Rescuing Children from Prisons

Pushpa Basnet doesn't need an alarm clock. Every morning, the sounds of 40 children wake her up in the two-story home she shares with them.  As she helps the children dress for school, Basnet might appear to be a housemother of sorts. But the real story is more complicated.  All of these children once lived in Nepal's prisons. This 28-year-old woman has saved every one of them from a life behind bars.

Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world -- according to UNICEF, 55% of the population lives below the international poverty line -- so it lacks the social safety net that exists in most Western nations. Space is extremely limited in the few children's homes affiliated with the government.

So when no local guardian is available, an arrested parent often must choose between bringing their children to jail with them or letting them live on the streets. Nepal's Department of Prison Management estimates 80 children live in the nation's prisons.

"It's not fair for (these) children to live in the prison because they haven't done anything wrong," said Basnet, who started a nongovernmental organization to help. "My mission is to make sure no child grows up behind prison walls."

Basnet is one of several in Nepal who have started groups to get children out of prison. Since 2005, she has assisted more than 100 children of incarcerated parents. She runs a day care program for children under 6 and a residential home where mostly older children receive education, food, medical care and a chance to live a more normal life.

Pushpa Basnet has been nominated as a 2012 CNN Hero.

KIND: Kids in Need of Dentistry

A child with a toothache is a child in debilitating pain. Eating, sleeping and concentration are all affected, and school work becomes a daunting task. Kids In Need of Dentistry (KIND) has spent the last century helping children achieve a healthy mouth.

KIND is a nonprofit organization providing "high-quality, affordable dental care to children in need throughout Colorado." Since 1912, KIND has helped thousands of children each year get the dental services they need at affordable rates.

The Chopper Topper program puts volunteer dental professional in schools. Young students receive oral health education, dental screenings and sealants at no charge.  The Miles for Smiles program is dentistry-on-wheels with a mobile unit that travels into rural areas and other places in Colorado with limited access to oral health care.

Learn more by visiting the Kids in Need of Dentistry website.

The Morgan Center: Daycare for Children with Cancer

Children with cancer often face isolation as chemotherapy suppresses the immune system and leaves them open to other illness that could complicate and even risk their lives further.  Nancy Zuch saw her toddler, Morgan, go through this as the 2 year old underwent treatment for leukemia. Zuch opened the Morgan Center, a New York-based preschool, to provide a clean environment for kids with cancer so the little ones wouldn't miss out on learning and making friends.

THE MORGAN CENTER is a 501(c)(3) not for profit charitable organization dedicated to providing preschool age children who are undergoing treatment for cancer the opportunity to interact and socialize, in a safe environment that stimulates cognitive and social development. Children on chemotherapy treatment have a suppressed immune system, and could otherwise risk infection and serious illness by attending typical age appropriate preschool programs.

The program has been so successful that another New York center is in the works, and Zuch has been approached by other states to reproduce her model of care around the country.

CNN Heroes spotlights The Morgan Center and what Nancy Zuch has made possible for children battling cancer.

The World Peace Game: Teaching Kids to Save the World

Devoted teacher, John Hunter found a way to allow students to resolve military conflicts and economic crisis in a classroom setting.  Hunter's The World Peace Game has "the goal to extricate each country from dangerous circumstances and achieve global prosperity with the least amount of military intervention." Students play on teams that represent different nations.

Children must wade through highly charged philosophical issues, identify ambiguity and bias in the information they receive.  They have to learn to understand what provokes antagonism and how to successfully deal with powerful enemies. Effective collaboration and refined communication becomes a skill for students navigating their way through the game.

The World Peace Game Foundation aims to help develop self-awareness in children and elevate their concept of world citizen:

The Foundation seeks to foster the concept of peace not as a utopian dream but as an attainable goal to strive for, and to stimulate the creative development of tools for this effort. It supports development of collaboration and communication skills for resolving and transforming conflicts, and the development of the skills of compromise, all while accommodating different perspectives and interests.

You can find out more about the Foundation's projects by visiting their website.

The Family Giving Tree

The Family Giving Tree believes giving empowers.  The organization's emphasis is on helping children realize their critical role in their communities.  Kindness, philanthropy and volunteerism are the core values, and special emphasis is placed on making sure kids have all the supplies they need as school starts each year:

"The Family Giving Tree began in 1990 as a San Jose State University MBA class project. Jennifer Cullenbine and Todd Yoshida were asked to "create a program that adds value to someone else's life." They created the Family Giving Tree with the hope of providing holiday gifts to 300 children in East Palo Alto. Encouraged by the success of the first year, Jennifer decided to continue and expand the organization. In the 20th year of the program's existence, the total number of gifts and backpacks donated had grown to over 700,000, making the Family Giving Tree the largest gift and backpack donation program in California." (Source)

The Family Giving Tree also provides for the holiday wishes of homeless and low income children.  Volunteers and other nonprofits are encouraged to host their own holiday gift drives to help make Christmas wishes happen.

LETT 'em play: Tennis Anyone?

