Ways to Impact Your World every day
|
|
David Mattingly introduces us to a young woman whose life was changed when she received a shoebox gift years ago, and who now prepares these boxes for this year-round campaign to give joy to those in need.Video | Shoebox delivery
How you can help:
• Samaritan's Purse
|
|
On December 26, 2004, a Tsunami claimed the lives of some 245,000 people in 14 nations. Five years later, much has been rebuilt. But as Dan Rivers tells us through the story of one little girl, there are many survivors still struggling to overcome the consequences of that tragic day. Video | Special Coverage
How you can help:
• The Global Medical Relief Fund
|
|
Sean Swarner is used to defying the odds, starting when he was 13 years old. He is the only person to have been diagnosed with both Hodgkins and Askins sarcoma. He is an improbable cancer survivor, and he's giving young cancer patients something he never had while fighting the disease: hope. Arwa Damon reports. Video
How you can help:
• Cancer Climber
• Little Star Foundation
• The Sunshine Kids Foundation
• Bear Necessities Pediatric Cancer Foundation
• Cure Childhood Cancer
• Lance Armstrong Foundation
|
|
World AIDS Day is December 1, and CNN looks at an unlikely participant in the fight to end the disease. We all know her music, but Alicia Keys is also involved in making a difference in Africa, where 40 percent of the population there is infected with the HIV/AIDS virus. Video | AIDS epidemic today Video
How you can help:
• Keep a Child Alive
• Elton John AIDS Foundation
• National AIDS Fund
• International AIDS Vaccine Initiative
• UNAIDS - Joint U.N. Program on HIV/AIDS
• AMFAR
• International HIV/AIDS Alliance
• The Body
|
|
A couple headed to China to start up a hotel business. Instead, they began a center in China to help developmentally disabled children and adopted an abandoned baby girl. Video
How you can help:
• Bright Connections
• UNICEF
• China Care Foundation
• Save The Children
|
|
Tracy Hawkins went to Africa to teach a pottery class and returned with a solution to filter safe drinking water for the world's poorest communities. Video
How you can help:
• Filter Pure
• Pure Water for the World
• Water.org
• Global Water
• Water Aid
|
|
Wondering just how the tens of millions of uninsured Americans get their health care? They sometimes rely on charities like Remote Area Medical, which has provided free health care to the poor for decades. Video
How you can help:
• Remote Area Medical
|
|
Trachoma affects 40 million people across the globe and it's cost 10 million people their eyesight ... and it's absolutely preventable. Volunteers and organizations are teaming up to combat this flyborne eye disease. Learn more about trachoma | Video
How you can help:
• The Carter Center • World Health Organization
|
|
Malaria claims almost a million lives each year. But a simple prevention tool is one way you can help -- low-cost mosquito bed nets prevent the disease from being transmitted. Learn more about malaria | Researcher: Malaria's origin in chimps
How you can help:
• Global Viral Forecasting Initiative
• Nothing But Nets
• Malaria No More
• PATH
|
|
Jordan Thomas’ life changed when he lost both legs on a family fishing trip. But his loss led to a new mission: helping fellow amputees whose needs are often ignored by health insurance companies. Full story | Video
How you can help:
• Jordan Thomas Foundation
|
|
The U.N. says there are 300,000 Haitian children who live in grinding poverty. These children, who work in people’s homes in exchange for food and shelter, are trapped in a modern-day form of slavery, the international agency says. Full story | Video
How you can help:
• Restavek Foundation
|
|
The U.S. role in Iraq may be winding down, but problems persist for the country. The war has displaced millions of Iraqis. Actress and U.N. goodwill ambassador Angelina Jolie visits for a firsthand look at the refugees. Video
How you can help:
• UNHCR
• Refugees International
|
|
An immigrant to the U.S. from Ghana uses his skills to refurbish computers to give back to children in his native country. Full story
How you can help:
• EVCOAfrica
• World Vision
• International Children’s Fund
• Ghana Education Project
|
|
In Indonesia, one woman is helping those who make their living by picking through trash while also aiding the landscape with an environmentally conscious line of products. Video
How you can help:
• XS Project
• World Care
• More ways to help the environment
|
|
As the world reflects on the life of Michael Jackson, one of his great humanitarian accomplishments, "We are the World" can be celebrated and continued, with the purchase of the "We are the World" single, the music video, and the 20th anniversary DVD. The proceeds from these sales fund the original foundation USA for Africa which continues the legacy with their charitable efforts to ease hunger and fight AIDS in Africa and the U.S.
