David Mixner
Author, Political Strategist

As the nation debates reforming our health care system, there is one topic I'm not hearing enough about – how the fight against HIV/AIDS will remain a national priority and how the prevention of such costly diseases such as this will become a foundational element of our health system.

Phenomenal progress has been made against HIV/AIDS since it first appeared in the United States a quarter-century ago. But this very progress has dulled our sense of urgency about preventing the disease and finding a cure. Today is World AIDS Day and we should take a moment to reflect on how we've made progress and why there is a bubbling fear that the worst of the crisis may lie ahead. To finally put a stop to the epidemic, we need to re-energize our commitment and pass smart health care reforms now.

A critical moment in the fight against HIV/AIDS occurred a decade ago, when powerful new protease inhibitor drugs showed remarkable effectiveness in treating the disease and raised hope that the epidemic's end was around the corner. Unfortunately, our progress led to overconfidence in science – a perception that the protease inhibitor regimen guarantees quality of life for people living with HIV/AIDS, and thus that contracting the disease is no longer a big deal.

Patients tell a different story. In this month's New York magazine, author David France reports on the disturbing health complications afflicting people on long-term HIV/AIDS treatment. Men and women in their 40s and 50s are experiencing premature aging, dementia, bone weakness, insulin resistance, and susceptibility to a range of cancers. According to France, in "one large-scale multi-city study, more than half of the HIV-positive population is suffering some form of cognitive impairment." The result is substantial deterioration in quality of life, memory loss and associated difficulty interacting with other people, genuine fear about whether men and women in their working prime can hold onto a job, and potentially shortened lives.

Scientists are trying to understand why people on anti-retroviral drug regimens are experiencing these ailments, but at the very least, it is no longer a foregone conclusion that protease inhibitors are a magic bullet.

But the burgeoning problems are not limited to people on treatments. We may soon learn that HIV infection is once again on a dramatic, even frightening rise. Why would that happen? As sad as it may be, we are seeing more careless behavior despite what is now widely known about how the disease is transmitted. The stigma of HIV/AIDS has subsided because people now can live longer, relatively normal lives with HIV.

Plus, with the progress we've made with retroviral drug regimens, people can once again live in the closet as an HIV-positive person. That means fewer people believe they know someone who is living with HIV, even though they most likely do. The CDC estimates that as many as 21% of the 1.1 million Americans living with HIV don't even know they're HIV-positive. The dynamic means they view the fight against the disease as less of an urgent priority. The disease is spreading at an alarming rate entirely under the radar.

We certainly don't want to re-stigmatize HIV/AIDS, but we do need to stop assuming that HIV/AIDS is just another chronic disease and get serious again about ending it. Affected communities – gay people, African Americans, doctors, drug companies, inner city support networks, faith communities, and others – need to honor the work already done and gear up to confront what may be the biggest challenge yet in this national and global health crisis.

Congress can play a pivotal role by passing health care reform with key provisions, including:

· Increasing the portability of insurance and killing preexisting condition requirements that force HIV-positive individuals to stay with the same insurance provider – and usually the same employer – to pay for expensive treatment regimens;

· Funding smart prevention efforts that will stop what I believe is now a silent but staggering rise in the transmission of the disease;

· Continuing to protect the patents and long-term data exclusivity of medical innovators so they remain incentivized to conduct research into innovative drugs and procedures to combat HIV/AIDS more precisely and with fewer debilitating side effects. That environment is the reason for our progress thus far, and it must be carefully cultivated.

These reforms need to be implemented this year. With more than 50,000 new infections in the United States annually – one every nine and a half minutes – AIDS continues to quietly devastate communities, particularly inner city and minority communities where quality health services are hard to come by. Any delay consigns more people to facing the indignity of this disease with limited resources and few options.

As recent evidence shows, we are nowhere near the end of this fight. AIDS is a nasty and adaptable adversary that preys on our complacency. It's time to reignite our nation's sense of urgency, recognize AIDS as the debilitating health crisis it continues to be, and commit ourselves to finally putting a stop to it.

Editor's Note: David Mixner is an author, political strategist and civil rights activist.

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Program Note: For more ways to make a difference, visit Impact Your World.

Editor's Note: At least 608 people were killed in Indonesia following two devastating earthquakes more than a week ago. Hundreds are still missing and authorities fear the death toll will climb as more bodies are found in the rubble.

Students inspect their damaged classroom, with tables broken and shards littering the ground.

Allison Zelkowitz
Program Manager, Save the Children in Indonesia

October 11, 2009, 11:26 pm

Our distribution teams had a packed day – with just 14 people, we managed to provide nearly 1,500 families with hygiene kits and household items such as a small gas stove, cooking pots and utensils, mosquito nets and blankets. Before I arrived in Padang eight days ago, I never knew how much planning, organizing and effort goes into providing needed supplies, or “NFIs,” as they’re called in humanitarian aid lingo. NFIs stands for non-food items (which I’ve always thought a rather vague term).

Besides selecting, procuring, storing, shipping and transporting NFIs, distributing them requires an intensive process. First, Save the Children staff members meet with community leaders, assess the damage in each community, determine each community’s need and help community leaders develop a list of recipients — the people who most need them.

