Stacy Parker Le Melle

Workshop Director for the Afghan Women's Writing Project and Author of 'Government Girl: Young and Female in the White House'

On Saturday, lawmakers in Afghanistan's parliament refused to vote on the Law on the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Yet, read any of the poems or stories on the Afghan Women's Writing Project website, and you will be filled with hope.

Laysha Ward

President of Community Relations, Target

As students across the country wait in anticipation for that final bell to ring, I think it's important to ask: what will they be up to this summer? And is the time away from learning worth the price that many of them will pay tomorrow?

Bonnie Fuller

President & Editor-in-Chief, HollywoodLife.com

You were determined to express yourself in your last months through music, writing and recording, the song "Clouds," in order to say goodbye to your family, your friends, your girlfriend and to inspire others to not fear death.

Enid Borden

Founder & President and CEO, National Foundation to End Senior Hunger

Eating alone can be lonely. Loneliness can be unhealthy. Shouldn't we be encouraging a new paradigm for those older adults who have the ability to leave their homes?

Hollye Harrington Jacobs

Nurse, Social Worker, Educator, Author www.TheSilverPen.com

The important thing to know is that children take their coping cues from us, the trusted adults in their lives. This isn't to say that we should cover our emotions. Not at all. Rather, we need to model healthy coping mechanisms for our children.

Alessandra Orofino

Co-founder and General Manager, Purpose Brazil

Precisely because of the magnitude of the problems they face, cities are increasingly emerging as the most fertile grounds for creating change. They are the laboratories in which many of the world's most intractable challenges will be solved.

Jim Yong Kim and Ban Ki-moon

Africa's Great Lakes region can silence the guns, boost trust and trade between neighbors, educate millions of out-of-school children, empower women, and create economic opportunities that will help the countries forge a path to prosperity, good governance, and lasting stability.

Andrew Yang

Founder and CEO, Venture for America

Our young people desperately want the chance to participate in and lead our nation's economic and cultural revival. They're up for the challenges that they're going to inherit. It only remains for us to present the path to address them.

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Dr. Mark Dybul

As a global community, our fates are often more intertwined than we like to imagine. Controlling malaria isn't only a prospect of preventing needless deaths, it is an economic imperative.

John Hope Bryant

Bestselling business leadership author and philanthropic entrepreneur

Creating even one job for those otherwise left-behind is helping. And if you cannot create a job, sponsor a business internship. In most cases, we can all do something. When you do this you are joining a unique club of American job creators.

Adam Grant

Wharton professor and author, 'Give and Take'

Intelligence and concern for others often go hand in hand. This doesn't mean it's wise to give away the farm. The key is to use our brainpower to make sure that our contributions to others don't come at the expense of our own interests.

Christine Nasserghodsi

Director of Innovation, Wellington International School Dubai

Schools around the globe are beginning to look critically at the role of entrepreneurship in their curriculum. Along the way, students are exposed to the notion that risk-taking is good.

Jennifer D. Stephens

Captain, Ohio Army National Guard

This weekend my Battalion tossed the Army-provided training out the window and instead chose to play the documentary The Invisible War. What played out that Sunday morning was the single most amazing experience I have had in my 10 year military career.

Chrissie Hynde

Lead singer of the Pretenders

Force-feeding causes the birds' livers to balloon to up to 10 times their normal size and become diseased with what is known as hepatic steatosis. In addition to being miserably ill with a painful and debilitating disease, the geese can barely breathe because their grotesquely enlarged livers displace their lungs and other internal organs... geese can be seen panting constantly in a vain attempt to suck oxygen into their squashed lungs. Veterinarian Holly Cheever has compared what force-fed birds endure in their final days to being smothered.

Elevate Destinations

A philanthropic travel company specializing in custom itineraries for individuals, families, and non-profits.

I remember the first time I prepared to go to Haiti -- I told an acquaintance about the trip and they responded with a sincerely puzzled, "why are you going there?" I didn't have a good answer other than that it felt right to take action.

Terra Trevor

Author

When a child of a loved one dies you may feel helpless and ill at ease. You can help, though.

Martin Penner

World Food Programme, Web Editor

Food vouchers are the main channel for WFP's food assistance operation in Lebanon. At the moment some 300,000 refugees are receiving them monthly. Vouchers are worth about 20 euros and enable refugees to buy a wide range of food items in local shops.