Eva’s Heroes

By Michael Quintanilla – Express-News
Tuesday, September 28, 2010

“Desperate Housewives” actress Eva Longoria has won Screen Actors Guild, ALMA and People’s Choice awards, but the recognition she finds most humbling these days is for her activism and philanthropy.

On Oct. 6, she’ll be honored in Memphis, Tenn., with the prestigious Legacy Freedom Award presented by the National Civil Rights Museum for her philanthropy and humanitarian efforts. She’s one of three women who will be honored at the Memphis Cook Convention Center event.

But before Parker joins fellow honorees in Memphis – Nobel Peace Prize recipient Dr. Wangari Maathai of Kenya and Dr. Dorothy Cotton, who is known for her work in social change – the actress will put on her poker face for an Eva’s Heroes benefit: the third annual Tony and Eva Parker’s Celebrity Casino Night, Saturday at Pedrotti’s North Wind Ranch in Helotes.

Inspired by her sister, Lisa, Parker founded Eva’s Heroes, an organization that helps developmentally disabled children and young adults, four years ago. Parker also is a leader with Padres Contra El Cancer (Parents Against Cancer) and an advocate for migrant farm children, the subject for a documentary she’s working on called Harvest. And there’s her namesake’s foundation that raises money for personal charities and causes around the world, such as her campaign to house Haiti earthquake victims.

The celebrity-filled casino night will be attended by several Spurs players, local personalities and Parker’s Hollywood chums Roselyn Sanchez, Terry Crews, Robin Antin and Leeann Tweeden. Phil Hellmuth, 11-time world champion poker player, will be back as the Texas Hold ‘Em tournament emcee. For more on the event, go to www.evasheroes.org or call 210-694-9090.

We caught up with Parker between scenes of a movie being shot in Los Angeles; just the day before she was filming in Mexico.

Q: I heard you were filming in Mexico. How did that go?

A: Crazy, busy. But, yes, I’ve actually filmed two movies this summer. One is called Without Men that was shot here in L.A. and in Santa Barbara. It’s an independent film based on an amazing novel, Tales from the Town of Widows. All the men go off to war and die, so the women have to figure out how to make a new society. In the other movie, Cristiada, I play Andy Garcia’s wife. We shot part of it in Durango. It’s a period piece in the 1920s in Mexico, when the government overthrew the Catholic Church. I love historical fiction and never imagined that I would do a period piece. And I always dreamed of working with Andy Garcia.

Q: How has the economy played into your fundraising for Eva’s Heroes? Do you find that people are still just as giving?

A: It’s interesting that you say that because we have found in hard economic times the people that suffer the most are charity groups because nobody has that extra income to spend on philanthropy. We have been really lucky that we have held steady throughout the economy’s dip. But it doesn’t mean that we’re not nervous that we’ll never reach our fundraising goal. It’s a daunting task to fundraise in any economic climate. But we have managed to have some really loyal supporters who are loyal to the cause, loyal to the message and are loyal to the kids.

Q: How can one who isn’t famous or rich help? You don’t have to be a celebrity.

A: I say that all the time. Most philanthropists are all around us. You can give of your time. You can donate clothes to the Salvation Army. You can spend time at a soup kitchen. There are so many things you can do to make a difference in people’s lives, especially if you are blessed as I am. And I am not talking about money or fame. I am talking about how I am blessed with my health. I am blessed with amazing parents. I am blessed with an amazing family. I am blessed with a great husband. So I count my blessings in that way. I have so much love and energy and spirit to give to others. I think that can be found in everyone.

Q: Where were you when you received word about the Legacy Freedom Award?

A: I think I was working in L.A. and going, “Huh?” I feel like I am still so young in my activism life. I’m not saying I am a young person, but I am so young in seeing what I want to be able to accomplish in civil rights for Latinos, civil rights for women, civil rights for children’s health care.

Q: Where does your drive come from?

A: My philanthropic drive definitely comes from my mother. My Latino pride – my Mexican-American pride – comes from my father, who always taught me to never forget where you came from, and I never do. There are a lot of privileges that I have and so many people fought before me so that I could have it. So I want to continue their fight to make a better life for those who want it and earn it and need it.

To read more visit  http://www.mysanantonio.com/entertainment/article/Longoria-Parker-s-work-off-screen-in-spotlight-676878.php

Vietnamese Chef teaching street kids how to cook!