How you can help:
• USA for Africa
• We Are The World 20th Anniversary DVD from Amazon
• Download from iTunes: Song | Video
|
|
CNN's Isha Sesay profiles a girl who has helped provide medicine and education to mothers and children in Kenya. Video
How you can help:
• Compassion International
• International Children's Fun
• Kids Alive International
|
|
Students at the Harlem Children's Zone are no strangers to challenges, growing up in some of New York's toughest neighborhoods. But they've been fortunate recipients of help from their community. Now, they want to give back to peers facing extreme difficulties of their own a continent away in the Congo Video
How you can help:
• Harlem Children's Zone
• U.S. Fund's Inspired Gifts program
• The International Rescue Committee
• Outreach International
• SOS Children's Villages
|
|
Books are so rare in many African countries that children celebrate receiving them as if it were Christmas morning, says Brad Mattson, a manager for Books for Africa, a nonprofit group that ships donated books to African countries. Full story
How you can help:
• Books for Africa
• PEN Trust
|
|
The number of uprooted people across the world dropped slightly last year, but new displacement this year in conflict zones like Pakistan, Somalia and Sri Lanka so far "has already more than offset the decline," the U.N. refugee agency said. Full story | Angelina Jolie's mission | Commentary | Video | Donate via text
How you can help:
• UNHCR: The U.N. Refugee Agency
• International Committee of the Red Cross
• Refugees International
• International Rescue Committee
• American Refugee Committee
• Oxfam America
• Mapendo International
• European Commission Humanitarian Aid
• More ways to help
|
|
As Pakistan's military offensive against the Taliban along its western border with Afghanistan continues, a flood of civilians from the region are fleeing the area into other parts of Pakistan. Full story
How you can help:
• Save the Children (U.S.) | Save the Children (U.K.)
• World Vision
• MercyCorps
• Khpal Kor Foundation
|
|
A poverty-stricken school in India is benefiting from a campaign asking people to donate one hour's salary to students in need. Video
How you can help:
• Asha for Education
• Help the Helpless
|
|
Half a million women die in childbirth worldwide every year -- most in poor, developing countries. A new U.N. Population Fund program is helping to change that trend. Video
How you can help:
• U.N. Population Fund
• UNICEF
|
|
Helping to fight world poverty, musician John Legend's Show Me Campaign has teamed up with with economist Jeffrey Sachs' Millennium Promise organization to provide clean water and improved farming techniques to some of the poorest communities in Africa.
How you can help:
• Show Me Campaign
|
|
Some of the world's most gifted songwriters cleared their schedules for a weeklong songwriter's retreat, where 100 percent of the song royalties from CompassionArt goes to the work of supporting the poorest of poor around the world.Video
How you can help:
• CompassionArt
|
|
On May 12, 2008, a massive earthquake in China left nearly 90,000 dead or missing, more than 374,000 injured and at least 15 million people displaced. A year after the quake changed the lives of millions of people, China is still counting the toll. Full story |
Helping quake kids stand tall
How you can help:
• Red Cross of China
• World Vision
• Direct Relief International
• Mercy Corps
|
|
There are an estimated 2.5 million orphans in Uganda and more than a third of the population doesn't have access to safe drinking water. But one American activist is doing her part in providing mosquito nets, clean water, a loving home and hope. Full story | Video
How you can help:
• Ugandan American Partnership Organization
• Children of Uganda
• Pearl Ministries
|
|
At the Abadir Primary School in Ethiopia, the rebuilding of the dilapidated building gives the children a chance for a real education and the hope for a brighter future. Video
How you can help:
• Children of Ethiopia Education Fund
• Ethiopia Reads
• CHILDREN: Charities and resources
|
|
ShelterBox is a life-saving box containing tents and medical supplies for disaster victims and to date, 80,000 of them have been shipped to survivors in 57 countries. Video |
Inventor of ShelterBox
How you can help:
• ShelterBox
|
|
Survivors of the deadly earthquake in Italy face the prospect of rebuilding their shattered lives after thousands of homes were demolished and the death toll at nearly 300. Clowns in tent city |
Survivors mark somber Easter
How you can help:
• American Red Cross | Italian Red Cross | British Red Cross
• The National Italian American Foundation
• Operation Blessing International
• Save the Children
|
|
The organization Doctors Without Borders has set up a project in Jordan to treat Iraqi war victims. Video
