By Michaela Haas

A few years ago, Jorge Romero walked his daughter, Mariangel, to school every morning, and every afternoon he accompanied her home. She was 13 at the time, and the 2.5-mile trek in Galapa, a town on the outskirts of Barranquilla, Colombia, was "too dangerous for a girl to walk on her own," Romero explains. The family couldn't afford other means of transportation. But walking his daughter to school meant that Romero, a day laborer, missed out on getting in the labor queue early enough to grab opportunities to work.

Like many families in Galapa, the Romeros are refugees from Venezuela who depleted their savings making the journey. Nine family members share a simple two-bedroom home. The family sleeps in one bedroom, reserving the other to store their few prized possessions — including the bicycle Mariangel received from World Bicycle Relief that gave her a new way to get to school. The family's hopes now rest on Mariangel to complete her education, thrive, and help support them. As one relative put it, that bicycle is a godsend.

World Bicycle Relief, a Chicago-based nonprofit started in 2005, has given away more than 684,000 bicycles in 21 countries, most of them in Africa. "Bicycles are a really overlooked tool for people to access opportunities," CEO Dave Neiswander says via a video call from his field office in Zambia. "There's a billion people that are challenged to find reliable transportation. Bicycles are a very efficient way for them to help themselves, which is what intrigued me from the beginning."

By Etelka Lehoczky

On an ordinary day last August, people at a park in Copenhagen, Denmark, saw something extraordinary: a stream of runners all adorned with floating, bobbing pink balloons. The balloon carriers were part of Run With Rotaract, a three-year-old event organized by District 1470’s Rotaract clubs. This year, it raised money for education in Malawi.

The balloons served as tickets for the approximately 65 participants. And, says Philip Flindt, a member of the Rotaract Club of København Nord, they performed the equally important function of attracting public attention.

“It created something weird for people to look at — people running with pink balloons,” Flindt says. “It was a way to reach people in the community around the park. They were asking, ‘Is this a bachelor party, a bachelorette party? Why are you running with these balloons?’”

Flindt never seems to lack creative, eye-catching ideas. It’s clear why he’s the Rotary public image coordinator for Zone 18, the first Rotaractor to serve as an RPIC. He’s been promoting Rotaract since he helped found his club on 13 March 2013. That date, he’s quick to note, is the anniversary of the certification of the first Rotaract club in 1968.

“Philip is a fantastic advocate for Rotaract,” says Becky Giblin, a dual member of the Rotaract Club of Auckland City, New Zealand, and the Rotary Club for Global Action District 5150. “When he’s given an opportunity, he not only represents all Rotaractors in the best way possible, but he works to make sure other Rotaractors are given similar opportunities.”

By Diana Schoberg

In 2011, Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee was in Oslo, Norway, waiting in a room with a few friends before she delivered her Nobel lecture.

Gbowee had lived in a refugee camp, worked as a counselor for child soldiers, and led a nonviolent peace movement that played a pivotal role in ending a bloody 14-year period of civil war in Liberia. But still, they asked her, “What’s next?” “

My answer was simple,” she recalls. “Duh, I just won the Nobel Peace Prize. I’m going to retire at 39. They said, ‘No, you’re still young. Think.’ The only thing I could think about in that moment was girls and education.”

She went on to found Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa, which focuses on just that. Since its inception in 2012, the organization has awarded more than 500 full scholarships to African young people, most of them women, to study across Africa, Europe, and North America. It has also provided support to schools in Ghana and Liberia that benefited almost 2,000 students. The foundation has held campaigns to inspire and train women and young people to help maintain Liberia's peace. It has moved beyond the classroom to do work in sexual health and reproductive rights, and produced radio programs that encourage discussion about gender-based violence.