8 November 2010
BBC News

Since opening the doors to his famous Koto – Know One Teach One – restaurant in Hanoi in 2000, he has helped around 400 homeless children to become industrious cooks.

At his non-profit hospitality training centre he has passed on both cooking and life skills.

“I came to Vietnam never wanting to start a project as big as Koto, I just wanted to make a difference,” he recalls.

“I look back now and realise that it has given me this incredible joy.”
Hand to mouth

Born in Ho Chi Minh City to a single mum with six children during the Vietnam war, Mr Pham lived in Australia from the age of eight before he returned to his homeland in the early 1990s.

It was there his Koto project was born after he stumbled across a group of children selling coconuts on the streets in 1996.

“I found these street kids carrying coconuts and working 16 hours a day,” he explained to the BBC World Service’s Outlook programme. “They were living from hand to mouth.

“So I took them and 60 other kids to dinner for the next two weeks.”

But it was another three years before the idea for his restaurant first came to fruition.

“At the time I thought I knew better,” he admitted. “I gave them fish everyday for that period but then they pulled me aside.”

“They said: ‘Look we trust you now but you can’t keep on looking after us this way. We’re going to need a job. We need you to show us how to fish for ourselves’.”

From there, his Koto project was launched. Children not only learned how to cook but were taught lessons in life too.

“The first thing you receive is housing and medical checks along with vaccinations,” Mr Pham explained.

“You learn about team building and life skills programmes, vocational training and English, which gives you the confidence to meet people.”
Presidential visit

Interest in his restaurant gathered pace and within months former US President Bill Clinton dropped by for a bite to eat with an entourage of 80 reporters.

So suspicious were the Vietnamese government following Mr Clinton’s stop-off that they feared Mr Pham was a member of the CIA.

“I think I was under watch for about three or four years after that,” he laughs. “But I’m glad we went through that phase because I’ve got the green light now to go on and do the wonderful things that Koto is doing.”

To read more please visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11701796

Christy Porter – “Mother Teresa of the Coachella Valley”

Christy Porter has given literally millions of pounds of fresh, local produce to the some of the neediest citizens in the Golden State. A former photojournalist and daughter of a Kentucky coal miner, Christy founded Hidden Harvest in 2001 with very limited resources. This unique program employs the working poor  (at above prevailing farm wage) to glean or “rescue” the produce left in farmers’ fields after their harvesting is complete. Christy and Hidden Harvest also “rescue” hundreds of tons of produce each year from area packing houses.  Christy’s hidden harvest is the nearly 30% of field crops that go unpicked due to fluctuating market price or cosmetic imperfections.

To date (June 2010), Hidden Harvest has donated free of charge, including refrigerated delivery, over 8 million pounds of fresh local produce and now serves over 44,000 low income people each month via their 60+ client agencies that serve the poor and hungry. Additionally, more than $40,000 in wages each year goes back into the pockets of the working poor for their harvest labor. Hidden Harvest also operates twelve “Senior Mini Markets” each month within low income senior housing complexes. These farmer’s market style produce displays allow poor and fixed income seniors to “shop” for free for some of the freshest vegetables and fruits in the Coachella Valley. In 2011, Hidden Harvest will celebrate their tenth anniversary and will have “rescued” over ten million pounds of produce that would otherwise have gone to waste and given it a second life on the plates of the hungry in eastern Riverside County and beyond.

Honored with Outstanding Executive Director for San Bernardino and Riverside Counties in 2007, the same year she received the prestigious Minerva Award from California first lady Maria Shriver. In winning ht eminerva Award, Christy Porter joins the ranks of Dr. Jane Goodall, Oprah Winfrey, Nancy Pelosi, Sandra Day O’Connor and many other remarkable and heroic women.  In March, 2010 Christy received the Executive Director of the Year award (along with a $25,000 cash stipend for Hidden Harvest) from The Desert Community Foundation.
Christy was recently profiled in People Magazine in the “Heroes Among Us” section.

Visit http://www.womensconference.org/christy-porter/ to leaarn more about Christy Porter and the Minerva Award and to read the letter from former president Jimmy Carter commending her work.

Visit www.hiddenharvest.org to learn more about the organization, their programs, and how you can help.