How you can help:
• Doctors Without Borders
• Global Medical Relief Fund
|
|
Autism is an often mysterious disorder that affects an estimated six out of every 1,000 children in the U.S., with the number of cases rising. Around World Austim Day, CNN took a look at the latest research and also the personal stories of living with and loving someone with autism. In Depth: Autism
How you can help:
• Autism Research Institute
• Autism Society of America
• Autism Speaks
• Autism Source
|
|
For nearly three months, Paul Ridley, 25, has been rowing up to twelve hours a day on a 2,950-mile journey to raise cancer awareness and hopefully raise money for cancer research. Full story
How you can help:
• Row For Hope
• Yale Cancer Center
|
|
International donors have spent at least $15 billion on aid in Afghanistan in the last few years. Still, one in five children will not make it to their 5th birthday. CNN's Paula Newton visits one children's hospital in Kabul to find out why. Video
How you can help:
• Save the Children
• UNICEF
|
|
One is a Bosnian mother. Another is a woman who runs a school for girls in Mali. A third is a widowed AIDS activist in Vietnam. All three, however, have one thing in common: They made a powerful noise. Video
How you can help:
• UNIFEM
• CARE
|
|
The parasitic Guinea worm has caused millions of people to suffer, especially those who drink unfiltered water that allow the parasite to enter the body. But prevention and education techniques are cutting that number down -- and health officials hope the disease will be entirely wiped out soon. Video | Q&A: Wiping out a disease
How you can help:
• The Carter Center
• Health and Development International
• WaterAid
|
|
Some believe the game of cricket can help build cultural bridges and preach religious tolerance. Video
How you can help:
• Cricket Without Boundaries
• The Lord's Taverners
|
|
Malaria claims almost a million lives each year. But a simple prevention tool is one way you can help -- low-cost mosquito bed nets prevent the disease from being transmitted. As World Malaria Day is marked on April 25, find out more. Learn more about malaria
How you can help:
• Nothing But Nets
• Malaria No More
• PATH
|
|
Pirates prowl off its seashores. Gunmen roam its streets. And half of its population needs humanitarian assistance. Somalia is on the edge of collapse, and aid groups are trying to help, but violence inside the chaotic country has already claimed the lives of two relief workers. Video
How you can help:
• World Food Program
• International Medical Corps (IMC)
• World Vision
|
|
Many Westerners got their first glimpse of India's poor in the recent hit film, "Slumdog Millionaire." The film depicts India's poor living in suffocating squalor. Life for India’s real poor isn’t much better and a controversial move in one Indian city is making things worse, some say. Full Story | Video
• ActionAid
• Robin Raina Foundation
• Global Greengrants Fund
• ASHA
|
|
Pinki Sonkar was afraid to smile. The shy girl grew up in an Indian village with a deformity that made her an outcast, even within her own family. Today Sonkar is not only smiling -- she’s the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary Video | Interview with “Smile Pinki” director
How you can help:
• Smile Train
• CURE International
|
|
Australia's raging wildfires killed at least 170 people, decimating massive spans of land and leaving thousands of residents homeless, creating situation officials said they'd never experienced. Full story
How you can help:
• Salvation Army
• Australian Red Cross
• GlobalGiving
|
|
In northern Sri Lanka, government forces and Tamil rebels are locked in battle. Thousands of civilians, including children, are thought to be trapped by the fighting. Full story
How you can help:
• International Committee of the Red Cross
• UNICEF
• Doctors Without Borders
|
|
Two girls were attacked with acid on their way to school in Afghanistan last November. They say they are more determined than ever to get an education -- despite continued threats. "I have to do something for my country, I must got to school," one told CNN. Full Story | Video
How you can help:
• Relief International
• Save the Children
|
|
The Zimbabwean government declared a national emergency in the face of a cholera outbreak that has killed hundreds of people. Unclean drinking water and a poor sanitation system are blamed for the spread of the disease. Story | 'Elephant pump' fights cholera | What is cholera?
• Pump Aid
• The Plan
• Oxfam America
• Save the Children
• International Committee of the Red Cross
• UNICEF
• World Health Organization
|
|
The global food market's shelves are getting bare and hunger activists say it will get worse. Why are so many people starving and what, if anything, can be done to eradicate hunger?
