CNN Reveals It’s Top 10 Heroes For 2015 Part2
6. Bhagwati Agrawal
For CNN Hero Bhagwati Agrawal, it was a water crisis in his homeland that spurred him to act. His nonprofit, Sustainable Innovations, created a rainwater harvesting system that now provides life-changing, safe drinking water to more than 10,000 people across six villages in the driest region of India. California’s record-breaking drought has made news, but in Rajasthan, water scarcity is a way of life. Women and children walk miles to get water and clean dishes with sand to conserve it. His system, called Aakash Ganga — Hindi for “River from the Sky” — is a network of rooftops, gutters, pipes and underground reservoirs that collect and store the monsoon rains, which fall from July to September.
7. Kim Carter
Kim Carter of San Bernardino, California, cycled in and out of incarceration and homelessness until she decided it was time for a change. Now her nonprofit, Time For Change, helps hundreds of women in similar circumstances reclaim their lives. The group provides housing, counseling and job training, as well as services to help women reunite with their children. Since 2002, more than 800 women — many of them formerly incarcerated — have benefited from Carter’s program.
8. Rochelle Ripley
Through her nonprofit, hawkwing, Rochelle has delivered an estimated $9 million in services and goods to the Lakota people. Ripley’s group helps those in need with employment, safe housing and healthy food. Four to five times a year, Ripley makes the trip from her home in Glastonbury, Connecticut, to South Dakota’s Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation. Working alongside the tribe, she and volunteers run a food bank and provide free health services, home renovations and educational opportunities.
9. Jody Farley-Berens
For single parents, dealing with cancer offers its own set of challenges. Jody Farley-Berens saw the need firsthand, when her childhood friend faced that situation. She did all she could to help. After her friend passed away, Farley-Berens helped start a nonprofit dedicated to assisting others in similar circumstances. Since 2006, Singleton Moms has provided practical, financial and emotional support to more than 300 parents in the Phoenix, Arizona, area.
10. Dr. Daniel Ivankovich
Ivankovich vowed to treat patients regardless of their ability to pay. In 2010, he co-founded the nonprofit OnePatient Global Health Initiative. Today, Ivankovich runs three clinics in Chicago and performs more than 600 surgeries a year. He says more than 100,000 people have benefited from the program.
“I know I can’t fix everybody,” he said. “My goal is to be the battering ram to help break down the barriers to get these patients the care and the resources they need.”
