Last year's winners include Guadalupe Arizpe De La Vega, Susan Burton, Linda Fondren, Anuradha Koirala, Narayanan Krishnan, Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, Harmon Parker, Aki Ra, Evan Wadongo, and Dan Wallrath. The 2010 Hero of the Year went to Anuradha Koirala.
Guadalupe Arizpe De La Vega provides quality health care in the dangerous city of Juarez, Mexico, the murder capital of the world. At age 74 she drives several times a week into the city to help keep a sanctuary for its citizens alive. [Her Story]
Susan Burton provides sober housing and other support to formerly incarcerated women, ex-offenders just released from California's prison system. She provides program that can help these women reenter the community after many years of imprisonment--the "A New Way of Life Reentry Project. She helped more than 400 women get back to their feet. [Her Story]
Linda Fondren made it a mission to lighten up the residents in her town, specifically their body weights. With her weight-loss challenge program, nearly 15,000 pounds of extra weight got lost among her fellow residents. And her community has been known as the fattest state in the United States of America in 2009. Her all-female workout facility, Shape Up Sisters, slowly changed the story. [Her Story]
Anuradha Koirala founded a group, Maiti (Mother's Home) Nepal, which helped more than 12,000 victims of sex trafficking business in Nepal since 1993. [Her Story]
Narayanan Krishnan was an award-winning chef with a five-star hotel group enlisting him for an elite job in Switzerland. But visiting India in 2002 before heading to Europe changed everything. He founded his nonprofit Akshaya Trust in 2003, and since then it has served more than 1.2 million meals--breakfast, lunch and dinner--to his country's homeless and destitute, mostly elderly people abandoned by their families and often abused. [His Story]
Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow started the Mary's Meals program, named after the Virgin Mary. And since then it provided free daily meals to more than 400,000 children around the world. [His Story]
Harmon Parker builds footbridges in Kenya, protecting people from floods and animals which connecting communities. A master mason, he worked with local residents to build bridges through Kenya's mountainous terrain since 1997. [His Story]
Aki Ra leads his caravan of 20 men and women members of the Cambodian Self Help Demining team. They have cleared about 50,000 mines and weapons throughout Cambodia. And he and his team still have a big mission to do. The Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority estimated 4 million to 6 milion land mines laid in Cambodia during the communist Khmer Rouge regime. [His Story]
Evans Wadongo invented a solar-powered LED (light-emitting diode) lantern to replace the smoky kerosene lamps and fire lights long used in rural Kenya. And he is giving his invention to his community for free. [His Story]
Dan Wallrath, a Texas home builder, has given injured veterans homes of their own--mortgage-free. Since 2005 he and his army of carpenters, plumbers and suppliers who took on the remodeling job for free has built four houses, five more under construction. And he is expanding his reach into a national campaign called Operation Finally Home. [His Story]
In this world where greed is gaining control, it is good to know that heroes still exist among us.
