【推荐1】If this 13-year-old American boy succeeds in climbing Mount Everest, he has modest ambitions—pick a small piece of rock from the top as a memento and wears it in a necklace. “I will not sell it. It is something for myself to say ‘this is a rock from the top’,” Jordan Romero from California, told reporters in Kathmandu. He left for the mountain on Sunday.

If he succeeds, Romero will become the youngest climber to climb the 8,850 meters Everest Summit. Currently a 16-year-old Nepali boy, Temba Tsheri Sherpa, holds the record of being the world’s youngest climber of Mount Everest.

But Romero, sitting over lunch with his climbing father and stepmother in Kathmandu’s tourist district of Thamel, said he was not after setting climbing records. Romero said Mount Qomolangma that runs across Nepal-China border was part of his goal to climb the highest mountains on all seven continents.

“It is just a goal,” he said confidently. “If I don’t succeed I am okay. I will try again.” Romero has already climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa and Mount McKinley in Alaska among others.

Romero’s father Paul said the boy was ready to take on the climb and understood the risk of climbing the giant mountain.

“I know it requires a lot of patience. I will remain patient. I want to stay safe and make right choice,” Romero said of his climb using the northeast ridge(山脊) route on the Chinese side of the mountain.

Over 4,000 climbers have reached the top of Mount Qomolangma since it was first climbed by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Nepal’s Tenzing Norgay Sherpa in 1953. Romero said he wanted to climb the highest mountains in all 50 states in the US next. “It does not need to be after Qomolangma and could be in between.”

【推荐2】When a large facial tumor (肿瘤) was putting 5-year-old Nagalem Haile’s life at threat, strangers gathered together to help get her the necessary medical facilities required to save her life.

Soon after her birth, a facial tumor began developing on Haile’s jaw, which started to expand as she grew. The girl and her family lived in a small village in Ethiopia, where they had no access to proper medical facilities.

The growing facial malformation (畸形) caused the girl so much embarrassment (尴尬) that she refused to step out of her house. Apart from that, it was becoming a serious threat to her life with each passing day.

Haile’s ability to breathe and eat was affected. There were a lot of blood vessels (血管) running through the huge mass and if anything broke the tumor, Nagalem could bleed out in minutes.

But God was working out a way to save the child’s life so that she would be able to lead a healthy life. A government official from the U.S. met Nagalem Haile during a mission in Ethiopia which led to a massive search looking for doctors willing to perform the risky surgery.

Dr. Milton Waner answered the call and together with the support of medical charities, Nagalem Haile got the life-saving surgery she so desperately needed, for free!

The organizations helped fly Nagalem and her father. Matios Alafa Haile, to New York City where they prepared them for the 12-hour surgery needed to remove the huge mass. “This type of surgery is very difficult, very dangerous, and certainly life-threatening,” Dr. Waner said.

The medical team removed the facial tumor carefully avoiding any risk to the nerves (神经). “It’s so nice of you! Without you guys, it wouldn’t be like this,” Matios said.

“She is playing enjoying everything outdoors. There is a big difference. May God bless the doctors!”

【推荐3】In June 2019, Steve Wilson was going on a bike ride. Like many of us often do, he checked his phone beforehand, and saw a moving post about his friend’s daughter Linda. “She was a junior in high school at the time; she just received a life-saving kidney (肾) from a woman in town,” Wilson told CBS News. “And they didn’t even know this woman till they made the request for their daughter.”

“So, I became emotional. I just thought that is the coolest thing,” said Wilson, who lives in Westchester, N.Y. “I took a long bike ride and I kept thinking, ‘I would love to do something like that one day.’”

After seeing the post, Wilson selflessly decided to become a living donor himself, donating a kidney, while he was alive, to someone he didn’t know.

“I knew it would go to someone. It eventually went to someone across the country,” Wilson said. “They took my kidney to the airport and flew it out to the West Coast.” He said he still doesn’t know the person who received his kidney and he probably never will, which he’s fine with. He just wanted it to change somebody’s life, he said.

Going through an operation may seem frightening, but Wilson says all it takes is two weeks of one’s life for recovery. And to prove that it isn’t burdensome, Wilson and his fellow living donors finished an even harder mission: Conquering (征服) Mount Kilimanjaro.

The team reached the summit on March 10 — symbolically, World Kidney Day. As for whether the climb to encourage living donations was worth it, Wilson said he inspired at least his friends to consider becoming living donors, but he thinks the Kilimanjaro summit could have inspired countless others.

