Resolved to be more involved in the New Year?

Have you considered sponsoring a child in an orphanage or children's project in the developing world?

Having founded a network of orphanages in Asia, Africa, and the Americas a decade ago - Orphans International Worldwide (OIWW) - I...

Opa! Souvlaki Restaurant,
Astoria, Queens, New York City

Since 1969, the year man walked on the moon, Opa! Souvlaki Restaurant of Astoria, Queens, has been Greek to its core.

It is run by the Greek community's Elaine Kaufman, Perdika Zevlakis.

Astoria itself has become more...

In March 2008, Goldman Sachs announced a significant new initiative called 10,000 Women that has two goals:

To increase the number of underserved women receiving a business and management education and improving the quality and capacity of business and management education around the world.

To expand the...

I met "Orphans Hero" Andeisha Farid this fall when she was in town as part of Goldman Sachs' 10,000 Women Program.

Then I saw her on Brian Williams' brilliant portrayal, in his Making A Difference segment of the NBC Nightly News (video). See also my post...

I know Western Queens, having lived in Astoria and Long Island City.

I am intimately familiar with Woodside and Sunnyside. Many of my friends live there.

And they tell me they have one neighbor who has to go.

This would be the hugely unpopular 26-year incumbent New York...

"American philanthropy is a model for the rest of the world. We should take great pride in their dedication to important causes and support them with these endeavors."

- Robert Cushman,
Director of Wealth Management,
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney

We have made a commitment...

I first met Ambassador Sichan Siv in 2004 when I was invited to hear him speak at the imposing Women's Republican National Club, just north of Rockefeller Center. What a speech!

He spoke on surviving Pol Pot's Killing Fields in Cambodia, then making his way to America where he earned...

I met UNICEF's executive director Ann M. Veneman recently at Her Majesty Queen Silvia of Sweden's World Childhood Foundation luncheon at the United Nations.

Ann spoke strongly and compassionately on the appalling conditions of children around the world - especially child victims of sexual abuse and exploitation, which...

I have been a friend of Friends Without A Border (FWAB), the international fundraising source of the Angkor Hospital for Children (AHC), for several years.

Several of my friends are involved, including Nerou Cheng, Akiko Arai, and Alisa Chazani.

The founder of the hospital is New York-based...

As the world recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, Rotary International - a humanitarian service organization dedicated to world peace and understanding - is helping the next generation of world leaders learn the skills to prevent future...

"Polio is only a plane ride away."

So began my sobering interview with Carol Pandak, Manager of PolioPlus for Rotary International about polio, a crippling and potentially fatal disease that still threatens children in Africa and Asia (video).

People in...

Several weeks ago Brian Williams profiled the children of the Afghan Child Education and Care Organization (AFCECO) and its founder Andeisha Farid in Kabul, Afghanistan for NBC Nightly News’ segment Making a Difference (video).

Brian is anchor and managing editor of the NBC Nightly News based in New...

Wynton Marsalis received France’s highest distinction last week in New York – the insignia of chevalier of the Legion of Honor, an honor that was first awarded by Napoleon Bonaparte.

Sitting literally at his feet during the performance of the Wynton Marsalis Quintet which followed the ceremony, I witnessed why...

Forty years ago, El Museo del Barrio was a dream contained in a single classroom so far north that “sophisticated” Manhattanites would not visit there after dark.

It was founded in 1969 by artist and educator Raphael Montañez Ortiz and a coalition of parents, educators, artists, and...

Ten years ago, Her Majesty Queen Silvia of Sweden reached the point where she could no longer witness the appalling conditions of children around the world – especially child victims of sexual abuse and exploitation.

She took action and founded the World Childhood Foundation, known often as simply...

Flashbulbs popping non-stop, H.E. Mr. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations in New York, entered the U.N. General Assembly Hall in New York City.  He has attained the status of a rock star.

Speaking at the U.N. Day Concert 2009: A Tribute to Peacekeeping in the...

I first met Clifton H.W. Maloney two years ago when the organization I founded, Orphans International, honored his wife, U.S. Congress member Carolyn B. Maloney, at a dinner on New York’s Upper East Side.

Clif and daughter Virginia came with Carolyn, and we all sat together at the...

Four hundred years ago an Inca princess bore the son of a Spanish Conquistador.  Their child, Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, grew up to write the first Spanish-American masterpiece, The Royal Commentaries (Comentarios reales).

Last week, with a panel of preeminent scholars and the great Peruvian writer 

Donald and Shelley Rubin are Tibetan art in New York City.  This point is difficult to argue with.  They founded the Rubin Museum of Art (RMA), which opened its doors in October 2004 and is now recognized as the premier museum of Himalayan art in the West.

What is less...

There are few male Asian-American sex symbols.  Violin prodigy Hahn-Bin, studying under Itzhak Perlman and Catherine Cho, is one of the few.

Opening the 49th Young Concert Artist Series in Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall under the direction of Susan Wadsworth, Hahn-Bin’s New York debut last week mesmerized...