Diane Latiker

"There are people here that do care, and i'm one of them"


In south side Chicago, in Roseland, one of Chicagos most dangerous neighbourhoods, There is a woman that is doing the best she can to stop the gang violence on the streets. Diane Latiker, a grandmother in the neighbourhood opened up her home to gang members from the street to try to influence them to get onto the right path. She said "They say I'm a nut because I let kids into my home who I didn't even know," said Diane Latiker, 54. "But I know (the kids) now. And I'll know the new generation." She feels that opening up her home and heart to the children might end up steering them into the right path and get them off the streets.

Latiker told them her house was open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They could come over for food, or homework help, or just to talk about their hopes, dreams and fears kids of the block was born. She then moved into a building on one of the neighbourhood streets and now the kids have a variety of resources available to them to help them for the future.

Latiker is a mother of eight and a grandmother of 13. She has lived in Roseland for 22 years. She said she was once "young and dumb," dropping out of high school and having seven children by age 25. But she said that by 36, she had turned her life around: She got remarried and earned her GED.



Susan Burton

"I just wanted my life to count towards something good"

Susan knows how difficult life can be. Her 5-year-old son was accidentally killed 30 years ago. After that happened she began doing drugs. She ended up in prison six different times. She got clean in 1997 and never looked back.

She now runs a reentry program for female ex-offenders in South Los Angeles named "A New Way of Life". She has helped over 500 women get on the right path to productive lives. She tries to give these women everything they need to get back on their feet and not succumb to their old ways. She says  "I know now that without the resources and support, it's next to impossible. ... If you don't have a new door to walk through, the only thing is the old door."

She is provided these women with a new door. A fresh start.



Evans Wadongo

"It just gives me the satisfaction knowing that im lifting people out of poverty, i just feel that its right"

Evans is a young man that grew up in a small village in the western part of Kenya. He invented a solar powered LED lantern. When villagers see him coming down the road, men, women and children start singing and dancing.

He says that villagers only soource of heat comes from kerosene and wood. Villagers spend so much on kerosene that they cant afford food. He also has dreams of inventing something so drastic that it will change the way villagers live and give them more opportunities for children to go to improve their education. 

With a lack of good light to study by -- Wadongo often had to share one lantern with his siblings and other family members -- he remembers the frustration of unfinished homework and poor exam performance. So at the top of his list is to help children do well in school.

He says that children are forced to leave school because of the poverty and then the cycle continues because they lose out on the opportunities that school can provide.



Guadalupe Arizpe De La Vega

"Our hospital has not been touched. Our doctors have not been kidnapped. This is a miracle of God, believe me,"

Guadalupe is a 74 year old woman that lives in El Paso, Texas but originally from Saltillo. She started a health center over 30 years ago in Juarez, Mexico. Juarez in the past few years has become one of the most dangerous cities in the world as violent battles between drug cartels have taken control of the city.

She describes the health centre that she opened, Hospital de la Familia, as a sancuary for healing in a city where there is so much pain. In one weekend she recalls Juarez has over 51 homicides. Still, she insists on visiting Juarez at least 5 times a week to visit people in the hospital.

She notes that no one as of yet has tried to kidknapp any of her doctors or harm her patients. Juarenses know that Hospital de la Familia is a sanctuary of the city and a place where people can heal in peace.