Humanitarians from across the world are highlighted in this informative nonfiction tribute dedicated to all who open their hearts and talents to others.
The author, who works with young adult female anorexics in a psychiatric unit, found early inspiration from his Christian religion and his father, described as a pharmacist and humanitarian who urged kindness to others. The book opens with several examples of people who exhibited bad or improper behavior, then expands to the disturbing atrocities committed by the Taliban.
The balance of the book highlights successful humanitarians and organizations created to improve the lives of children and the impoverished and to provide disaster relief. The diverse group includes people with name recognition and a few who may be more obscure to the general public.
Groups such as Save the Children, the Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are included. The author also pays homage to Florence Nightingale, Oskar Schindler, Martin Luther King Jr. and many more. J.K. Rowling makes the cut for establishing a charitable trust to help combat poverty and social inequality. Agronomist Norman Ernest Borlang is praised for helping create the disease-resistant wheat strain to feed the impoverished.
Written in simple prose, the book is enriching in content, yet lacks a tidy structure that may be disconcerting to some. The author throws in three poems with a humanitarian slant and dialogue from a short play before settling into the humanitarian accomplishments. The book has no index and only a simply written and highly incomplete bibliography of the author’s source material.
As such, while the subject matter offers inspiration and praise for those who have given their hearts to philanthropy, the book’s limited documentation leaves it a work best served to enlighten and energize readers toward such aims, rather than aid anyone hoping to use the material for research or more serious endeavors.