The actual distribution of NFIs usually begins the next day, and that’s when it can get tricky. The goal is to make sure the right goods get to the right families, while maintaining a secure environment for those who are receiving items as well as for those who are distributing them. Crowds are sometimes unpredictable.

This evening, as my team began our final distribution of the day, I worried a bit since the crowd seemed more eager than usual, pushing against the tape barrier and repeatedly venturing into the distribution area. But once the distribution process began, the tension somehow turned into festivity.

One community member stationed himself at the distribution area exit and blew a shrill whistle at anyone who tried to cross the line. He did this with such zeal and humor that every time he warned someone away, the crowd broke into laughter. Children raced around the perimeter, and neighbors teased each other as they hefted the large boxes away.

At one point, I looked around at the more than 100 faces around me, and realized how impressed I was with the resiliency of people here. About 90 percent of them – children, women and men – no longer have a home. And yet there they were, just one week later, smiling, joking and truly enjoying what for many people would be a dull and draining wait.

I’m not saying that communities have recovered from the disaster — far from it. But I do think that attitudes and character like this will live.

Editor's Note: Save the Children is an independent organization creating lasting change for children in need around the world. For more than 80 years, Save the Children has been helping children survive and thrive by improving their health, education and economic opportunities and, in times of acute crisis, mobilizing rapid lifesaving assistance to help children recover from the effects of war, conflict and natural disasters.
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To learn about ways you can make a difference, visit Impact Your World.

Editor's Note: At least 608 people were killed in Indonesia following two devastating earthquakes last week. Hundreds are still missing and authorities fear the death toll will climb as more bodies are found in the rubble.

Most of the homes in Singai Pingai were damaged or destroyed the the earthquake. Families now are bust salvaging what they can from the rubble.

Allison Zelkowitz
Program Manager, Save the Children in Indonesia

Blog entry, October 8, 2009, 1:30 am

Four more Save the Children staff arrived at our field office this afternoon in Pariaman district. I’m so glad they’re here! We’re now 16 people strong, allowing us to send more distribution teams to villages in need of help. Today one team focused on assessing new villages, and another team continued to distribute shelter materials, hygiene kits and household supplies – we’ve reached over 11,000 people, including about 6,600 children, in the last four days.

My team has traveled back toward Lake Maninjau, near some of the worst destruction, in search of a house and a warehouse to rent, so we can establish a new field office and reach children and families more quickly.

Nearly every road in this area is lined with people asking for donations. The worst part about this is that many of them are children. Not only are they at risk of getting hit by passing cars and motorbikes, but they’re also learning that asking for handouts is normal and necessary. And yet, what options do poor families and communities have? With their houses in ruins, and livelihoods lost, how else are they supposed to cope? Some people are picking up the pieces – they’re clearing away the rubble, arranging all their belongings under carefully hung tarps, and building tent communities with neighbors. But others seem to be just . . . waiting. Today I saw an old man sitting on a bench, staring at the road, surrounded by nothing but the debris of his small home. How long will he be able to wait?

Looking for a place to set up operations and sleep is no easy task. We asked community leaders if there were any safe homes that were owned by families who weren’t already sheltering their neighbors and who wouldn’t mind giving us a few rooms and some floor space. As it began to get dark and we started to lose hope, one community leader suggested a local benefactor who had a house off the main road, about a mile up into the hills. It turned out to be a lovely two-story home, well built with little damage. It even has western “sit down” toilets! (This is incredible in such a rural area.) We’re planning to move in tomorrow.

By the time we began the two-hour journey home, it was pitch black. We crawled slowly down the rough road and passed a group of about 20 people gathered together in a large field. They were preparing to sleep there, out in the open, with no shelter at all. I wondered if they’d been living there all week. I wished desperately that I’d thought to store some tarps and plastic sheeting in the trunk. But there was nothing I could do, except bring them some tomorrow.
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Blog entry, October 7, 2009, 1:40 am

This morning I led a five-person team of Save the Children staff and volunteers to assess an area near Lake Maninjau, in northern Pariaman district. At first, near the main road, the damage didn’t seem that serious. But once we started heading toward the interior, up into the hills, we were alarmed by what we saw: skeletons of houses, splits in the road and metal roofs lying flat on the ground, surrounded by bricks and rubble. Most of the homes that were still standing had suffered irreparable damage, with huge cracks crisscrossing the walls.

Still many were occupied. People seem to have salvaged what belongings they could and moved them to areas that still provided some shelter. We passed two men sitting at a table in what must have been the dining room – now that the exterior wall had collapsed, it looked more like a patio. A number of homes were propped up by wooden posts, providing some support to the weakened structure. If another earthquake occurs, I fear they will do little good.

During this morning’s journey, our car was passed by a funeral procession. Six men carried a draped body; they were followed by at least 100 people. The crowd was winding its way slowly up the road toward us, so we stopped the car and waited until they passed. As we watched the group walk by, I was struck by how immaculately dressed they all were. Some probably borrowed clothing from friends or relatives. But many must have unearthed theirs from the debris, then washed and (somehow) pressed them. I find that rather noble.

By early afternoon our team finished a quick survey of the area. We selected a village that had, until recently, been cut off by landslides. Now one narrow road was clear. We worked with community leaders in Singai Pingai to arrange the distributions, prioritizing families in most need of help.