Turkey’s first lady promotes disabled children’s rights

08 October 2010, Friday
ABDÜLHAMIT BILICI – STRASBOURG

Hayrünnisa Gül addressed a session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg on Thursday, promoting the rights of children with disabilities, becoming the first Turkish first lady to address such a session.

The first lady began her speech by saying that there is still a lot that needs to be done for children in the world in terms of human rights. “Those with disabilities do not live in isolation as if on far off islands in the ocean anymore, but we all know that they are still confined to the four walls of their homes in some countries, which is why we are sometimes not even aware of them,” she noted. We must remember that children are not disabled by choice, she continued, and added, “However, they have to live with their disability.”

Mrs. Gül is well known for advocacy of children’s rights, especially concerning children with disabilities. Last year, she launched a nationwide campaign aiming to empower the disabled through education.

The title of the campaign was “Education Enables.” “A better society can be achieved by protecting children with disabilities, [and] not leaving their parents to cope with them alone. We must provide them with opportunities for education when they are young, thus, allowing them to be active individuals in society,” she stated at the PACE session.

The first lady continued her speech by providing the audience with information about “Education Enables.” She said the campaign aims to raise public awareness about the fact that children with disabilities can receive education with others in the same environment and in the same schools. “In this way, our children will learn to accept each other as they are; they will learn about tolerance and how to live together despite their differences,” Mrs. Gül noted.

During the session she was accompanied by Lokman Ayva, a member of PACE and a lawmaker from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party). Ayva is visually impaired. Mrs. Gül praised Ayva for his efforts towards expanding the rights of people with disabilities.

“People may be born with a disability or become disabled later in life. However, this is not a hindrance to success. The best example of this is deputy Lokman Ayva. His efforts towards extending the rights of people with disabilities deserve the highest praise and appreciation. I would like to, on behalf of all our citizens with disabilities, offer my thanks to him once again,” she said.

The first lady concluded her speech calling on everyone to fulfill their responsibilities in fighting discrimination, including discrimination against people with disabilities. “Only in this way can we ensure that the fundamental values of human rights, democracy and the principle of the rule of law prevail throughout the world,” she added.

To read more please visit http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-223808-102-turkeys-first-lady-promotes-disabled-childrens-rights-at-pace-session.html

Young activist helps promote environmental sustainability in Brazil’s Amazon region

NEW YORK, USA, 4 October 2010 – Millennium Development Goal 7 calls for ensuring environmental sustainability by 2015. Among the young people working towards this goal is Rosicléia da Silva, 15, from the Amazon region of Brazil. She spoke with UNICEF Radio recently.

Rosicléia lives with her parents and two older sisters in the village of Palmares, located within the city of Tailândia. She has been an environmental activist in her community since she was barely a teenager, and is now a major local advocate for replanting trees in an area hit hard by deforestation.

She believes that every day, people in her community can help act to preserve the environment around them.

“It’s very simple, just with basic things like waste sorting and using less water,” said Rosicléia. “Just because you don’t have money doesn’t mean that you cannot preserve the environment.”

Plagued by deforestation

For years, Tailândia and other parts of the Amazon region have been plagued by illegal logging and rampant deforestation. For Rosicléia, violence and social ills in the region are intertwined with her environmental concerns.

“The biggest handicap is people themselves,” she said, reflecting on the obstacles to environmental change in her community. “Because many people come only to work and don’t actually live here, they think they don’t belong to this place. And so they don’t preserve it.”

Rosicléia said her community has problems with garbage disposal, as well as a lack of health facilities and a weak educational system. “The economic problems can be summarized like this: There are many things that other cities have that we don’t,” she added.

International attention

To help address these issues, Rosicléia began her activism in the public grade school she attended. There, she coordinated the implementation of Agenda 21, a comprehensive plan of environmental action to be taken at the global, national and local levels.

Since then, Rosicléia’s work has resulted in international attention. She has participated in many conferences, including the 2009 Junior 8 Summit in Rome. As a representative of Brazil, she was among 56 teenagers from 14 countries who were selected to attend the summit, which has been conducted regularly by UNICEF since 2005 to add a youth perspective to the annual ‘G8’ meetings of world leaders.

In spite of efforts by activists like Rosicléia, however, Brazil remains one of the world’s largest polluters. And unlike the situation in most countries, where the burning of fossil fuels is the primary culprit, deforestation and other land-use activities are responsible for 75 per cent of Brazil’s greenhouse gas emissions.