【推荐2】It was the middle of the night when Bibi Bahrami’s father awoke her and the rest of the family, telling them they must leave their home immediately because her country, Afghanistan, was being invaded. Bahrami, only a teenager at the time, remembers being in a state of shock. “We just put our shoes on and we were all crying. We didn’t want to leave home. We didn’t know where we were going to end up,” Bahrami said.

The family spent the next six years living in a refugee (难民) camp in Pakistan. Life was hard, but Bahrami’s family made the most of it. They eventually made a sort of “mud house”. Much like life in Afghanistan, however, girls in the refugee camp did not attend formal school.

After getting married, Bahrami moved to the US, which provided Bahrami with a lot of experiences that wouldn’t be available to her back home. “I had day care for my children, and I could still study and go to school. I was so inspired by the opportunity. And I say I want to do this for the girls who are left behind,” she said. Hence Afghan Women’s And Kids’ Education & Necessities (AWAKEN) was founded. The first project was building a school that both boys and girls could attend. “I feel girls’ education is so important. They can educate their children and then society,” she continued.

In 2021, Bahrami started a new project MARRC, which helps Afghan refugees find housing, jobs and support. So far they have taken in around 28 families.

Frima, 26, just arrived in Muncie with her 2-year-old son. Her life was in danger because she worked at a family-focused non-profit — which was strictly forbidden then. She left her husband behind, not knowing when they would meet again. But thanks to Bahrami, the young mother is hopeful for the future. “In Afghanistan, and in many other countries, women have suffered. It’s time for the world to recognize the values of women,” Bahrami said. “I feel that sometimes women are disadvantaged and not respected in societies and those things hurt my heart. We have our rights and this should be appreciated.”

【推荐3】Laurie Johnston took a gift of $200 more than a half-century ago and turned it into $1 million.

The urge for his philanthropy (慈善事业) dates back to 1949 when Johnston was a cash-strapped student in his fourth year of pharmacy (药学) school. He was considering taking a year off to work when a friend of the family called him over one day and handed him an envelope containing $200.

“That was a huge amount of money back then. She told me to use it for my schooling and pay it back for somebody else in the future.” Johnston said.

His experience as a child of the Great Depression also played a key role in his philanthropic tendencies. Johnston’s mother would cook for young men who would ride the railway in search of odd jobs to make a few dollars here and there.

So, he decided to build a special legacy (遗产) fund. Shortly after he graduated from university, Johnston started saving money and 22 years later, he had accumulated $80,000.

Johnston never took a cent out of the fund for himself and credited a simple saying for being able to pull off his million-dollar career. “Never buy what you want, just buy what you need,” he said.

Sheldon Mindell, manager of Riverview Health Centre Foundation, said Johnston’s gift will be put towards rebuilding its 30 care beds, including installing flat-screen television s and a Wi-Fi system. Mindell also wants to upgrade a meeting area into a place where a family could eat a meal in relative privacy, rather than in the cafeteria.

“I believe generosity isn’t a characteristic you’re born with. You learn it by examples that are set in your childhood or adulthood. This isn’t a rich man who gave away $1 million, but a man who decided 35 years ago that he wanted to do something significant.” Mindell said.

【推荐3】I was terribly shy as a child. I couldn’t bear to be noticed and if I spoke people would notice me, so I spoke as little as possible. About four years ago, I was hanging out with my friends on a playground. I noticed two little girls, who came to play near where we were. The elder sister pulled the younger girl away from us but couldn’t go far, as her sister threw herself on to the ground crying and refusing to get up. I was longing to comfort her but felt unable to do so.

Then I thought: Why am I waiting for someone to give me permission to do what I feel is right? I went over to the little girl and held out my hand. I had merely intended to help her up first but instead she pulled me down into a tight hug. I instantly felt the surge of her emotions flood through me. We knelt on the ground hugging tightly for what felt like a longtime; at one point I tried to move away but she wouldn’t let me go. The elder girl had run off, and reappeared with a man I took to be their father. She pointed at me accusingly (谴责地). It occurred to me that he would probably be angry at a stranger hugging his child and might shout at me or even hit me. I then decided that it didn’t matter if he did hit me. At that moment, the only thing that mattered in the world was comforting the little girl in my arms.

To my surprise, the man wasn’t angry. He just nodded and held his arms out to his child. She calmed down and went to him willingly. He carried her away and the sister followed them. I watched them disappear into the crowd.

That day, I learned that I can speak, and if-I can’t speak, I can take action, which is often easier. I still find speaking difficult. But now I know that if I need to, I can.