Full story | Commentary |
Interview | Video | Blog
|
|
A Maryland teenager is trying to show how a $30 stove can save the lives of women in the Sudan’s murderous Darfur region. Full Story
• Stoves for Darfur
• CHF International
|
|
One band member is blind. Another suffers from Down syndrome. Several others struggle with other disabilities. But when their band, “Rudely Interrupted,” takes to the stage, they have no trouble expressing themselves. Video
• Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation
• Best Buddies
• ChairScholars Foundation
|
|
How one person can make a difference: Hear from the experts.
full story
|
|
Two years ago, masked men in Iraq doused Youssif with gasoline and set his face on fire. He was just 4 years old at the time. Now, after a dozen surgeries, Youssif is coming out of his shell. He even has a new career goal: become a doctor. Full story | Video
• Children's Burn Foundation
|
|
It all started for Miquel Rodriguez when he lost his six-month-old son. Twenty years later, he has found a new family to raise -- over 600 street kids Video
• VisionTrust
• Children’s Hunger Fund / Mercy Network Peru
• UNICEF
|
|
Thousands of people have been displaced by fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Aid groups are trying to reach them but relief efforts have been complicated by violence. Full Story | Video
• UNICEF
• World Vision
• Doctors Without Borders
• International Committee of the Red Cross
• Oxfam
|
|
The nation will celebrated Veterans Day on November 11. But veterans and their families need more than honor. They need help to cope with the terrible costs of war. AC360: Back from the Battle | Full Story | Veterans in Focus
|
|
Banafsha is only 11 but she is already the breadwinner for a family of eight. She is one of an estimated 60,000 street kids who roam the streets of Kabul, Afghanistan scrounging for survival. Full Story | Video
• Aschiana Foundation | International | U.S.
|
|
It prefers to strike at night. It claims more than a million lives a year. And it is so lethal that it kills a child in Africa every 30 seconds. But one grassroots charity found a way to take on this tiny killer with a shockingly simple solution. Story
• NothingButNets.net
|
|
Thousands of women and girls have been systematically raped during a 10-year war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. International aid groups are trying to halt the violence, but the world has been slow to respond. The leader of one aid group, shaken by her encounters with Congolese women, could barely find the right words to describe what she saw. Full Story |
One woman's story | Javier Bardem: ‘Vampires’ terrorizing Congo
|
|
Zimbabwe has been shaken by political turmoil and a collapsing economy. The African country is now dealing with a new threat: a deadly outbreak of cholera. Video
• Save the Children: US | UK
• UNICEF
|
|
Tony Madone has donated his crops to charity for 13 years. The Colorado farmer gives to food banks, which are suffering shortages across the country. But when Madone recently fell ill, he discovered he had reaped an unexpected harvest elsewhere. Video
• Feeding America
• Society of St. Andrew
• Houston Food Bank
• The Food Project
• Emergency Food Network
|
|
The desperate looks on the faces above only hint at the scale of the tragedy. The worst flooding in five decades in Bihar, India, has killed at least 2,000 people, displaced millions and destroyed 100 villages. Authorities say relief groups are overwhelmed – and more rain is expected. Full story | Video
• World Vision
• Save the Children
• Catholic Relief Services
• UNICEF
• International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
|
|
The next major disaster could overwhelm some U.S. relief groups, a government watchdog group warns. Full story
• The Salvation Army
• Catholic Charities USA
|
|
Hurricane Ike may have dissipated, but millions of Americans who stood in its path are still suffering. Ike’s initial toll: dozens of people killed, thousands with no drinking water and millions without power. Ike’s fury was felt as far south as Texas and as north as Illinois. Full story | Ike's fury: Video | iReport.com: Ike Shatter's Texas
• Ways you can help
|
|
Barack Obama and John McCain will appeared together in New York City to talk about service. The presidential candidates participated in a half-hour forum at Columbia University on civic engagement in the post-9/11 world. The event, sponsored by Time magazine, was hosted by Time’s managing editor, Rick Stengel and PBS’s Judy Woodruff. The forum was organized by ServiceNation, a coalition of more than 100 groups that offer Americans opportunities for service. Obama-McCain Unite | National Service
• ServiceNation
|
|
When Mike and Kristin Bertrand lost their Los Angeles, California, home to foreclosure, they joined thousands of Americans who have suffered the same fate. But they also found a novel approach to dealing with their loss, one they’re now sharing with others. VIDEO
• California Community Foundation
• Los Angeles Neighborhood Housing Services
• Catholic Charities USA
|
|
Irene Famulak has not seen her family since 1942. Nazi soldiers barged into her Ukrainian home and took her parents and five siblings. Famulak was forced to work in a labor camp and never saw her family again – until now. Full Story | Video
• American Red Cross
• International Tracing Service
|
|
One day while driving with her father, Hannah Salwen noticed a Mercedes stopped next to a homeless man sitting on the curb. The conversation that followed led to a remarkable decision by the Salwen family.