Today Save the Children provided 810 families, or more than 4,000 people, with hygiene kits and tarpaulins. But the day was not without its trials – managing crowds under any circumstance is a challenge, but especially so when people have spent days without assistance and are desperate for help. But we kept the lines moving and made sure goods made it to those most severely affected.

And there are moments that make the stress and long hours worthwhile. Today one young mother came up to me, cradling a baby in a sling around her chest, and carrying the tarps and hygiene kit she’d just received on top of her head. She carefully extracted her right hand, offered it to me, and said, “terima kasih” – thank you in Indonesian, but literally translated as “receive love.” I think the feeling was mutual.

Editor's Note: Save the Children is an independent organization creating lasting change for children in need around the world. For more than 80 years, Save the Children has been helping children survive and thrive by improving their health, education and economic opportunities and, in times of acute crisis, mobilizing rapid lifesaving assistance to help children recover from the effects of war, conflict and natural disasters.
__________________________________________________________________________________________

To learn about ways you can make a difference, visit Impact Your World.

Editor's Note: At least 608 people were killed in Indonesia following two devastating earthquakes last week. Hundreds are still missing and authorities fear the death toll will climb as more bodies are found in the rubble.

Most of the homes in Singai Pingai were damaged or destroyed the the earthquake. Families now are bust salvaging what they can from the rubble.

Allison Zelkowitz
Program Manager, Save the Children in Indonesia

Blog entry, October 7, 2009, 1:40 am

This morning I led a five-person team of Save the Children staff and volunteers to assess an area near Lake Maninjau, in northern Pariaman district. At first, near the main road, the damage didn’t seem that serious. But once we started heading toward the interior, up into the hills, we were alarmed by what we saw: skeletons of houses, splits in the road and metal roofs lying flat on the ground, surrounded by bricks and rubble. Most of the homes that were still standing had suffered irreparable damage, with huge cracks crisscrossing the walls.

Still many were occupied. People seem to have salvaged what belongings they could and moved them to areas that still provided some shelter. We passed two men sitting at a table in what must have been the dining room – now that the exterior wall had collapsed, it looked more like a patio. A number of homes were propped up by wooden posts, providing some support to the weakened structure. If another earthquake occurs, I fear they will do little good.

During this morning’s journey, our car was passed by a funeral procession. Six men carried a draped body; they were followed by at least 100 people. The crowd was winding its way slowly up the road toward us, so we stopped the car and waited until they passed. As we watched the group walk by, I was struck by how immaculately dressed they all were. Some probably borrowed clothing from friends or relatives. But many must have unearthed theirs from the debris, then washed and (somehow) pressed them. I find that rather noble.

By early afternoon our team finished a quick survey of the area. We selected a village that had, until recently, been cut off by landslides. Now one narrow road was clear. We worked with community leaders in Singai Pingai to arrange the distributions, prioritizing families in most need of help.

Today Save the Children provided 810 families, or more than 4,000 people, with hygiene kits and tarpaulins. But the day was not without its trials – managing crowds under any circumstance is a challenge, but especially so when people have spent days without assistance and are desperate for help. But we kept the lines moving and made sure goods made it to those most severely affected.

And there are moments that make the stress and long hours worthwhile. Today one young mother came up to me, cradling a baby in a sling around her chest, and carrying the tarps and hygiene kit she’d just received on top of her head. She carefully extracted her right hand, offered it to me, and said, “terima kasih” – thank you in Indonesian, but literally translated as “receive love.” I think the feeling was mutual.

Editor's Note: Save the Children is an independent organization creating lasting change for children in need around the world. For more than 80 years, Save the Children has been helping children survive and thrive by improving their health, education and economic opportunities and, in times of acute crisis, mobilizing rapid lifesaving assistance to help children recover from the effects of war, conflict and natural disasters.
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To learn about ways you can make a difference, visit Impact Your World.

Editor's Note: Last month, Typhoon Parma made landfall in Cagayan Province in the northern Philippines, dumping as much as 36 inches of rain in some parts of the nation of islands. The storm affected more than 338,000 people, displaced 85,000 and killed at least 16. Its predecessor, Ketsana, affected more than 3.9 million people, displaced more than 335,000. CNN Hero Efren Peñaflorida was there to help.

Efren and other volunteers load donated items into a vehicle to begin distributing them to families in need throughout Cavite, Philippines.

Efren Peñaflorida
CNN Hero
World Vision, The Philippines

“Pagbabayad sa iba ang ginagawa ko’ (What I’m doing is paying it forward)

The smell is overpowering. More than a week after the rains from Typhoon Ketsana and Parma started pouring down on the Philippines, the city is still flooded. Mud and debris are everywhere; you can smell the stench of death as bodies decompose.

But the storms went deep into the Philippines, devastating rural villages throughout the country, too. In Cavite, my hometown, children and their families are struggling through each day. Many have lost everything. Imagine not knowing where you’ll sleep tonight? Or only having one pair of pants to wear because your clothes were ruined as the flood waters rose higher and higher?

I didn’t lose everything in the storms, but that first day the rains came, I was stuck in Manila, wandering through the flooded streets without food or water, and I was exhausted. The next day, after I realized how many people had lost so much, I knew I had to help.

Volunteers with Efren's group, Dynamic Teen Company, sort donated clothes and prepare to distribute them to families in need in Cavite, Philippines.

