Who Have Changed the World?

There are many children and teens who have made significant contributions and changes to the world. Here are just a few examples:

Dylan Mahalingam

At the age of nine, Dylan Mahalingam became the co-founder of Lil' MDGs, a nonprofit international development and youth empowerment organization. Lil' MDGs' mission is to use the power of digital media to engage children in the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

His organization has mobilized more than 3 million children around the globe to raise 780,000 US dollars for tsunami relief and more than 10 million dollars for hurricane relief. He has built a dormitory in Tibet, a mobile hospital in India, and a school playground serving AIDS orphans in Uganda. Dylan is a youth speaker for the United Nations.

Alexandra 'Alex' Scott

Alexandra 'Alex' Scott was born in Connecticut in 1996 and was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a type of childhood cancer, shortly before she turned one. In 2000, just after turning four, she informed her mother that she wanted to start a lemonade stand to raise money for doctors to help children.

Her first lemonade stands raised 2,000 dollars and led to the creation of Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation. Alex continued her lemonade stands throughout her life, ultimately raising over one million dollars toward cancer research. She passed away in August 2004 at the age of eight.

Today, Alex's Lemonade Stand sponsors a national fundraising weekend in the United States which is popularly known as Lemonade Days. Each year, as many as 10,000 volunteers at more than 2,000 Alex's Lemonade Stands make a difference for children with cancer.

Ryan Hreljac

In 1998, six-year-old Ryan Hreljac was shocked to learn that children in Africa had to walk many kilometres every day just to fetch water. Ryan decided he needed to build a well for a village in Africa.

By doing household chores and public speaking on clean water issues, Ryan raised enough money with which his first well was built in 1999 at the Angolo Primary School in a northern Ugandan village. Ryan's determination led to Ryan's Well Foundation, which has completed 667 projects in 16 countries, bringing access to clean water and sanitation to more than 714,000 people.

Katie Stagliano

In 2008, 9-year old Katie Stagliano brought a tiny cabbage seedling home from school. As she cared for her cabbage, it grew to 40 pounds. Katie donated her cabbage to a soup kitchen where it helped to feed more than 275 people.

Moved by the experience of seeing how many people could benefit from the donation of fresh produce to soup kitchens, Katie decided to start vegetable gardens and donate the harvest to help feed people in need. Today, Katie's Krops donates thousands of pounds of fresh produce from numerous gardens to organizations that help people in need.

Anne Frank

Anne Frank is perhaps the most well-known victim of the Nazi Holocaust of World War II. Anne, born on 12 June 1929, was given a diary at the age of 13, in which she chronicled her life from 1942 to 1944. During this time, Anne spent two years in hiding with her family in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam in a secret annex with four other Jews.

Betrayed and discovered in 1944, Anne was sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where she died of typhus in 1945. Anne's father, Otto Frank, was the only occupant of the secret annex to survive the war. In 1947, he published Anne's diary as The Diary of a Young Girl.

Anne's account of her internment, as well as her deep belief in humanity has become one of the world's most widely read books.

The Legend of Gazi

According to some myths and legends, Gazi Pir was a Muslim saint who is said to have spread Islam in the parts of Bengal close to the Sunderbans. He was credited with many miracles.

For example, he could supposedly calm dangerous animals and make them docile. He is usually depicted in paats or scroll paintings riding a fierce-looking Bengal tiger, a snake in his hand, but in no apparent danger.

According to some stories, he also fought crocodiles who threatened the people of a region full of canals and creeks, indeed, a kind of watery jungle bordering the Bay of Bengal. Because of his alert and vigilant presence, all predatory animals were said to have been kept within bounds.

It was also believed that he enabled villagers to live close to forests and jungles and cultivate their lands. Consequently, people of these regions would pray to him for protection. The story of Gazi Pir has been preserved in folk literature as well as art and has been performed in indigenous theatre. In fact, some Gazir paat scrolls are part of the collection of the British Museum.

Hercules 

Hercules was the son of Jupiter and Alcmena. To Eurystheus, the King of Mycenae and his cousin, made him undergo some difficult tasks, which are known in Greek myths as the 'twelve labours of Hercules.' The first involved a fight with a lion.

The valley of Nemea was being disturbed by a terrible lion and so Eurystheus ordered Hercules to slay the beast and bring him his skin. At first, Hercules tried to fight the lion with his club and arrows but this took him nowhere. Then Hercules attempted a different tactic: he decided he would use his hands.

He thus managed to slay the animal on his own, relying entirely on his immense strength. Victorious, he returned to Mycenae carrying the dead lion on his shoulders, a sight that terrified the King.

His next task was to slay a monster called Hydra that was ravaging the country of Argos. The Hydra had nine heads, of which the middle one was said to be immortal. Our hero struck off its heads with his club, but whenever he knocked off a head, two new ones erupted in its place.

Eventually, with the help of his devoted servant Iolaus, Hercules succeeded in burning all the heads of the Hydra except the ninth or immortal one, which he decided to bury under a huge rock. In other words, Hercules triumphed again, as he would every time he was given an impossible task by Eurystheus! And this is how he began to acquire the reputation of a hero possessing immense strength throughout the world.