In her recent visit to the Gaza Strip, a Sebastopol woman left behind some hot pink playground equipment, and brought back a heightened humanitarian concern for the region's residents.

CodePink , the San Francisco-based women's peace organization, assembled an international delegation of 66  that included Barbara Briggs-Ledson of Sebastopol, for a five-day visit to the Gaza Strip early this month, just ahead of President Obama's visit to Egypt. While they were there,the CodePink represetatives were given a letter from the leadership of Hamas to deliver to the President, inviting him to also visit Gaza. Read the letter here .

The sliver of land known as the Gaza Strip comprises just 139 square miles, covering roughly the distance between Sebastopol and Petaluma and extending halfway out to the coast. Home to 1.5 million residents, nearly half of them children and youth, it is intensively urbanized--the refugee camps are blocks of concrete apartment buildings. So Barbara Briggs-Letson says she took particular pleasure in helping bring something colorful for the kids to that scene.

Barbara Briggs-Letson (in white) smiles for the camera along with the Palestinian women who acted as translators for the  CodePink visitors. In addition to bringing and assembling the playgrounds, the CodePink delegation visited hospitals and other public facilities, Briggs-Letson says they also met with some of the area's political leaders.

Damaged buildings at every turn were a constant reminder of day-to-day dangers of life in the Gaza Strip, says Briggs-Letson. And there were others, too.

You can see more photos from the Code Pink Gaza delegation's trip here. 

Belated enforcement of an African student's expired visa, more than 20 years later, is now threatening to tear apart a Santa Rosa family.

There will be a benefit concert, featuring many of Okili's musical friends and supporters, Friday night, May 22 at the Sebastopol Community Center, to raise money for his legal defense (more details below). Donations can also be made directly here.

It's been a full month since Okili was taken away from his home and family  including his son, Olembe, who is now 17. During that time,his wife, Sabrina Krauss, has managed only limited telephone contact with him.

Sabrina Krauss says the couple made what they felt were good faith attempts to obtain legal immigrant status for Okili, even consulting with Congressal representative.

  Here's an online review of Glko Wellman's Guiding Their Way -- Day by Day. 

Children today are born into a very different society than their parents or grand-parents, observes Glo Wellman (left) . But the basic nature of the kids themselves is essentially the same as it has been for generations.

In addition to teaching Child Development at Santa Rosa Junior College Glo Wellman has been a long-time staff members at the California Parenting Institute.

KRCB's North Bay Report has won an Excellence in Media award from the California Teachers Association, for a report last April on peer-driven non-violence training for junior high school students. Today we reprise that award-winning report.

Rick Phillips (left) is the creator and leading advocate for the Safe School Ambassadors program, which is a project of the Sebastopol-based non-profit, Community Matters.

This story, which originally aired last April, has been honored with a 2009 John Swett Award for Excellence in Media by the California Teachers Association.

The 6^th annual "Real Heroes" of Sonoma and Mendocino Counties are being honored this week by the local Red Cross office. In this report we meet two of them.

His Bar Mitzvah is successfully completed, but Gabe Ferreck is not stopping his work on behalf of the displaced children of Darfur. Here he is pictured with the tabletop display he created for the  JWW Backback Project. In the audio clip below, Here he describes his next project for them, the Walk for Darfur.

How does a helicopter airlift rescue unfold? Pilot Paul Bradley (right)  gives a step-by-step account of the episode for which he was honored by the Red Cross this year.

Two of this year's other Red Cross Real Hero honorees are being recognized for actions that were truly a family affair.

 Through their Project Africa program, Food for Thought, the Sonoma County AIDS Food Bank, is now a sponsor of Hope Initiatives' soup kitchen and other projects in Namibia, including their new vegetable garden. 

It's not easy to measure progress in the medical effort to rein in HIV in Namibia, but Mark and Paula Nethedra  say some encouraging trends are beginning to emerge.

Click here to read about all of this year's Real Heroes.