Sunday, I went to church to thank God for the clothes on my back and the roof over my head. Then, I gathered up my team of volunteers at Dynamic Teen Company, and we started collecting donations to give out to our neighbors in need. DTC is an organization that I started with my friends more than 10 years ago to help kids just like me get a basic education, even when they can’t afford to go to school.

Growing up in Cavite, my family didn’t have much money. My father worked as a cab driver, and my mother helped do other people’s laundry to earn some extra money. I wore used clothing, and money was tight for our family of five. Eventually, with three kids in my family, it became impossible to continue paying the school fees for all of us.

Volunteers pack up bags of donated items like clothing and blankets to distribute to children and families in need in Cavite, Philippines.

I became passive and disinterested. I didn't really care what happened to anyone else - I only cared about myself. My life could have gone in a much different direction, but then, when I was in fifth grade, things took a surprising turn.

A woman from Australia decided to support my schooling by sponsoring me through World Vision, a Christian relief organization. All she wanted to do was help me go to school, but she had no idea that those few dollars a month would be an investment to my future. And a friend who had been mentoring me through a local outreach group known as Club 8586 Inc. helped me pick up the pieces of my life, giving my spiritual guidance and encouragement to start DTC.

Without them, I probably wouldn't be the person I am today. They supported my educational needs, but they also gave me more than an education. They helped me start DTC and give other kids just like me an education too.

They all paid it forward. And this week, as the storms battered the town where I grew up, I knew I wanted to do the same thing for the children living there. Who knows what they might become someday? Maybe they’ll even become someone’s hero.

Editor's Note: Efren Peñaflorida is a former sponsored child with World Vision, an international aid agency currently working to help more than 100,000 people affected by the storms in the Philippines. He is also one of the 2009 Top 10 CNN Hero honorees.
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To learn about ways you can make a difference, visit Impact Your World.

Program Note: CNN Heroes received nearly 9,000 submissions from 100 countries. A Blue Ribbon Panel selected the Top 10 CNN Heroes for the year, and over 1 million of you voted for your CNN HERO OF THE YEAR

WATCH Change the World, You Vote, CNN Heroes
Tonight 11 p.m. ET


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Since 2005, Brad Blauser's Wheelchairs for Iraqi Kids program has distributed nearly 650 free wheelchairs.

CNN Heroes

Brad Blauser lives in war-torn Baghdad, where he doesn't earn a paycheck and is thousands of miles from his family. But he has no intention of leaving anytime soon.

For the past four years, the Dallas, Texas, native has been providing hope to hundreds of disabled Iraqi children and their families through the distribution of pediatric wheelchairs.

"Disabled children - they're really the forgotten ones in this war," said Blauser, 43. "They are often not seen in society."

Blauser arrived in Iraq as a civilian contractor in 2004, but quit that job last year to devote himself full time to his program, without compensation.

"There's no paycheck. It's not really safe here. But this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," he said.

An estimated one in seven Iraqi children ages 2 to 14 lives with a disability, according to UNICEF. Illnesses such as Spina bifida, palsy and polio leave them unable to walk.

Keep Reading...
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To learn about ways you can make a difference, visit Impact Your World.

Program Note: CNN Heroes received nearly 9,000 submissions from 100 countries. A Blue Ribbon Panel selected the Top 10 CNN Heroes for the year, and over 1 million of you voted for your CNN HERO OF THE YEAR

WATCH Change the World, You Vote, CNN Heroes
Tonight 11 p.m. ET


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Breast cancer survivor Andrea Ivory is on a mission to educate Florida communities about the disease, one door at a time.

CNN Heroes

"We are an army," says Andrea Ivory of the group gathered with her early on a Saturday morning.

Armed with clipboards, leaflets and high spirits, the energetic Ivory leads them into the neighborhood, where they start knocking on doors. The mood is lighthearted, but their mission is serious: to save lives, one house at a time.

They're volunteers from the Florida Breast Health Initiative, or FBHI, and they are waging war against breast cancer. It's an effort started by Ivory, 50, herself a survivor of the disease.

Every weekend in the spring and fall, she and her volunteers - who include college students, senior citizens and suburban moms, all wearing matching T-shirts - fan out across low-income communities in southern Florida, educating women about breast health.

They especially seek out uninsured women age 35 and older, who statistics show are twice as likely to be diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer, and thus more likely to die from the disease.

Keep Reading...
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To learn about ways you can make a difference, visit Impact Your World.

Program Note: CNN Heroes received nearly 9,000 submissions from 100 countries. A Blue Ribbon Panel selected the Top 10 CNN Heroes for the year, and over 1 million of you voted for your CNN HERO OF THE YEAR

WATCH Change the World, You Vote, CNN Heroes
Tonight 11 p.m. ET


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Roy Foster's facility, Stand Down House, has helped about 900 male veterans since 2000.

CNN Heroes

Following a faint trail through a dense patch of woods in Florida's Palm Beach County, Roy Foster is a man on a mission.

Foster, 53, is searching for homeless veterans - and he knows where to look.

Whether in a vacant lot behind a supermarket or a small clearing off the highway, homeless vets aren't that hard to find: One in three homeless adults has served in the military, and more than 150,000 veterans nationwide are homeless on any given night, according to the Veterans Administration.

Working with the sheriff's homeless outreach unit, Foster finds vets camped in tents or makeshift lean-tos, where he delivers a message: There's help for you if you want it.

