Expanding the educational opportunities for children in poor, rural parts of Nicaragua and El Salvador is the focus of a low profile Sonoma-based non-profit.

Seeds of Learning was started 18 years ago by two Sonoma County men, Todd Evans and Patrick Rickon, based on their own experiences in Central America.

Although they are no longer involved in running the daily operations of the organization, Executive Director Annie Bacon says both men continue to actively participate in the group’s international projects.

The Seeds of Learning volunteers have been warmly, if somewhat quizzically welcomed by the people in Nicaragua and El Salvador, Bacon says, with little regard for the region’s difficult history with the United States government.

Equador

Doctors see the effects of poverty in the patients almost every day, but treating the root causes requires taking action outside their clinics and hospitals.

 

Dr. Paula Braveman (right) is a professor of Family and Community Medicine at UCSF, where she also directs the Center on Social Disparities in Medicine.

 Dr. Mary Maddox-Gonzales, head of the Sonoma County Department of Health Services, urges doctors and other medical practitioners to speak out about the public health implications of policies at every level of government.

 

The recent  PBS television series Unnatural Causes  answered the basic question it posed in the affirmative. So did the  KRCB-Television report on  same question here in the North Bay. You can see what we found out here. Both the national series and our local report will be rebroadcast again this fall.

There's more to the story of pirates along the Somali coast than just bad guys in boats. In today's report, John Reid, President of the Conservation Strategy Fund in Sebastopol, looks past recent headlines to the root causes of this outbreak of nautical lawlessness.

 

Because natural resources are essential to the survival of millions of residents of undeveloped nations, CFS President John Reid (right) predicts that, in order to help preserve them, climate change will soon become a major factor in shaping US foreign policy.

 

 Michael Winship, senior writer for the weekly PBS public affairs program "Bill Moyers Journal," has additional background on this issue here.

 

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.

Her quiet efforts to provide homes and medical care for orphaned children in rural South Africa have brought international recognition to a 75-year old nurse, as well as a visit to northern California.

 

Perhaps because she was 14 by the time she was able to start school, Sister Abigail knew that she wanted to be a nurse, a career path she says was based on two sorts of inspiration.

 Today, Sister Abigail is lauded and loved for her dual community based projects, Clouds of Hope, a home for orphaned children, and  The Khuphuka Project, which provides heath care services for adults, especially those who are HIV-positive.

It's a long, long way from the mountains of South Africa to Sonoma County and San Francisco, a journey that Sister Abigail recalls began with a whim, and took flight with a big surprise.