http://www.readersdigest.com.sg/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_archive.jsp?ccid=57 Reader's Digest Asia - Everyday Heroes Fri, 02 Jan 2009 03:50:00 -0000 http://www.readersdigest.com.sg/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=5757 Paiboon Phaphan, 39, was at seat 23E. The air conditioner mechanic was on his way home with his boss and the latter's wife and 12-year-old son after a business trip in Bangkok. Paiboon had not encountered such heavy rain before. Instinctively, he grabbed the seat in front of him. http://www.readersdigest.com.sg/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=5758 Now at 23, not only can he wield a pencil competently, he's using it to change the world, one stroke at a time. http://www.readersdigest.com.sg/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=5266 ''Seeing patients who have no hope of cure in the hospitals and sent home and left to die made me want to have a place where the sick and suffering can find solace; where the poor are cared for and the dying find their peace of mind,'' says Venerable Lyan Shih. http://www.readersdigest.com.sg/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=5265 ''I was so scared to see the flames on the roof but when I heard my brother cry, I just closed my eyes and rushed in,'' says Dan Boy, who stopped schooling two years ago to look after his younger brothers. http://www.readersdigest.com.sg/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=4683 ''All human needs are met by nature,'' his parents told Tare when growing up in a Dayak village in northeast Kalimantan. ''We depend on forests.'' http://www.readersdigest.com.sg/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=4764 There, they left their daughter on the bicycle seat to go for a quick dip. Srimathi waded waist deep into the cool water while Bandara immersed himself fully. But after only a few dips, he heard a scream. Jumping up, he saw that his daughter was fine but there was no sign of his wife. He shouted her name but there was no response. http://www.readersdigest.com.sg/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=3964 ''He was scary-looking,'' Neilson recalls, ''and he had a wild look in his eyes.'' She hurried to lock the doors, but she wasn't fast enough. http://www.readersdigest.com.sg/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=3965 On this dive in May 2005, Khaer found seven bodies pinned against a grill, before being pulled back to the rescue boat. “I thought I was going to die from the crush of the water,” says the 39-year-old diver for the Bangladeshi fire service, “but it would be a shame if I came back empty-handed.” http://www.readersdigest.com.sg/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=3070 He tapped the ball up, caught it on the back of his neck, let it fall to his heel – and accidentally back-kicked it over the wall of the nearby housing estate. Hearing children's voices inside, he groaned. The estate was peppered with gangs of kids, many of whom were not averse to thieving. He doubted he'd see his ball again. http://www.readersdigest.com.sg/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=3072 Kurtzman moved into the far right lane, preparing to turn right at the junction. The light changed to red. A short line of cars was stopped in front of him. http://www.readersdigest.com.sg/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=3071 She knew she'd face social stigma as a single mother in Singapore, but she wasn't ready for the official discrimination. She wasn't entitled to rent or buy government-assisted housing nor was she eligible for the baby bonus scheme, cash given by the government to mothers lawfully married to the child's father. http://www.readersdigest.com.sg/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=2027 Normally, Esther wouldn't have been out of the house so early, but she'd agreed to meet three friends for breakfast on this Friday in February before heading to high school. As the four hurried to school at 8.15 am, Esther, who was trailing a little behind, heard someone yell, ''Call an ambulance! Call an ambulance!'' She saw a woman standing over an elderly man, who was lying face down on the floor of a magazine stand close to the restaurant they had just left. http://www.readersdigest.com.sg/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=2620 ''Anwarul!'' she shouted. ''Something is coming.'' In a forest ruled by large predators, Nazma says they never yell out ''Tiger'' in case they are wrong and spark a panic. http://www.readersdigest.com.sg/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=751 Jukka Holopainen was seven years old when he first witnessed man’s arrogance towards the environment. While watching dolphins chase fish near the boat he was travelling on during a family vacation, his uncle’s friend pulled out a shotgun and – to the delight of the adults onboard – shot one of the dolphins. “I wanted to push the man into the sea,” Jukka recalls. http://www.readersdigest.com.sg/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=344 Emade, from Warri in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria, had a congenital defect in her left foot that had made it grow to 45 centimetres long, leaving her the victim of constant verbal abuse and too ashamed to go to school. Local witch doctors thought slicing her foot with razor blades and stuffing pepper in the wounds was the best way to help her. As he looked down at the shy little girl, Donovan knew he had to do better than that. Donovan was visiting the Delta with his wife Shirley after meeting Warri pastor Francis Waive at a church meeting. Waive had told the 42-year-old British GP about the poverty plaguing his homeland, where around seven million people lived in impoverished island communities with little sanitation and no hospitals. Initially overwhelmed by the suffering he found, Donovan realised that if he could help Emade, he would be alleviating at least some of the hardship – and might begin to find the fulfillment he was looking for. After returning home to Cambridge, England, the following week, Donovan sent the child's pictures to Mr Fred Robinson, an orthopaedic surgeon at a private hospital. Robinson agreed to operate on her free of charge. The Donovans arranged for Emade and her father to come to stay with them while Robinson reshaped the foot and a few days later, wearing a cast, Emade flew home. Knowing that Emade still faced terrible hardship back in the Niger Delta - Donovan paid a local doctor to monitor her progress and gave her a camp bed to ensure her foot stayed dry at night during the rainy season. The couple also arranged for her to attend a private school in Warri, the fees met out of their own pocket. Donovan knew he wanted to do more for the people of the region. He and Shirley decided to sell their four-bedroom home to help set up a medical charity, New Foundations (newfoundations.org.uk). He also began working just three days a week, leaving him with more time for the charity, though much less secure financially. With Pastor Waive's help, the Donovans created a floating medical service, with a doctor visiting ten islands in the Delta by boat twice a month. For the first time, 40,000 people had regular malaria clinics, access to drugs and health advice, and clean drinking water. The Donovans have also opened a cataract clinic in Warri, built a 30-bed health centre and trained 12 local people to be health workers and midwives. ''It's a privilege to help these people who are full of potential but incapacitated by circumstance,'' says Donovan. ''We're empowering them and they've made us come alive.'' As for Emade, she's getting good grades at her new school and wants to be a doctor. She laughs and jokes with her friends – and is one of the fastest runners in her class. http://www.readersdigest.com.sg/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=90 The entire world rushed to help the victims of the tsunami last December. These forward thinkers looked beyond the immediate disaster and worked with survivors to build a better future. http://www.readersdigest.com.sg/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=91 As a volunteer with Mercy Malaysia, Norazam Abu Samah has worked in war and disaster zones around the world, but none of it prepared him for what he saw when he landed in Aceh two days after the tsunami. "I was horrified," the 36-year-old Kuala Lumpur architect recalls. "I was expecting a few thousand dead. What I found was over 50,000." http://www.readersdigest.com.sg/rd/rdhtml/en/magazine/mag_content.jsp?cid=92 The tsunami killed 38 people in the village of Thung Khamin on Thailand's west coast, 110 kilometres south of Phuket. Although their lives are hardly back to normal, the villagers have prepared the foundation for the future by building a children's library.