Keep Reading...
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To learn about ways you can make a difference, visit Impact Your World.

Program Note: CNN Heroes received nearly 9,000 submissions from 100 countries. A Blue Ribbon Panel selected the Top 10 CNN Heroes for the year, and over 1 million of you voted for your CNN HERO OF THE YEAR

WATCH Change the World, You Vote, CNN Heroes
Tonight 11 p.m. ET


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Derrick Tabb's program provides free tutoring, instruments and music instruction to more than 100 students.

CNN Heroes

Drumsticks in hand, Derrick Tabb has found a way to transform New Orleans children from troublemakers to tuba players.

Tabb, wearing a gold chain and a baseball cap, doesn't look the part of a typical band teacher. But every weekday evening in the French Quarter, he beats out the rhythm on his music stand as students play their chosen instruments. In doing so, he gives them an alternative to New Orleans' rough streets.

"I tell everyone I'm competing with the drug dealers," said Tabb, 34. His program, The Roots of Music, offers free tutoring, instruments and music education to more than 100 students.

Reformed class clown Terrence Knockum credits Tabb with changing his life. The 15-year-old tuba player joined the band eight months ago, when he was failing in school and "heading up the wrong road," said Tabb. Today, Knockum is the band captain. He hopes to make music his career and teach it himself one day.

Keep Reading...
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To learn about ways you can make a difference, visit Impact Your World.

Program Note: CNN Heroes received nearly 9,000 submissions from 100 countries. A Blue Ribbon Panel selected the Top 10 CNN Heroes for the year, and over 1 million of you voted for your CNN HERO OF THE YEAR

WATCH Change the World, You Vote, CNN Heroes
Tonight 11 p.m. ET


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Efren Peñaflorida's Dynamic Teen Company offers Filipino youth an alternative to gangs through education.

CNN Heroes

At 16, Rhandolf Fajardo reflects on his former life as a gang member.

"My gang mates were the most influential thing in my life," says Fajardo, who joined a gang when he was in sixth grade. "We were pressured to join."

He's not alone. In the Philippines, teenage membership in urban gangs has surged to an estimated 130,000 in the past 10 years, according to the Preda Foundation, a local human rights charity.

"I thought I'd get stuck in that situation and that my life would never improve," recalls Fajardo. "I would probably be in jail right now, most likely a drug addict - if I hadn't met Efren."

Keep Reading...
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To learn about ways you can make a difference, visit Impact Your World.

Program Note: CNN Heroes received nearly 9,000 submissions from 100 countries. A Blue Ribbon Panel selected the Top 10 CNN Heroes for the year, and over 1 million of you voted for your CNN HERO OF THE YEAR

WATCH Change the World, You vote, CNN Heroes
Tonight 11 p.m. ET


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Bartender Doc Hendley has tapped his regular customers to help provide funds for clean water around the world.

CNN Heroes

Behind the bar at a local restaurant, Doc Hendley leans in to hear his customer over the band. "You like the pinot? Cool," he says.

It's a seemingly average interaction, but Hendley is not your average bartender. As he pours wine in the United States, he's also helping to save thousands of lives on the other side of the world - and he's tapped into his regulars to help.

"[They] sit on the same stool, drink the same drink, pay the same tab every day. I felt like they really did want to be a part of something," Hendley says. "They just were waiting for somebody to bring that something to them."

That something is Wine to Water, Hendley's organization that provides clean water to people in developing countries through funds raised at wine tasting events.

Since 2004, Hendley has traveled to Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda and Cambodia, working with local communities to build clean water wells and sanitation systems.

Keep Reading...

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To learn about ways you can make a difference, visit Impact Your World.

Program Note: CNN Heroes received nearly 9,000 submissions from 100 countries. A Blue Ribbon Panel selected the Top 10 CNN Heroes for the year, and over 1 million of you voted for your CNN HERO OF THE YEAR

WATCH Change the World, You vote, CNN Heroes
Tonight 11 p.m. ET


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Betty Makoni founded the Girl Child Network to help Zimbabwe's young sexual abuse victims.

CNN Heroes

Hope was 14 years old when her uncle raped her.

"He trapped me to the ground and covered my mouth with his hand," said the 18-year-old from Zimbabwe. "He threatened to kill me if I ever told anybody."

So, she kept quiet.

"After a while people around the villages started saying that I looked pregnant," she said.

Hope was not only pregnant, but her uncle had infected her with HIV.

Like many young girls in Zimbabwe, Hope was the victim of a widely held belief that if a man with HIV or AIDS rapes a virgin he will be cured of his disease. This so-called virgin myth, perpetuated by Zimbabwe's traditional healers, has led to the rape of hundreds of girls, according to UNICEF. Some of those victims are too young to walk, much less protect themselves.

Keep Reading...

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To learn about ways you can make a difference, visit Impact Your World.

Program Note: CNN Heroes received nearly 9,000 submissions from 100 countries. A Blue Ribbon Panel selected the Top 10 CNN Heroes for the year, and over 1 million of you voted for your CNN HERO OF THE YEAR

WATCH Change the World, You vote, CNN Heroes
Tonight 11 p.m. ET


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Budi Soehardi poses with young residents of Roslin Orphanage.

