Heroes

Who was your hero growing up?  Your mom? Your dad?  Your favorite ball player or actor or singer?  Your grandparents?  We all have heroes in our lives.  Sometimes they are public figures like ballplayers or actors or singers, but a lot of times people will answer that question by saying their parents, either one or both.  What do you do to honor your heroes?  Tell them you love them and appreciate them (your parents), write them and tell them?  Well, there are heroes all around the world, CNN decided to honor some of those heroes this week.  The people honored are people just like you and me who have a desire and a passion for helping people.  In the program CNN honors 10 people and then picks one of the Hero of the Year. 
This year a woman named Anuradha Koirala was picked as Hero of the Year.  Why you may be asking, what did this women with a name I can't quite pronounce do to deserve this award?  Well, since 1993 she has rescued over 12,000 young girls and women from the sex trafficking and slave trade.  Impressed yet?  Yeah I was too.  Koirala and her team patrol the Indian-Nepal boarder trying to stop this horrendous act from happening.  they have been very successful, however, much more needs to be done.  Sex trafficking and the slave trade is very much alive despite what many people think.  Many many people think that slavery was abolished years ago, but it's not true, not for a second.  Atlanta is actually one of the top places in the U.S. for sex trafficking.  Scary huh?  More like terrifying.  Thanks to people like Koirala thousands of young girls and women have found sanctuary and hope for a normal life.
The other nine heroes were:
Guadalupe Arizpe De La Vega for building a hospital down in Mexico
Susan Burton for opening a rehabilitation program for female addicts in California
Linda Fondren for her weight-loss program in Mississippi
Narayanan Krishnan for his non-profit organization that feeds India's homeless
Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow for his program that feeds more than 400,000 children around the world
Harmon Parker for building footbridges in Kenya over rivers
Aki Ra for clearing land mines in his native Cambodia
Evans Wandongo for helping to replace kerosene and firelight in Kenya with solar power lanterns
Dan Wallrath for building homes, mortgage free, for returning injured veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan