provided a community of support to more than 900 young military widows.
Sal Dimiceli
Sal Dimiceli has spent decades helping people get back on their feet. Through a local newspaper column and his nonprofit, The Time Is Now To Help, Dimiceli assists about 500 people a year with food, rent, utilities and other necessities. (See the GNN story)
Derreck Kayongo
Derreck Kayongo’s Global Soap Project collects partially used hotel soap and reprocesses it to save lives. Since 2009, the Atlanta-based nonprofit has provided about 150,000 bars of soap for communities in 10 countries. See GNN Story (subscription only)
Diane Latiker
Surrounded by gang violence in her Chicago neighborhood, Diane Latiker opened her home to area youth and started a community program called Kids Off the Block. Since 2003, her program has helped more than 1,500 young people.
Robin Lim
Robin Lim became a midwife after her sister died from complications during pregnancy. Since 2003, she and her team in Indonesia have helped thousands of low-income women have a healthy pregnancy and birth.
Patrice Millet
After being stricken with cancer, Patrice Millet dedicated his life to helping children in his native Haiti. His nonprofit youth soccer program provides free equipment, coaching and food to hundreds of participants from the slums and teaches them to become responsible citizens. See GNN story (subscription only).
Bruno Serato
Since 2005, chef Bruno Serato has been serving free pasta dinners to children, many of whom are poor and live in motels with their families. Today, Serato provides dinner seven days a week to more than 300 children at the Boys & Girls Club in Anaheim, California. See GNN Story (subscription only)
Richard St. Denis
Since 2008, Richard St. Denis and his organization, World Access Project, have provided hundreds of wheelchairs and mobility aids to people living with disabilities in rural Mexico.
Amy Stokes
Amy Stokes is redefining “family” for South African children affected by HIV/AIDS and poverty. Her organization, Infinite Family, has connected almost 500 teenage “Net Buddies” with nearly 300 volunteer mentors from all over the world via the Internet.
A savvy dog helped save a man’s life and fought off a mugger just a month after being taken in by new owners.
Trixie, a newly-adopted 11-year-old Jack Russell spotted a man who had collapsed in a diabetic coma and pulled her owner to him, leading paramedics to say the dog probably ‘saved the man’s life’.
Then just a few days later the plucky Trixie growled and bit a man who tried to steel Georgina’s wallet.