CNN Heroes

At Roslin Orphanage, children giggle through deep concentration as they try to master the "Chicken Dance." It's a far cry from the Indonesian orphans' earlier months and years.

"They are cheerful-looking and photogenic, but close to all have a very sad story," said Budi Soehardi, founder of the West Timor orphanage.

"Some of the babies come because a mother passes away right after delivery because of lack of nutrition. Others come from extreme poverty. Some come from families [that] just do not want the children and abandon them," he said.

Soehardi, a 53-year-old Indonesian pilot living in Singapore, and his wife, Peggy, look after 47 children at the orphanage. They have a personal relationship with each one, and consider them part of their family. The couple named many of the children since they entered the orphanage as babies - some of them tiny victims and refugees from the conflict in East Timor.

Keep Reading...

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To learn about ways you can make a difference, visit Impact Your World.

Program Note: CNN Heroes received nearly 9,000 submissions from 100 countries. A Blue Ribbon Panel selected the Top 10 CNN Heroes for the year, and over 1 million of you voted for your CNN HERO OF THE YEAR

WATCH Change the World, You vote, CNN Heroes
Tonight 11 p.m. ET


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Noah Parton, 6, got prosthetics from foundation started by Jordan Thomas, right.

CNN Heroes

An annual family boating trip to the Florida Keys took a bloody and life-changing turn for Jordan Thomas.

"It was a beautiful day, and we were going to go scuba diving," said Thomas, who was 16 during the 2005 trip.

But when he jumped into the water, the boat's wake dragged Thomas hard into sharp, whirling propellers.

He immediately knew what was about to happen.

"I looked down - my black fins were gone, and all I saw was red just everywhere," said Thomas, an athletic teen who was captain of his high school's golf team. "But I had this unbelievable calmness over my body."

His father and mother, both doctors from Chattanooga, Tennessee, jumped into action.

"All of a sudden, my 16-year old, happy-go-lucky captain of the golf team was potentially dying," said Dr. Liz Kennedy-Thomas.

Keep Reading...
_______________________________________________________________________________________

To learn about ways you can make a difference, visit Impact Your World.

Program Note: CNN Heroes received nearly 9,000 submissions from 100 countries. A Blue Ribbon Panel selected the Top 10 CNN Heroes for the year, and over 1 million of you voted for your CNN HERO OF THE YEAR

WATCH Change the World, You vote, CNN Heroes
Tonight  11 p.m. ET


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Jorge Munoz estimates he has served more than 70,000 free meals since 2004.

CNN Heroes

Every day, unemployed men gather under the elevated 7 train in Jackson Heights, Queens. Many of them are homeless. All of them are hungry.

At around 9:30 each night, relief comes in the form of Jorge Munoz's white pickup truck, filled with hot food, coffee and hot chocolate.

The men eagerly accept containers of chicken and rice from Munoz, devouring the food on the spot. Quiet gratitude radiates from the crowd.

For many, this is their only hot meal of the day; for some, it's the first food they've eaten since last night.

"I thank God for touching that man's heart," says Eduardo, one of the regulars.

Watching Munoz, 44, distribute meals and offer extra cups of coffee, it's clear he's passionate about bringing food to hungry people. For more than four years, Munoz and his family have been feeding those in need seven nights a week, 365 days a year. To date, he estimates he's served more than 70,000 meals.

Read more about Jorge Munoz here...

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To learn about ways you can make a difference, visit Impact Your World.

E. Benjamin Skinner

Author

For Bill Clinton, it was a characteristically unscripted moment during an uncharacteristically low-profile press conference.

On June 15, Clinton sat next to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and decried the plight of child domestic slaves in Haiti, a country to which the former president had just agreed to serve as UN Special Envoy.

Known as restavèks, a Creole euphemism meaning “stay-withs,” the children are lured from desperately impoverished rural parents with the promise of a better life. Instead, most endure unpaid household labor, compelled through unchecked violence. UN bureaucrats typically tiptoe around words like “slavery,” but Clinton didn’t hold back: “I’m sad to say we’ve even had examples of restavèk children that have been found in Haitian communities in the United States.”

Estimates for the total number of restavèks range around 300,000: a staggering demographic, but just a sliver of those forced to work under threat of violence worldwide. The global slave population may reach 27 million. The vast majority labor in some form of hereditary debt bondage on the Asian subcontinent; criminals traffic hundreds of thousands across international borders annually. The Justice Department estimates that, on average, a person becomes a slave on U.S. soil every half hour.

A 2006 picture of poor housing conditions in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere.

Four years ago, and less than five hours from the UN conference room where Clinton and Ban sat, I haggled with a trafficker to buy one of those slaves, a 12-year-old girl. In broad daylight on a street in Port-au-Prince, the trafficker leaned in: “This is a rather delicate question. Is this someone you want as just a worker? Or also someone who will be a ‘partner.’ You understand what I mean? Or is it someone you just really want to work?” The negotiated price for this domestic and sexual slave: $50.

Paying for human life is unconscionable, and injecting hard currency into an exchange that is typically bartered would give rise to a trade in misery. In the last six years, I have witnessed negotiations for the sale of slaves on four continents, in underground brothels, in front line war zones, on suburban streets.