To read more please visit http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/brazil_56295.html

Tour Guide Helps Kids Find Way to School in Cambodia

By Allie Brown, CNN

Koh Ker, Cambodia (CNN) — Ponheary Ly has survived genocide, the murder of several family members — including her father — and life in poverty. Today, she’s working to build a brighter future for the children of Cambodia — by helping them go to school.

“Education is important for me,” says Ly, “because my father was a teacher.”

Primary schools are free to attend in Cambodia, but not all children go. With most of the population living in rural areas, children often lack transportation to get to school — and many families keep children home to help on the farm and earn money, said Ly.

Those able to go often must pay a small fee — around $20 a year — to buy uniforms and supplies, and many families can’t afford it.

Cambodia is one of the poorest nations in the world, where about 40 percent of the population of 14.7 million live off less than $1.25 a day, according to World Bank.

“They don’t have enough to eat,” said Ly. “How can they have the money to buy uniforms and supplies?”

Ly, 47, is bridging that gap. She and her foundation are helping thousands of rural children attend school by providing them with uniforms, supplies and other services.

“I need them to have a good education, to build their own family as well as to build their own country,” Ly said.

Ly’s family was thrown into poverty during the Khmer Rouge regime. Their father was the main breadwinner, and when he was killed in 1977, along with 13 other family members, the family was left with nothing. After the regime dissolved, Ly, her six remaining siblings and their mother were forced to start over.

Education was Ly’s answer.

She became a teacher in 1982, struggling to get by on her government salary. But she used her meager earnings to work with other teachers to create libraries, and she offered free instruction to children who couldn’t afford lessons.

When Cambodia opened up to tourism in the 1990s, Ly — who speaks Khmer, Russian, French and English — became a licensed tour guide to earn more money.

As she guided tourists to the ancient Angkor Wat temples in Siem Reap, she saw children begging tourists for money at the temples. On her tours in the countryside, she noticed that many children didn’t go to school at all.

Ly began using tip money — and soliciting donations from tourists in lieu of tips — to support the children’s education. She started with one girl who was in school but lacked the resources to continue, and by the next year she was helping 40 children.

As Ly was slowly growing her program, one child at a time, she met an unlikely ally from Texas.

Lori Carlson was visiting Cambodia in December 2005 and ended up on one of Ly’s tours.

“She explained to me the work that she and her family were doing in the community,” Carlson said. “When I saw what she was doing and saw how incredibly effective it was and how important it was in the country, it became very compelling to me.”

Carlson was so moved that she returned to Texas and helped establish the Ponheary Ly Foundation.

“I set the foundation up to initially just help funnel funds to her so she could broaden her project,” said Carlson, 50. “Then over time I made several trips [back] to see how things were going. … Eventually I just reached the tipping point where I thought, ‘I’m just going to move to Cambodia.’ ”

Carlson resigned her job with a printing company in Austin, Texas, sold her house and made the move. And she hasn’t looked back.

Today, the foundation helps support more than 2,000 children at four schools throughout Cambodia. The schools were chosen because many children in neighboring villages lacked the resources to attend.

At two of the schools, those who can’t afford to attend are supported by the foundation. At the others, the foundation supports all of the children.

“After several years, I see the change,” Ly said. “They know how to read and write.”

Children are given two uniforms and two pairs of shoes each year, along with school supplies. At the school in Koh Ker, located three hours from Siem Reap, all the children receive breakfast each day, along with medical care. In addition, the foundation provides bikes to graduating sixth-graders and the top students in the fourth and fifth grades.

Because teachers’ wages are low and absenteeism is often high, Ly and her organization also pay teachers additional stipends each month depending on the number of sessions they’re teaching.

The group is building a library and setting up a clean water project for two of the schools.

Carlson said the change in the rural children “has been huge.”

“Their physical health has improved dramatically. Their ability to learn has improved dramatically,” she said. “All of the children from [the village of Koh Ker] are now in school, and none of their parents went to school. … When these children become literate, become educated, that’s going to cause a big shift.”

By educating rural children, Ly said she hopes they’ll help build up their communities to become literate, critical thinking people — qualities she believes can help her country avoid the destruction it experienced under the Khmer Rouge.

For Ly, it’s about encouraging the students to spread their knowledge to friends, communities — and parents.

