2019 Recipients of the Jim Killon Humanitarian Award

Elaine Poggi enhances the healing of hospital patients by placing photo artwork in their rooms. Her compassion in action to provide this unique touch to hospitals around the world, free of charge, makes Elaine one of the people we feel compelled to honor with this year's award. Learn more about her beautiful altruism at her website https://healingphotoart.org/

I have been given a gift: I am aware of and can see the world?s beauty all around me. I capture this beauty with my camera, and then my greatest joy is to share it with those who are suffering in hospitals. When I am scuba diving, I see incredibly colored fish and coral. When I am driving around the Tuscan hills, I feel the peace and tranquility of this land. When I am hiking in the Dolomite mountains with my husband and my little dog, I smell the fresh, crisp air. My hope is that my photos transmit these colors, feelings and scents to all the patients who view them.? ~~~ Elaine Poggi, Humanitarian

When Changes for New Hope was created back in 2009, I wrote to over 1500 organizations, companies, foundations, friends and grant makers. Without support, there would be no relief for the destitute children in the Peruvian Andes that we came to serve. One man and his charity, The White Feather Foundation, came to our aid with financial support and raised awareness for our project to his hundreds of thousands of followers. That man was Julian Lennon. That compassionate assistance saved our young, fledgling organization and we thrived. Since 2009 Julian has provided support to many other charitable organizations which have reached untold thousands of people living in various conditions of despair, desperation and destitution. Those who are of means could easily pull the ladder up behind themselves and leave the challenges of the world to those who endure them. Compassion in action means doing what is necessary, when and where it is needed for as many as can be helped.

Our personal experience with Julian Lennon and his White Feather Foundation has proven to us, and the thousands that Changes for New Hope has reached, that he well deserves this recognition and we are honored to be partnered with his altruism. Learn more about Julian Lennon and the White Feather Foundation at his website https://whitefeatherfoundation.com/

Many people get dealt a bad hand and give up on life. Fewer people get dealt the obstacles that Jim Paradiso had to cope with. Life took a downward turn for him in his fifties when he was then struck blind after an aneurysm exploded in his brain, later he contracted a flesh eating bacteria that caused him to have a few toes amputated to save his life. I met Jim in Huaraz, Peru shortly before he returned to Loja Ecuador where he now lives. Talk about turning your lemons into lemonade, Jim accepted his situation with rare grace and a sense of mission. He began reaching out to a school for blind children and taught them how to be self reliant. Self confidence was lacking and many were afraid to venture out of their houses except to go to school. Jim created programs to help them become independent. He gave them a freedom they did not know was available to them.

Jim tells me that going blind was the best thing that ever happened to him. What he learned from his loss was a gain that he was able to use to serve humanity in ways he never considered before all this challenged him. His unique outlook, his infectious sense of humor and compassion in action is the reason we felt he was an obvious choice for this award. In a world where excuses replace compassion, Jim shows that the only reason not to be a service to the human family is simply, "You don't want to." When you have a deep sense of compassion for the disadvantaged, nothing can stop you. Jim Paradiso can't be stopped!

As a Fulbright scholar working in the coffee lands of rural Nicaragua, Kristin Van Busum saw firsthand the severe need for education among the people there. Seven out of ten children will make it beyond primary school. Many were dropping out by the third grade. Teachers were under trained, resources were in short supply and without an education, the cycle of poverty would continue.

That was all Kristin needed to see to create solutions in the form of her project called Project Alianza. http://www.projectalianza.org/ Her efforts have created schools that are safe, with access to water and sanitation. Once those schools were in place, a curriculum of literacy, health and hygiene and environmental sustainability was taught. Over two thousand children have been positively affected by the project's impact. Going beyond the school, Kristin believes that children, especially girls, will influence entire communities with what they have learned which adds to the sustainability of the community.

Kristin says, "Programs don't change people. People change people. I've learned that a social mission cannot thrive without a team of innovators, believers and doers that share a vision for a better tomorrow. " In a country where political strife tears at the fabric of the stability of its people, Kristin has developed something that can withstand the uncertainties beyond their control. For this reason, we proudly present Kristin Van Busum this award for 2019.