I spoke with dozens of slaves, traffickers, survivors and abolitionists. I recorded minute details of the trade, and allowed slaves to bear witness through me. I cajoled local police officials to do the right thing and prosecute traffickers, and aided the courageous few who actually did. But I never paid for human life: I was under no illusions that merely buying the freedom of a slave would render him or her free.

The real work of global abolition, a pledge written in the blood of our ancestors, is a complex struggle. It requires not only freeing slaves, but enabling their long-term recovery. It also involves preventing others from entering bondage by arresting traffickers and reducing vulnerabilities among communities that traffickers target.

This week, Clinton’s friends put their money where his mouth is. The Clinton Global Initiative paired Pheonix real estate investor Gil Gillenwater with Free The Slaves, an extraordinarily effective organization that works with local abolitionists in places like rural Haiti to systematically eradicate slavery. Gillenwater committed $54,510 to entirely fund the emancipation and recovery of a north Indian village called Kukraouthi. His commitment will mean freedom for some 20 families that were bonded for generations in farms and carpet looms.

You don’t have to be a millionaire or a former president to be an effective abolitionist. On average, worldwide, Free the Slaves’ programs require an investment of just $400 to bring a slave to the point of self reliance. Please learn more at www.freetheslaves.net.

Editor's Note: E. Benjamin Skinner is the author of A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery (Free Press, 2008), which this week was awarded the 2009 Dayton Literary Peace Price for nonfiction.

Program Note: To learn more about restavèks and the organizations that are working to end this ‘modern day slavery” in Haiti, visit our Impact Your World page.

Rose and her twins in Congo in 2000.

Rose Mapendo
Mapendo International

My name is Rose Mapendo, and I am the Ambassador to Mapendo International. We work to rescue and protect at risk refugees who have fallen through the cracks of humanitarian assistance in Africa.

I am from the Democratic Republic of Congo. When war broke out in 1998, my family and I were arrested and forced into a prison camp because of our Tutsi ethnicity. As my seven children and I huddled together, my husband – their father – was tortured and executed within earshot. Soldiers killed our friends and relatives, while many more died of starvation and disease. Months later, I gave birth to twin boys on the concrete floor of my cell. I used a stick to the cut the umbilical cord, and a piece of my hair to tie it off.

During this time I was so angry at God. I was resentful towards God. I was so angry because they had killed so many of my friends and family. I was so angry because they had raped so many of my friends. I thought I was going to be killed. I decided I did not want to die angry. I forgave my captors. I forgave all the soldiers who were in charge of killing. I named my twins after the camp commanders who were in charge of executing my husband. I did this because I hoped that my children would survive and I wanted to show the commanders that I forgave them and that I was not their enemy. I wanted to show them that I loved them. That moment when I forgave, from my deepest heart, was the moment that I survived.

Rose and her family in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2006.

My story is too long to tell here. There is a story of hardship and horror in every minute of my 16 months in the death camp. But finally my children and I were brought to a safe haven outside of Kinshasa, Congo’s capital city. A U.S. rescue team came to that safe haven and found us there.

That was where I met Sasha Chanoff and Sheikha Ali. They were part of the rescue team. They got me and my family out. They brought us to a refugee camp in Cameroon, and then we finally resettled to the U.S., to Peoria, outside of Phoenix. Then later Sasha founded Mapendo International to rescue other refugees, like me, who were in danger and had no one to help them. He helped my brother Kigabo and his family resettled to the US after we got there. Mapendo has helped many families, that have been separated, to reunite. If you want to help us rescue and reunite refugees, you can text the world ‘rescue’ to 90999 to donate $5.

My brother Kigabo, who is a doctor, is now starting an organization called African Health New Horizons. I am excited about this because there has never been health care in my home and my brother wants to bring health to women and children and others there.

Now, as the Ambassador for Mapendo International, I am a spokesperson for forgotten refugees. Big Mouth Productions is making a documentary movie about my story. Now God has given me the opportunity to tell my story, and to speak for refugees who have no hope and no one there for them. I am alive to tell you that no matter how terrible life is, no matter how deep your despair or fear, don’t give up. Love people. Forgive people. We all need to live together in this world. My name, Mapendo, means “great love” in Swahili.

Thank you.

Editor's Note: Rose Mapendo is Ambassador for Mapendo International, a non-profit organization that rescues and protects at-risk and forgotten refugees in Africa. Earlier this year, Rose received the "Humanitarian of the Year Award" from the UN Refugee Agency for her work highlighting the plight of refugees in Africa, particularly those from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Rose was born. Rose will be speaking at  Mapendo's next event in New York City – a cocktail cruise next Wednesday,  September 30th, with open bar and live auction. To purchase tickets, go here. Academy Award-winner Susan Sarandon nominated Rose Mapendo as a CNN Hero. Take a look at the video here.

Program Note: For more ways to make a difference, visit Impact Your World.

Program Note: Four years after Katrina, what is New Orleans like now? Some residents continue to face challenges as the Big Easy keeps trying to rebuild. Take a look at In Depth: After the Storm. And to learn about ways you can make a difference, visit Impact Your World.

Stephen Flynn, Frank J. Cilluffo, and Sharon L. Cardash
AC360° Contributors

Katrina, the costliest hurricane in U.S. history, roared ashore on the Gulf Coast four years ago on August 29, 2005. The images of floating corpses and storm survivors stranded on rooftops and at the Superdome will long be seared in our collective memories. Even today, many families throughout the Gulf region are finding the road to recovery to be a long and arduous one.