Full Story
• The Hunger Project
|
|
Children are our most precious but vulnerable resource. However, they face daily threats from violence, disease and disasters. CNN looks at the dangers they face around the globe and how you can help them survive.
In-depth: The Survival Project
• UNICEF
• Save the Children
• World Food Programme
|
|
High winds and triple-digit temperatures continued to fan wildfires across Northern California. Thousands of residents have been forced to flee from their homes as firefighters struggled to contain at least 300 fires burning throughout the state.
Full Story | iReport.com
• American Red Cross
|
|
They honor their country when they choose to risk their lives in faraway places. We honor them with vigils at cemeteries and Fourth of July holiday parades. Learn about one remarkable soldier whose love for his country inspired him to win the nation’s highest award for valor. Casualties: Who they are | iReport | Full Story
•
Fisher House
•
Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS)
• Other military charities
|
|
Tough economic times aren’t just affecting homeowners. They’re forcing some pet owners to make brutal choices.
Full Story | Video
• Alliance for Stray Animals and People
• The Humane Society of the United States
• Petfinder.com
|
|
Most children have a home. Khin Zaw Lin has a garbage dump. The seven-year-old Lin lives off of discarded food in a trash dump near the Myanmar border. CNN correspondent Dan Rivers met with Lin to find out why.
Full Story
• Mae Tao Clinic
• Save the Children
• Global Giving: Myanmar
• World Vision
|
|
People turn to charities when they need help but where do charities turn when they need help? Some of the nation’s biggest charities are trying to figure that out. They report a surge in demand while their donations are slacking off. The people asking for help, though, don’t fit the profile of soup kitchens patrons. Most are working poor who are squeezed by high food and fuel prices and the foreclosure crisis.
Full Story | Video
• Atlanta Community Food Bank
• United Food Bank
• America’s Second Harvest
|
|
At least 5 million people have been left homeless by a massive earthquake that struck China. Earthquake victims have been helped, though, by China’s citizens and the international community. Story
• Some relief organizations working in China
|
|
Three weeks after a cyclone killed at least 130,000 people in Myanmar, the country’s ruling junta announced it would admit all aid workers regardless of nationalities.
Full Story
• Some relief organizations working in Myanmar
|
|
CNN marked World Autism Awareness Day this past week by taking an unprecedented look at this mysterious disorder. The public’s response was quick and heartfelt. Readers gave moving accounts of living with and loving someone with autism. We share some of these stories from CNN iReporters, including one from the mother of an autistic boy who says she received a "a slice of pure heaven in her home."
Full Story | Autism in-depth | Autistic girl connects with animals
• Autism Research Institute
• Autism Society of America
• Autism Speaks
• Jacob’s Ladder
• Autism Source
• HALO
|
|
War is no longer the business of men. A record number of American women are serving combat support roles in Iraq and Afghanistan. A significant number of female veterans return home battling a new enemy: "military sexual trauma."
full story
• Operation Homefront
• Armed Services YMCA of the USA
• National Military Family Association
|
|
Military veterans face a number of obstacles on their return home, from finding a job, continuing their education to sometimes dealing with life-changing injuries. Here are just a few ways to help veterans and military families. full story
• Fisher House | Freedom Calls
• American Legion Legacy Scholarship Fund
• Operation Education
• When Duty Calls
|
|
For some parts of New Orleans, rebuilding is still a dream more than two years after Hurricane Katrina. Once marked by dense housing, the Lower 9th Ward especially was heavily damaged by the storm. There has been little rebuilding done there since the storm, although some people have been living in trailers in the area.
• Make It Right | Rebuilding Together
• Greater New Orleans Foundation
• HOMEAID | Habitat for Humanity
• Foundation for the Mid South
|
|
World AIDS Day is marked each year on December 1 to raise awareness and remember the disease's victims. full story
• UNAIDS - Joint U.N. Program on HIV/AIDS
• AMFAR
• International HIV/AIDS Alliance
• The Body
• ActionAid International
• Medecins Sans Frontiers International
|
|
Thousands of people died and countless others were left homeless after a cyclone rampaged along Bangladesh's coast. full story
International Red Cross and Red Crescent
• Save the Children | Caritas| CARE
• Catholic Relief Services | UNICEF
• World Food Programme | UNDP
|
|
In September 2007, Zimbabwe faced a desperate economic situation that crippled the country and left many starving. Video
Here are some ways you can help:
• Africare | CARE
• UNHCR | UNICEF
• Mercycorps | OXFAM
• Worldvision | Childreach/PLAN
|