“I ask [the parents] to learn from their kids,” she said. “If the children in this village get a good education, it helps the poor village very much. They know about the situation of their village very well, what the villagers need … [and they] can improve their village faster than the other people who come here.”

Ly still works as a tour guide and estimates that at least 20 percent of her earnings go toward supporting the children. In addition, she spends about 50 percent to 60 percent of her time on her efforts, without compensation.

Ly said she hopes to see the children ultimately go to college. She credits her passion for education to her own makeup, saying her “father’s blood” runs through her.

“My father, he has to be proud of me, because he stay with me all the time … in heaven, and in my heart. I’m very happy to have him as my father, even just a short time.”

Want to get involved? Check out the Ponheary Ly Foundation website at http://www.theplf.org/ and see how to help.

To  see the video and more photos please visit CNN at http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/06/18/cnnheroes.ly.cambodia/index.html

Christine’s story: Escaping poverty through education in post-earthquake Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, 31 August 2010 – Christine, 14, lives in a camp for displaced people near the international airport here in the Haitian capital. “The only thing I know is that I know nothing,” says this energetic girl, who cites Socrates as her motivation for going to school.

“A person without education is a life without examination,” she says, paraphrasing the ancient philosopher. “You have to study and study to be a big philosopher, a great intellectual.”

And Christine has done just that, even though she was out of school for three months following the earthquake that struck Haiti in January, destroying her home and displacing her family.

Siblings not in school

Christine’s tattered notebooks, filled with detailed anatomy sketches, are a testament to her desire to become a doctor.

“I want to see with my own eyes what’s in the body and understand how my heart beats,” she says. “Like the Haitian singer named Jean-Jean Roosevelt says, if we give the world to women, the world would be marvelous, because girls have hearts.”

And Christine’s heart goes out to her siblings, who are not in school.

Her 15-year-old brother, Jean Renee, has been out of school since just before the quake, when he was forced to drop out. His mother could not afford to pay the school fees and had to make the difficult choice of sending just one of her three children to classes. Now Jean Renee goes to a family friend’s garage each day to work as a mechanic’s apprentice.

“If I cannot send him to school, I want him to at least learn a trade and stay out of trouble,” says his mother.

Meanwhile, Christine’s sister Afenyoose, 9, longs to go to school but cannot because it is simply too expensive.

‘My mother is my life’

Christine attends one of the few public schools in the country where fees are relatively affordable. But most of Haiti’s schools are private, creating a major barrier to education.

“I feel very, very sad that I go to school and my little sister doesn’t,” says Christine. “I try to teach her what I’ve learned every evening when I come home from school.”

Even for Christine, however, there are barriers to education. For example, teacher absenteeism is a reality in Haiti, because many teachers do not have the resources to get to their jobs.

“I sometimes don’t want to go to school because our teachers are not there,” says Christine. “My mother says, ‘Go to school, there may be teachers who will be in the classroom.’ She always gives me the strength…. My mother is my life.”

In the displacement camp, Christine’s mother sells second-hand tennis shoes that she gets on consignment. She meticulously cleans them with a toothbrush. This is how she supports her family and pays her daughter’s school fees. Her objective is to get out of the camp and give her children a better life.

“My mother wasn’t able to study. This is why she wants us to go school, so we don’t go through the same difficulties she did,” says Christine.

Rebuilding schools

The earthquake that shook Haiti destroyed or damaged some 4,000 schools. UNICEF’s priority in education has been to re-establish these schools as quickly as possible.

In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, temporary learning spaces were set up in large tents with water and sanitation facilities adapted to children’s needs. These temporary tents are being transformed into semi-permanent structures.

“I went to see my school after the quake,” Christine recalls. “The primary school next to our school had collapsed on top of my school, crushing a part of my classroom and the head teacher’s office. Now we are in learning in a tent, and it’s very hot.”

It’s clear that education is Christine’s lifeline – as it could be for all of Haiti’s children.

“I want the government to rebuild our schools, because there are children who will come after us,” she says. “Without education, there is no life, because education elevates man to the dignity of his well-being.”

See the video and the original article on UNICEF’s website at : http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/haiti_55829.html

A Former Cambodian Child Soldier Now Making Life Safer for Others

Siem Reap, Cambodia (CNN) — Maneuvering slowly through grassy Cambodian terrain, a caravan of 20 men and women is on a search-and-rescue mission. Dressed in military fatigues, they are guided by a fearless leader who calculates every step and ensures the safest path for his comrades.

