(CNN) – Derreck Kayongo's Global Soap Project collects used hotel soap bars, reprocessing it to save lives in impoverished countries.

Since 2009, the Atlanta-based nonprofit has provided about 150,000 bars of soap for communities in 10 countries, including Haiti, Kenya and Afghanistan.

Kayongo, a Uganda native, considers the soap he provides for poverty-stricken children "a first line of defense" to help fight disease. CNN asked him for his thoughts on being chosen as one of the top 10 CNN Heroes of 2011.

CNN: Where were you when you got the call that you'd been selected as a top 10 CNN Hero?

Derreck Kayongo: I was in my office at work, and I was really taken by surprise by this generous compliment.

It's very humbling and at the same time very rewarding to know that there are folk out there who think that we are doing something so important to human survival that it warrants recognition of this magnitude. On behalf of all the poor that live on a dollar a day, we receive this recognition with immense joy. Someone does really care!

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(CNN) – Taryn Davis is helping young military widows find the emotional support they need.

Davis was just 21 years old when her husband, an Army corporal, was killed in Iraq. Four months after his death, she created the American Widow Project. The nonprofit has connected more than 900 young military widows through the Internet and weekend retreats since 2007.

CNN asked Davis for her thoughts on being chosen as one of the top 10 CNN Heroes of 2011.

CNN: Where were you when you got the call that you'd been selected as a top 10 CNN Hero?

Taryn Davis: I was getting everything ready for an American Widow Project retreat in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Widows were arriving as I was on the phone.

Words truly cannot describe what this means to me, my fellow widows, our husbands and all the healing and camaraderie that will come from this amazing platform and honor. The (Hero) title, though, should be Heroes, as it is a title that encompasses not only my life, love and dedication, but that of every widow that is a part of the American Widow Project and each of the heroes whose lives and legacies they carry on.

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(CNN) - 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. He concentrates most of his work in the Wisconsin area where he lives.

CNN asked Dimiceli for his thoughts on being chosen as one of the top 10 CNN Heroes of 2011.

CNN: How does it feel to be selected as a top 10 CNN Hero?

Sal Dimiceli: I'm ecstatic. I want to cry thinking that CNN and people recognize the poverty that is out there so we can help even more people.

I hesitate to talk about myself. My heart is about giving, helping, not receiving. This is such a great, great honor. At the same time, the help I provide is from my desire, my heart, to ease the pain and suffering and fear of the poverty-stricken.

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(CNN) - Robin Lim is helping thousands of low-income women in Indonesia have a healthy pregnancy and birth.

Lim is a midwife and founder of the Yayasan Bumi Sehat (Healthy Mother Earth Foundation) health clinics, which offer free prenatal care, birthing services and medical aid to anyone who needs it. She and her team have been working to combat the country's high maternal and infant mortality rates since 2003.

CNN asked Lim for her thoughts on being chosen as one of the top 10 CNN Heroes of 2011.
CNN: Where were you when you got the call that you'd been selected as a top 10 CNN Hero?

Robin Lim: It was breakfast time, and the family was gathered in our big, open-air kitchen at home in Bali. Someone was cutting up papaya and mangoes. I could smell toast being made. I was pouring tea, still quite sleepy from the birth I had attended the night before.

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(CNN) – Amy Stokes is redefining "family" for South African children affected by HIV, AIDS and poverty.

Since 2006, her organization, Infinite Family, has used the Internet to connect almost 500 teens with nearly 300 volunteer mentors from all over the world. Stokes started the program after witnessing how HIV and AIDS left many children without parents.

CNN asked Stokes for her thoughts on being chosen as one of the top 10 CNN Heroes of 2011.

CNN: Where were you when you got the call that you'd been selected as a top 10 CNN Hero?

Amy Stokes: I was attending the Social Good Summit in New York, and I received the amazing news while I was standing in a stairwell at the 92nd Street Y.

I am personally gratified and honored to be selected as a top 10 CNN Hero, and thrilled for our entire team. Mostly though, I am very thankful because being selected will benefit the larger cause: affecting the lives of adolescents across sub-Saharan Africa.

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(CNN) – After being stricken with cancer, Patrice Millet dedicated his life to helping children in his native Haiti.

In 2007, he started a nonprofit youth soccer program called FONDAPS, which stands for Foundation Notre-Dame du Perpétuel Secours (Foundation of Our Lady of Perpetual Help). The program provides free equipment, coaching and food to hundreds of children from Haiti's poorest slums. Its aim is to teach the children to become responsible citizens.

CNN asked Millet for his thoughts on being chosen as one of the top 10 CNN Heroes of 2011.

CNN: Where were you when you got the call that you'd been selected as a top 10 CNN Hero?

Patrice Millet: I was getting home - coming from a visit to an orphanage in Petionville - when I received the call.

Wow! I was moved, very touched. I admit that I had difficulty believing it at the time. I am so happy for the foundation, so happy for the kids. I consider this as a blessing.

I must also confess that I stress just a little thinking about all the things this implies: the media, the interviews, the photos. I am not used to all this press or all this attention around me, but if it is to help the children even better, I shall become used to it.

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Editor's note: Voting for the CNN Hero of the Year continues through December 7 at CNNHeroes.com. The winner will be announced at "CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute," which airs December 11, live at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

(CNN) – Eddie Canales' nonprofit, Gridiron Heroes, provides emotional and financial support to high school football players who've sustained life-changing spinal cord injuries.

Canales' son Chris was paralyzed during a high school football game in 2001. But it was a year later when the two came up with the idea to help other kids and their families.

Eddie and Chris were watching a high school football game from the stands when they saw another player suffer a spinal cord injury. They reached out to the injured player and his family, and within months, Gridiron Heroes was born.

CNN asked Canales for his thoughts on being chosen as one of thetop 10 CNN Heroes of 2011.

CNN: Where you were when you got the call that you'd been selected as a top 10 CNN Hero?

Eddie Canales: I was sitting at the dining room table, going over information about an event we hosted the weekend before.

I was so excited! I was listening to the other details, thinking to myself, "This is what Gridiron Heroes needs: creating awareness on a big picture."

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Editor's note: Voting for the CNN Hero of the Year continues through December 7 at CNNHeroes.com. The winner will be announced at "CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute," which airs December 11, live at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

(CNN) – 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, Latiker's nonprofit has taught valuable life skills and provided recreational activities to more than 1,500 young people.

CNN recently asked Latiker for her thoughts on being chosen as one of the Top 10 CNN Heroes of 2011.

CNN: Where were you when you got the call that you'd been selected as a Top 10 CNN Hero?

Diane Latiker: I was just finishing up a meeting at Kids Off the Block. I cannot explain the feeling when they told me about my selection. Euphoria hit me smack-dead in the head!

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One of last year's CNN Heroes is feeding thousands of starving children in drought-stricken Somalia.

CNN's Anderson Cooper explains the voting process for CNN Hero of the Year.