LETT, Learning Excellence Through Tennis, is a small nonprofit serving Birmingham, Alabama.  Beginning in 1998 as the Birmingham Area Tennis Association, the organization provides tennis and academic opportunities to youth with an eye on improving health and offering a productive activity for children when they are not in school. Additionally, tennis teaches discipline, social skills, improves self-esteem, and promotes physical fitness.

LETT reaches 10,000 children each year with after-school, summer camp, and academic programs.  Children who are interested are given access to all the equipment necessary to play. The organization gears itself to take on beginners and see them through to USTA Youth Team Tennis competitions.

Free the Children (from poverty, exploitation, and powerlessness)

Free the Children aims to free children from poverty, exploitation, and a sense of powerlessness.  Changing the world for good is in the hands of anyone who wants to try.  Free The Children inspires youth "to develop as socially conscious global citizens and become agents of change" through local and global empowerment programs:

• Adopt a Village
• Turn students into youth leaders
• Promote Self-Sufficiency

This 501 (c)(3) nonprofit has built more than 650 schools and school rooms around the world and has reached more than one million young people through outreach in North America and the United Kingdom.

Share Our Strength

Twenty percent of American children don't have enough to eat. Their hunger and food insecurity doesn't manifest as rail thin limbs and bloated tummies like their counterparts in other countries, but hungry American kids face the same risk lacking the energy to learn, grow and thrive physically and intellectually.

The nonprofit, Share our Strength aims to end child hunger in America by 2015.  Here's a look at what the organization is trying to tackle:

• More than 16 million children in America are at risk of hunger.
• 15.7 million children in America live in poverty. 
• 18.6 million children are SNAP/food stamps recipients.
• Over 20 million children get a free or reduced-price school lunch.
• 10.5 million children get a free or reduced-price school breakfast.
• 6 out of 7 children do not get the free summer meals they are eligible for.

Share Our Strength partners with major corporations and donors mobilizing to create community wealth and  promote lasting change.

The Samaritan's Feet

More than 70,000 Samaritan's Feet volunteers have put 3,000,000 impoverished children in shoes. No small feat!  --Yet, one this nonprofit takes to heart.  Three-hundred million live without any shoes, and foot-borne illnesses kill a million people each year.

A life spent barefoot isn't just limited to undeveloped nations.  Even in the U.S., youngsters go without shoes or have footwear that is too small.  Shoes open up choices to children in ways you may not think about.  They're able to attend school (because with shoes they can walk).  Sports become an option.

Samaritan's Feet operates in 40 nations and provide relief to war-torn and disaster-ridden areas.

Starlight Children's Foundation

Starlight Children's Foundation has devoted their 30 year history to raising the quality of life of children facing serious diagnoses and devastating injuries.  Their programs center on entertainment, education, and family acitivities all offering coping strategies for the pain, fear, and isolation that often companions prolonged illnesses.  The foundation depends on the expertise of pediatrics, technology, and the arts to lift the lives of sick children and their families--seeing a child through diagnosis through the end of medical treatment.

Programs include:

• Starlight World-Teens connecting with other teens that are at home or in the hospital
• Great Escapes-Families enjoy ball games, cruises, picnics, spa days, and movie premieres
• Mobile Entertainment Centers-hospitalized children get access to DVD players and video game consoles
• PC Pals-laptops with educational software provided to hospitalized children

See more of the programs offered at Starlight (dot) org.  The foundation helped more than 4 million children in 2010.

Healing the Children

Healing the Children envisions a world where every child has access to medical care. --Healing the Children, Vision Statement

The challenge to provide health care to children has added uncertainty with a global recession shrinking the funds available to nonprofits and the changing healthcare system debated in the U.S.  With 30 years of making a way for kids to be able to see doctors, Healing the Children forges on.

Since 1979:

• in our International Inbound Program (bringing kids from abroad) we have helped 7,141 kids from 105 countries, speaking dozens of different languages.
• Our Medical/Surgical/Dental/Special Project teams that traveled abroad have served 147,644 on scores of team trips.
• Under our Domestic (U.S.) Program, 2,875 U.S. children have received free medical care or assistance.
• 33,912 U.S. children have been served by our Special Group Projects.
• That means, since 1979, 191,572 children have benefited from the generosity of our volunteer medical professionals, our hospitals, our host families, our donors and our countless other volunteers.
• In our Sustainability Program, we initiate and join with others on projects that create lasting medical assets and resources for all needy children within a geographical area.
• Each year we provide millions of dollars worth of gratis care on modest budgets.  For every $1 we spend, we deliver $27 worth of care.  (Source)

Healing the Children helped facilitate a recent surgery on an Afghan boy whose bladder formed on the outside of his body.  His mother petitioned Army Major Glenn Battschinger for help.

Thirteen American chapters and several International Partners remain committed to meeting the needs of children worldwide through teaching experiences in hospitals in developing nations, delivery of medical equipment, matching specialists to rare conditions, and even responding to mass catastrophes like Haiti's earthquake.

Educational Opportunities for Child Laborers

Lotus Outreach is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization devoted to the education, health, and safety of vulnerable women and children in the developing world.

