Many people sit at home and watch the evening news. On the news they will sometimes cover a story on starving children or abandon children. How many of us watch that and think I want to make their lives better? Not very many. Well one night watching the news Budi Soehardi thought that very thing. Soehardi is a 54-year-old Indonesian pilot living in Singapore along with his wife. His wife Peggy also felt the need to help these children. Peggy started asking Budi to build rooms for these lost children. At first it was just a few rooms, after awhile that turned into many rooms, which turned into an orphanage. In April of 2002 the Roslin Orphanage opened. The Roslin Orphanage is helping children that have no food, shelter, or parents. Budi and Peggy sometimes have to name the children due to their mothers abandoning them at birth. Roslin Orphanages provides children with living space, health needs, food, and clothing. Rosalin has helped many children of all ages and from all backgrounds of life. The orphanage holds a total of 47 children now when it only started out at four children. I feel that this is very important and more people should consider helping.

cnn heroes

Wynton Marsalis
Jazz musician Wynton Marsalis knows how important education is for youth, but what feeds their minds and souls, he says, often lies beyond traditional classroom walls.
"The most essential thing for the development of kids and their understanding of the world are those things they do that's not school-related -- just any extracurricular activity," the Pulitzer Prize winner said. "When you have activities you learn at a young age, you can do whatever you put your mind to!" I agree with wynton because education is very important and apon how a student learns is by how the school teaches it. I agree with him that you can do anything you want if you put your mind to it. You have to work hard to get to the goals you have set for yourself. He can see the important things in schools like there programs and the extra events that they offer. It gives students the freedom to do what they want.He also talks about kids setting there own goals and doing everything there own way and learning from that.
"I wanted to really be able to see the students develop," Yarborough said. "Once a young person decides they want to be a musician, such as I did in the third grade, they have a support system that takes them all the way through their career."
I agree that once someone sets a goal they should go through with it. No one should ever give up on the goals they set. Trying is key. Never give up on anything always try try again. I think it is a great thing for well known people to take time away from what they normally do and talk to kids at schools and go around to other public places to help others.

CNN Heroes - Jackie

I believe that Betty Makoni should be selected as Hero of the Year. She founded the Girl Child Network in Zimbabwe, an organization that addresses the many sexual assaults of women and girls in the country. In Zimbabwe, it is believed that if a man with HIV or AIDS rapes a virgin, he will be cured. Because of this myth, girls are being sexually assaulted, and are infected with the HIV virus. Betty Makoni says that the youngest girl she had in her program was only a day old. Betty herself was assaulted at the age of 6. She was not allowed to report the incident. After watching her father murdering her mother, she swore to stick up for women and not be silenced. Betty Makoni founded this organization to help these girls get counseling and to save them from a terrible fate. Her work has helped to save 35,000 girls from being assaulted. The program gives the girls medical treatment, gets them back into school, and gives them counseling.
I believe that Betty should be selected because she is fighting for women’s rights with passion. Even though she was traumatized, she has turned thousands of girls’ lives around. Betty believes into standing up for the rights one was given. She stood up for these girls, and because of this, she was banished from her home country. She uses her bad experiences and changes them into miracles for women and girls in Zimbabwe. No one else would stand up for these girls, so she did. I think she is a really great role model. No matter how hard life gets, you just have to pick yourself up and move on and hope that you can make some good out of the bad. She did make good out of the bad. She has saved the lives of thousands of girls, and she is a hero.

TOPIC TWO

Topic 2: CNN Heroes

Throughout the year, CNN highlights people around the world who are considered heroes because of their contributions to their community. Last week a panel of judges narrowed the long list of heroes to 10 and asked the public to vote on the Hero of the Year.

For this week's post, please visit the CNN website and read about the 10 candidates.

In a post of at least 300 words, please select the person you think should be selected and explain why.

As always, please post on the blog. Return to the post later in the week to respond to at least one other student. Please have both finished by Oct. 9, 2009

Taken from "Parrott AP English Language." Web. 7 Oct. 2009.