For those of us during the late summer of 2005 who were fortunate enough to reside outside of harm’s way, we should pause on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina to reflect on this sobering fact: 9 out of 10 Americans live in a place that faces a moderate to high risk of a natural disaster. North America is a beautiful continent, but Mother Nature is not always very kind to it. Earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes, wildfires, hurricanes, flooding, blizzards, and high-wind damage are always in the offing.

While Katrina serves as a forceful reminder of the inevitability of natural disasters, it underscores another important lesson: the risk we will become victims will rise dramatically if we neglect infrastructure. We now know that New Orleans should have survived the storm largely unscathed. The city’s flood protection system was supposed to withstand a direct hit by a powerful Category 3 hurricane. But New Orleans dodged the worst of the storm because at the last minute, Katrina’s center veered east so that the winds that buffeted New Orleans were barely above Category 1. Tragically, because the levees had been so shabbily maintained, they started to fail even before the full fury of the storm had arrived. In the end, it was not an Act of God that doomed so many New Orleanians. It was the neglect of man.

For too long, Americans have been taking for granted the critical infrastructure built by the sweat, ingenuity, and investment of our forebears. From roads and bridges to schools and dams, the foundations upon which are modern lives rely are aging, and not gracefully. For decades, we have been unwilling to invest in caring for the things that assure the safety and quality of our lives. Like the Roman Empire before us, we are beginning to experience the human and economic consequences of recklessly allowing our infrastructure to decay.

But there is a wiser and more responsible way, and we need look no further than America’s heartland to find it. In the spring of 1997, the citizens of Grand Forks, North Dakota had a New Orleans-like experience when the Red River overflowed its banks. The cost of that disaster came to roughly $2 billion. But this past April and May when the Red River crested at an even higher level than it had 12 years before, the city spent only $500,000 dealing with the flood. Indeed, daily life in North Dakota’s third largest city barely missed a beat thanks to an improved flood control system completed in 2007. This investment in resilient infrastructure meant that when Mother Nature did her worst, the city did not break. Instead of becoming victims, many of the residents of Grand Forks even ended up serving as rescuers, assisting smaller communities downriver.

Resilient infrastructure is what Americans should be investing in nationwide. Unfortunately, we may be passing up an historic opportunity for doing so. President Obama has made rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure a centerpiece of his economic stimulus package. But the first priority of his economic team has been to spend money quickly on so-called “shovel-ready projects.” This has translated into passing up the chance of ensuring that new projects are evaluated to determine if they incorporate design features that assure that our critical foundations can survive foreseeable manmade and natural disasters. Future federal spending should correct this oversight and assign the highest priority to projects that will make communities safer in the face of hazards while providing meaningful economic and environmental benefits over the long-term.

In the past, catastrophes have served as a catalyst for changing the way we construct infrastructure. For instance, the great fires in Chicago in 1871, in Boston in 1872, and the earthquake of San Francisco in 1906 prompted the creation of new building codes. The recent experience of Grand Forks suggests we should and can be doing the same today. Moving forward, as infrastructure is repaired, upgraded, and modernized, we should insist that public funds are spent using disaster experiences as a guide.

Four years ago when Hurricane Katrina swept through the region, the Southern University at New Orleans (SUNO) was among the casualties when the city’s flood control system failed. Four of SUNO’s eleven academic buildings were damaged beyond repair. A few weeks ago, on August 17, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was at Southern University to announce that funding would at last be provided to replace those buildings. Let us hope that the students who will be educated in those new facilities, as well as in schools and universities around the country, will learn and take to heart the most important lesson that Katrina should have taught all of us. Neglecting the foundations that have made us a resilient society is short-sighted and self-destructive.

Editor's Note: Stephen Flynn is the Ira A. Lipman Senior Fellow for Counterterrorism and National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. Frank J. Cilluffo is Director of The George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute (HSPI). Sharon L. Cardash is HSPI’s Associate Director.

Program Note: Four years after Katrina, what is New Orleans like now? Some residents continue to face challenges as the Big Easy keeps trying to rebuild. Take a look at In Depth: After the Storm. And to learn about ways you can make a difference, visit Impact Your World.

AC360°

Anderson is anchoring from New Orleans tonight where he reports on how locals are coping four years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the area. Some residents continue to face challenges as the Big Easy keeps trying to rebuild. Earlier today, Anderson met up with CNN Political Contributor and New Orleans native James Carville for a tour of the city. Check out this photo gallery of where they stopped.

Anderson and James Carville sit down at a Pascal Manale's restaurant in New Orleans.

Anderson meets a New Orleans resident who tells him she's glad he came back and shares her own story.

Outside of Pascal Manale's restaurant.

Anderson and James Carville make a stop at Freret Street Gym.

Inside Freret Street Gym, James Carville shows Anderson how high the water rose during Hurricane Katrina.

A close-up of the water line inside Freret Street Gym.

Inside Freret Street Gym, Anderson talks to the president of Loyola University New Orleans, Rev. Kevin Wildes.

Program Note: Four years after Katrina, what is New Orleans like now? Some residents continue to face challenges as the Big Easy keeps trying to rebuild. Take a look at In Depth: After the Storm. And to learn about ways you can make a difference, visit Impact Your World.