One area of focus is rural India where thousands of children work up to 16 hours a day making bricks.  The little ones are often migrant workers and overlooked for education because of their poverty.

Lotus Outreach funds scholarships for enrollment kits which buys school supplies, fees, uniforms, shoes and ensures transportation.

"Education is not only a fundamental right, but is the most powerful catalyst for human development: children with even the most basic levels of education have better life options, earning potential and health, and raise healthier children".

Lotus Outreach now also helps rehabilitate survivors of human trafficking and keeps at-risk students in school.

Children Without a Voice USA

Unlike cancer and a host of other diseases, child abuse is completely preventable.  In spite of the this, an American child is abused every ten seconds, and every 6 hours one dies as a result of abuse.  Children Without a Voice USA champions the cause of the nation's most vulnerable citizens, kids, because they deserve better.

Parenting classes, pre-school and elementary classes on staying safe, teen parenting classes, and free educational materials are part of the Children Without a Voice USA prevention effort.

Lin Seahorn, CWAV-USA's founder and a survivor of horrible abuse as a child, dedicates her life to raising awareness and preventing crimes against children, child abuse and neglect through advocacy and education. organization.

Treehouse Foundation: a Revolutionary Vision in Foster Care

Judy Cockerton worries about the 600,00 children across America who experience foster care. Sadly, more than 33% never return home and are never adopted. At 18, they are turned out with a high probability of ending up in homeless shelters, prisons, or mental health facilities.

Judy's concerns and children in peril were a personal call to action.  Beyond parenting 125 foster children, she established Treehouse Foundation:

Treehouse offers systemic change: positive outcomes for the children and taxpayer savings of millions of dollars in end-game costs.

East Hampton Meadow is one example of the organization's success. It's an "intergenerational, planned community for kinship, guardianship, and adoptive families who provide permanency to children who have experienced foster care and elders who wish to be "extended family members."

Find out more by visiting the website.  Donations accepted.

Reel Grrls Know Media, Production, and Storytelling

Reel Grrls equips adolescent girls with the power of storytelling and communication through film.  Participants come from diverse backgrounds and discover their own voices under the guidance of professional filmmakers.
  Founded in 2001, this Seattle-based non-profit sponsors after-school, weekend, and summer day camp programs in media & technology training that empower young women to "critique media images and to gain media technology skills in a safe, open environment, mentored by a network of multi-cultural women media professionals."  With equality and advancement serving as a compass, Reel Grrls teach youth to be media literate and realize their capacity to change the world.

Right to Play: Empowering Kids in Poverty and War Torn Regions

Right To Play evolved from an official Olympian show of support for children in war-torn nations and distressed regions of the world.  Since the 90s, the organization has focused its goals on the transformative power of sport and play in the lives of youth affected by war, poverty, and disease.  Nurturing essential skills and development in children empowers the upcoming generation to change their own communities, their world.  Right To Play fosters a safe place for kids to learn and imbues them with the hope that they can make a better world and realize the futures they deserve.

Kaboom! Ready, Set, Play!!!

Less than half of American children have a playground within walking distance of their homes, and 61% of Americans say simple lack of access is a barrier to their children frequenting a playground.  Did you know playtime is essential to child's well-being?  Play promotes learning, physical fitness, social development, and creativity according to experts.


Darell Hammond and Dawn Hutchison started KaBoom! with the vision of a play space within walking distance of every child in America. The organization has built close to 2,000 playgrounds promoting playtime for 3.5 million children.  The video spotlights just one of KaBoom!'s many endeavors. 


Learn more about KaBOOM! at kaboom.org.

Education to Empower: How Philosophy Opens Intellectual Horizons for Children

Imagine young scholars, your own children, or kids you know engaging in a philosophical discussion. Education to Empower brings philosophical inquiry to classrooms allowing teachers to empower and inspire students by encouraging them to reason, communicate, and think creatively.

From the Education to Empower website:

Clackmannanshire Council in Central Scotland pioneered the teaching of philosophical inquiry in primary schools when it introduced the subject in some of its most run-down areas six years ago.

An initial study carried out in 2003-04 showed that children aged five to 11 who were taught so-called "philosophical inquiry" showed intelligence gains of more than seven IQ points.

Here you can view elementary school age children doing philosophy. 

Since education serves as the very foundation of society, Education to Empower believes good academics necessarily include excitement and the full flourishing and realization of a child's intellectual potential.

You can follow Education to Empower on Facebook.

Education to Empower is an emerging 501 (C) (3) nonprofit.

Kid One Transport of Alabama

A lack of transportation imposes a sometimes formidible obstacle for children and expectant mothers who need medical care.  Former Alabama firefighter, Russell Jackson, saw a need and had an idea on how he could help bridge the gap.  This was the beginning of the Kid One Transport System.

The organization identifies those in need of rides to and from medical appointments then safely and reliably insures kids and pregnant women get where they need to go. 

There are a few creative ways anyone can help out with the effort.  You can start by filling up a gas tank.