TIME Magazine
Voices of the Volunteers
Four volunteers, and the founder of Teach for America, talk about what motivates them, and what they have learned
Making a Difference at Home
Inspired by their work abroad, Peace Corps volunteers return to the U.S. as teachers, bringing the lessons they learned to the kids who need them most
How Others Serve
Abroad, civilian service ranges from diplomacy to firefighting
Teach for America
Top college graduates spend two years teaching at the worst American schools through Teach For America. Here's a look at other groups and organizations that were inspired by TFA
Harlem Children's Zone Project
Harlem Children's Zone Project links social-service programs together tightly to prevent at-risk children from falling through the cracks. Here's a look at other organizations inspired by this program
Ashoka
Ashoka developed the concept of "social entrepreneurship" or investing in social change like a business and demanding measurable results. Here's a look at organizations inspired by Ashoka
VolunteerMatch
VolunteerMatch has made more than 3 million referrals to socially responsible Web surfers. Some 52,000 nonprofit organizations recruit help through the site. Here's a look at organizations inspired by VolunteerMatch
Saving One Life At a Time
Six million children—and even more adults—die unnecessarily every year. Good people all over the world are doing their best to save them. You can too
In Case of Emergency...
While his New Orleans emergency room took on water, a doctor set up a refuge elsewhere for about 50 critically ill Katrina patients
The Voice of Compassion
Offstage, opera legend Placido Domingo is a one-man charity band
A Shoe That Fits So Many Souls
For each pair of Toms sold, the company gives one away to a child in need
Certain Charity
Former lawyer Cameron Gray gets food to the poor and personally documents delivery for the donors
The Good Samaritans
Melinda Gates, Bono and Bill Gates: three people on a global mission to end poverty, disease—and indifference
Dynamic Duo
United in outrage, Bob Geldof and Richard Curtis organized the Live 8 concerts to get the world to heed their calls for action on African poverty
Here's What You Do
Four leaders whose communities were devastated by natural disasters share their experiences and counsel with their counterparts on the Gulf Coast
Exceptional Healing
Pediatrician Leena Kaartinen has made a career of helping people in dangerous locales
Secret Sharers
A duty-free-shopping mogul gave away more than $2 billion to educational and human-rights causes over almost two decades—all of it anonymously
Learning the Art of Giving
How a Bangalore-based social activist and journalist became a self-taught philanthropist, building two foundations from the ground up
It's Raining Pencils
A rookie teacher in New York City has created an online charity that allows donors to search teacher requests and fund the projects they like best
Run for their lives
Serge and nicole roetheli traveled around the world enduring snakebites and toothache — all for charity
Givers Who Mean Business
It's being called "private equity for the poor" and "a market-based approach to giving"—the Acumen Fund is a nonprofit that helps entrepreneurs in developing countries build businesses
To the Rescue
A businessman turned professional samaritan risks his life to save victims of terror and tragedy
Run for their lives
By PETER GUMBEL
Posted Oct. 10, 2005 He nearly died of malarial fever in Togo, smashed up his elbow in India, and was bitten by a snake in Madagascar. She survived a two-week coma in Africa and was plagued by tooth problems for much of the trip. But more than five years after they set off from Switzerland with the ambition of running around the world to raise money for kids, Serge and Nicole Roetheli returned home this summer, safe but sore after 40,912 km of adventure and hardship.
On the trip, they raised about $220,000 for projects ranging from an orphanage in Colombia to a cataract clinic that operates on people in chronically poor countries including Malawi and Nepal. "We lived life intensely every day," says Nicole, who describes Serge's determination as the "grand motor of this adventure. I have never seen him give up anything."
But then, Serge Roetheli, 50, is built for endurance—he's a former boxer and mountain guide who started long-distance running for charitable causes in the mid-1990s. Nicole, 37, accompanied him the entire way on a motorbike, dealt with the myriad logistical headaches, and posted her diary online. The website, www.runforkids.org, quickly attracted a following in schools in Switzerland and France, where teachers used the couple's trip as a starting point for lessons about geography and social issues. Their support grew to the point where several hundred young fans showed up for a picnic with them by the Eiffel Tower on their way home. Ron Zamber, the Canadian eye doctor whose cataract clinic the couple helped fund, describes the Roethelis as "extraordinarily good-hearted, high-integrity people whose objective is to accomplish something noteworthy every day."
The journey had its high points. Serge recalls watching the delight of an 11-year-old girl in Costa Rica whose sight Zamber had just restored. But there were low points, too: Serge's mother died in November 2004 while he was running on the East Coast of the U.S., and there were the health problems the couple encountered throughout the trip. But now they are in a position to make the most of it. Nicole has turned her diary into a book, La Terre a en Perdre la Boule (The Earth Has Flipped Its Lid), which will be published this fall. "After five years, we are very happy to get back to normality," she says.
Serge, who is returning to his old job as a mountain guide, hopes to continue to raise money by giving speeches and seminars on their odyssey. They could use the money, having sold many of their possessions before they left to finance the trip. Still, given all they have experienced, he says, "We have no money, but we are extremely rich."
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