It takes just minutes for the unit to confront the first of many hidden targets: a muddied 20-year-old land mine buried a few inches beneath the ground.

“This is an active land mine made from Russia. [If] we step on [it] … it explodes and cuts the leg off,” says Aki Ra, leader of theCambodian Self Help Demining team. He and his group are working to make their country safer by clearing land mines — many of which Aki Ra planted himself years ago.

Aki Ra, a Cambodian native who does not recall his birth year, was a child soldier during the communist Khmer Rouge regime, a genocidal crusade responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million Cambodians during the 1970s. He was raised by the army after being separated from his family during the internal conflict.

Around age 10, Aki Ra estimates, he was given a rifle that measured his own height. Soon after, he was taught to lay land mines.

For three years, Aki Ra worked as a mine layer for the Khmer Rouge. He then did the same job for the Vietnamese army that overthrew his village.

“I maybe planted 4,000 to 5,000 land mines in a [single] month,” said Aki Ra, who says he’s about 40 years old now. “We planted them all over the place.”

Watch a slideshow of the some young landmine victims whom Aki Ra has helped

According to the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority, an estimated 4 million to 6 million land mines were laid in Cambodia during three decades of conflict. The mines were planted to defend strategic military locations, target warring opponents and deny the use of roads.

“I had [bad] feelings, because sometimes we were fighting against our friends and relatives,” Aki Ra said. “I felt sad when I saw a lot of people were killed. A lot of people were suffering from land mines. [But] I did not know what to do, [because] we were under orders.”

Approximately 63,000 civilians and soldiers have been in accidents involving land mines and other explosive weapons, according to the Cambodian Mine Victim Information System. Nearly 19,000 of them were killed. Today, Cambodia reportedly has one amputee for every 290 people, one of the highest ratios in the world.

When the United Nations came in the early 1990s to help restore peace to Cambodia, Aki Ra saw an opportunity to begin undoing the damage he and others had done. He started training with the U.N. and helping them clear mines.

It was around this time he got the name he goes by today. He was born Eoun Yeak, but he was so skilled at clearing mines that his supervisors began comparing him to AKIRA, a heavy-duty appliance company in Japan. One reportedly commented, “He works just like an AKIRA.” The name stuck.

Aki Ra estimates that he and his group have cleared more than 50,000 land mines and unexploded weapons.

In 1993, one year after working with the U.N., Aki Ra decided to begin clearing mines alone.

“Some of the areas I was clearing were places where I used to plant mines before,” he said. “I didn’t have any equipment. … I clear by knife, by stick.”

For Aki Ra, this bare-hands technique “wasn’t dangerous. It was easy.”

But easy didn’t mean legal. The method was not in accordance with international standards, which requires protective gear and other professional equipment. So in 2005, he went to the United Kingdom to receive formal training and accreditation.

In 2008, Aki Ra formed his nonprofit demining organization. Comprised of native Cambodians, it includes former soldiers and war crime victims. One of the workers is an amputee who lost a leg to a land mine.

“[Our] goal is to clear land mines in rural villages for the people who need the land for building houses or farming or building schools,” Aki Ra said.

Aki Ra and his organization devote all of their donated funds to clearing Cambodia’s rural “low-priority” villages. These villages, populated primarily by poor farmers, do not always receive first dibs for minefield clearance projects because of their remoteness and limited traffic. At times, they’re completely overlooked.

“Villagers report land mines every day, and they ask us to destroy [them],” Aki Ra said. “The people are afraid of mines. Whether there are a lot of land mines or only a few, [we] still have to clear the area so that the people in the village can be safe.”

Kuot Visoth, chief of Prey Thom village, was relieved when the team arrived in early July to clear his village.

“I know the area around the school has a lot of land mines, and I am afraid that when the children come to school and play, they will step on them, or the villagers’ buffaloes grazing in the area would be killed,” Visoth said.

Aki Ra estimates that he and his group have cleared more than 50,000 land mines and unexploded war weapons such as bombs and grenades. The Cambodian government says there are 3 million to 5 million mines still undiscovered.

Many of Aki Ra’s recovered land mines and unexploded weapons are on display at a museum in Siem Reap. For $2, visitors can touch defused mines and bombs as well as AK-47 rifles and war uniforms.

“I had an idea to open a land mine museum to teach people to understand about war, land mines,” he said. “Even though the war [is] finished, [these explosives] still kill people, and the land cannot be used.”

Also at the museum is an orphanage that Aki Ra and his wife, Hourt, opened about a decade ago. Roughly 100 children, some injured by land mines, have been cared for over the years. The orphanage provides food and shelter for the children and sends them to public school.

“I brought them to the museum because I could provide them with [a] better situation,” Aki Ra said. “If I didn’t help them, they would have a very difficult life.”

The orphanage’s first resident, Sot “Tol” Visay, lost a leg to a mine. He was living on the street when Aki Ra was demining in his province. Aki Ra offered Visay a home, and Visay has spent the past seven years living there.

“This place has been very good to me,” said Visay, now 21. “Mr. Aki Ra does not want anything from me. Instead, he encourages all people here to study, to gain knowledge.”

Hourt died last year from a stroke, leaving Aki Ra to care for his three biological children and 27 orphans ages 10 to 20. Aki Ra is thankful to have caretakers, teachers, a chef and a driver who help look after the children during his demining missions, which can last up to 25 consecutive days every month.

“All the children living in my center I consider as my own children. They call me father,” said Aki Ra, whose efforts in Cambodia will be highlighted in an upcoming documentary, “A Perfect Soldier.” “I have told them about my personal life. They understand all about my history. I tell the children that they should study hard, do good acts and love each other.”

Want to get involved? Check out the Cambodian Self Help Demining website at www.cambodianselfhelpdemining.org and see how to help.

To See the original article visit: http://blog.invisiblechildren.com/2010/07/a-cambodian-child-soldier/

Founding a Charity at 6, and Walking Across the Country for It at 12

By James C. Mckinley Jr.
Published: July 27, 2010

SAN CARLOS, Ariz. — He cuts a tiny figure in the vastness of the upland desert, the expanse of scrub and brush and saguaro cactuses and red ragged mountains. He is a red-headed boy with a sunburned nose and sunglasses, and he moves with a step not graceful, nor terribly fast, but steady and determined, his mouth set in a hard line.

The boy, Zachary L. Bonner, has walked nearly 1,950 miles from his home outside Tampa, Fla., to this spot in the desert, and he intends to walk another 500 miles or so to the Pacific Ocean, all to raise money for homeless children.

At 12 years old, he is something of a prodigy among do-gooders. This is the third and longest trek he has organized to raise money for the Little Red Wagon Foundation, the charity he started when he was 6 to help get water to people after Hurricane Charley hit Florida in 2004.

“He’s just like every other kid, except he likes to do community service work for some odd reason,” said his mother, Laurie Bonner, who walks with her son, taking turns with a family friend. “He likes doing it. It’s weird.”

Zachary acknowledges that his determination to walk 2,478 miles is a little out of the ordinary for a boy his age. Many of the children in his neighborhood back in Valrico, Fla., he says, do not understand it. His mother said that since he started his charity work, he had made few friends his own age; the people closest to him are college students and adults who admire his work.

“Some kids are really into baseball, and that is what they do seven days a week,” Zachary says as he takes a water break in the 100-degree heat. “This is what I enjoy doing.”

His efforts have not gone unnoticed. Some Hollywood producers have bought the rights to his life story so far and this summer started shooting a feature film, directed by David Anspaugh of “Hoosiers” fame and produced by the Philanthropy Project. His mother declined to say how much Zachary was paid, but she did say that he gave it all to the Little Red Wagon Foundation.

He counts among his fans and supporters Elton John, who has pledged $50,000 if Zachary makes it to Los Angeles.

Zachary barely cracks a smile when he talks about being invited to Mr. John’s concert in Tucson this week. Asked about the future, Zachary says he would like to go to Harvard and become a prosecutor. “It seems like a career I would really enjoy,” he says.

The trek is a family affair. Zachary, his mother and a family friend, Matt Chesney, 20, sleep in a donated R.V., rising about 3:30 every morning. Zachary says he usually eats a bowl of cereal and tries to start walking by 5 a.m., before the heat becomes unbearable. His mother and friend take turns following him in a Volkswagen Beetle with his sponsors plastered on the side and a red wagon affixed to the top. One walks beside him while the other drives behind.

He tries to cover at least 20 miles a day, and has worn out five pairs of shoes since he started in late December. The main enemies, he says, are boredom and fatigue. “You get bored walking down the road for hours at a time,” he says as he trudges in the high desert dust here along Highway 70. “You can only listen to so much music.”

To pass the time, he listens endlessly to Elton John, Owl City, Lady Gaga and Mika on his iPhone. He also sends messages over Twitter to more than 1,600 followers. He snacks on apples and granola bars, but waits until the afternoon to eat a large meal, usually donated by restaurants like Chili’s.

Still, as he crosses the great deserts of West Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, his mother has grown concerned about his health. “He’s lost a lot of weight,” she said as she walked behind him. “He’ll take off his shirt and you can see his ribs.”

Ms. Bonner, 43, a real estate agent and investor, said she had been hoping for years that her son would grow out of this charitable phase. Every year, she asks if he would like to take a break from his mission and go to a local school with children his own age.

But he prefers to study online, through a company called K12, because he can finish his classes quickly and have more time for charity work.

“I have parents that ask me all the time: How do you get them involved?” she said. “I don’t think you can. Unless the kid loves that thing they are doing, there is no way. I used to think it would end, but now I think maybe this is what he’s supposed to do.”

The Little Red Wagon Foundation mostly provides school supplies, food, clothing and toys to homeless children. In 2008, tax records show, the organization raised about $53,000 and spent $5,600 to feed about 800 homeless families during the holidays and to provide the children with toys. It also spent $2,200 on teaching supplies in a poor district and backpacks for orphans. It ended the year with $50,000 in the bank.

This year, Ms. Bonner said, Zachary has received pledges of cash or in-kind donations of about $120,000 from various sponsors.

Along his trip, he has held special events for homeless children, including taking a group to an amusement park in Dallas.

“I feel we should meet their basic needs but take it a step further and meet their kid needs,” he said as he slogged across the desert. “I feel it’s important for everyone to have the opportunity to just be a kid.”

See the original article at the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/28/us/28walkingboy.html?_r=1

Seu Jorge Brings Universal Change to Brazil -From Homeless in a Favela to International Music Star

BY JORDAN LEVIN
jlevin@MiamiHerald.com

On his latest album, Seu Jorge and Almaz, 40-year-old Brazilian singer Seu Jorge dares to cover Michael Jackson’s Rock With You, and turns the King of Pop’s sunny disco celebration into a sultry, enigmatic statement so much his own that it’s almost unrecognizable.

“When we decided to make this album, we decided to represent the whole world,” says the gravelly voiced Jorge from his home in Sao Paulo. “It is very hard to make a cover of Michael Jackson . . . but I took the challenge.”

The challenge is one for which Jorge, who opens a United States tour Friday at the Fillmore Miami Beach, feels both he and his country are ready. “There’s a new movement, a new concept in Brazil,” he says. “Everything is starting to change. . . . Brazil has the opportunity to earn a following in the world. I make Brazilian music, but this music has a great community around the world. I want to make music that is less traditional, more universal.”

As Brazil, headed by former factory worker Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, takes an increasingly influential place on the world political and economic stage, one of the most compelling and original artists to emerge there in the past decade is a product of the appalling slums that represent the country’s most stubborn problems. As intrinsically and proudly Brazilian as Jorge is, his career owes as much to international recognition as national fame. And to Jorge’s own confidence in his music, his culture, and the drive and creativity that has lifted him up from the depths. “Getting out of the favelas is everyone’s aspiration,” Jorge told The Miami Herald in 2005. “How you do it is up to you.”

Jorge Mario da Silva (Seu means “Mr.”) grew up in a grinding ghetto on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. He had an affectionate family and a percussionist father who inspired him to be a musician. But after Jorge’s younger brother was killed in a drug-gang shootout, the family was driven onto the streets. As a teen, Jorge became homeless and addicted to drugs. He was saved after he began sleeping outside a theater, which eventually took him in, and began training and using the teenage musician in their productions. At the same time, Jorge began playing an adventurous mix of samba, funk and rock, making two records that were hits in Brazil.

His breakthrough came when he got the role of the menacing gangster Knockout Ned in the critically acclaimed 2003 film City of God, about the Rio de Janeiro favela of the same name. His performance so impressed director Wes Anderson that he cast Jorge to croon David Bowie songs in Portuguese in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/07/23/1741921/seu-jorge-brings-universal-change.html

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