Giraffe Heroes

Giraffe Heroes We honor people who stick their necks out for the common good. Our trainings, books and blogs help them succeed.

Our media programs move people all over the world into action by telling them the inspiring stories of "Giraffe Heroes"—real people sticking their necks out to tackle environmental challenges, corruption, assaults on minorities and women, hunger, gang violence and much more. Giraffe Heroes International (GHI) takes the vision, strategies and materials developed by the Giraffe Heroes Project to cou

ntries where that inspiration and know-how can make a critical difference, helping people solve the problems that challenge their nations and their lives. To date, we’ve launched affiliates in India, Nepal, Sierra Leone, Egypt, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Ghana, Argentina, South Africa and Europe. Now we need funds to up our game to fight the new dictator in Zimbabwe and to support the translation of our K-12 programs into Spanish for the Spanish-speaking world. Donate to help the Giraffe Heroes Project here: https://www.givingloop.org/GiraffeHeroes

When she was five, Shabana Basij-Rasikh’s parents disguised her as a boy so she could attend school in Taliban-controlle...
06/11/2026

When she was five, Shabana Basij-Rasikh’s parents disguised her as a boy so she could attend school in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
Years later, a student at a college in the US, Basij-Rasikh founded SOLA, a residential school for teen-aged girls in Afghanistan.
When the Taliban retook power, Basij-Rasikh made a run for it. She destroyed all records of SOLA and took the entire operation, including 250 students, staff members, and families across the world, to Rwanda, where she is educating women to lead a future Afghanistan.

Shabana Basij-Rasikh is a Giraffe Hero.

Keep up with her at: https://www.sola-afghanistan.org/

Want more inspiring stories about people sticking their necks out for a better world?
Go to www.giraffe.org and get your free subscription to our only-when-it-matters email list.

“As long as there are Giraffes, there’s hope.”

Santiago Paredes was harassed, then fired as a safety inspector at the Spirit AeroSystems factory making parts for Boein...
06/09/2026

Santiago Paredes was harassed, then fired as a safety inspector at the Spirit AeroSystems factory making parts for Boeing airplanes. The reason? He kept reporting safety violations. Spirit wanted only speedy approvals from inspectors.

Knowing that people die in unsafe airplanes, Paredes refused to comply, quit, blew the whistle, and moved to another state, where his former employers still harassed him. Undaunted, Paredes is providing first-hand experience in a lawsuit against Spirit.

Santiago Paredes is a Giraffe Hero.

Want more inspiring stories about people sticking their necks out for a better world?
Go to www.giraffe.org and get your free subscription to our only-when-it-matters email list.

“As long as there are Giraffes, there’s hope.”

Ncedo Sifumba champions elderly South Africans who are treated badly in residential institutions. He organizes protests ...
06/07/2026

Ncedo Sifumba champions elderly South Africans who are treated badly in residential institutions. He organizes protests and picket lines, brings elders needed medications, pushes for respectful, kind treatment, and reports abuses to and by the police. He’s been threatened by institutional executives, in this nation where he knows that people who protest malfeasance have been killed. Nevertheless, he has no plans to stop.

Ncedo Sifumba is a Giraffe Hero.

Want more inspiring stories about people sticking their necks out for a better world?
Go to www.giraffe.org and get your free subscription to our only-when-it-matters email list.

“As long as there are Giraffes, there’s hope.”

The US “Muslim ban”—an attempt in 2017 to block immigrants from some Muslim-majority countries—had at least one unintend...
06/04/2026

The US “Muslim ban”—an attempt in 2017 to block immigrants from some Muslim-majority countries—had at least one unintended effect: It spurred attorneys Victoria Slatton and Michelle Stilwell to leave their jobs and become advocates for immigrants.

Slatton actually worked at the Department of Homeland Security until, she says, “I didn’t feel like my morals aligned with my job anymore... I realized how privileged I was and I could be doing more... We definitely jumped into a profession that is in direct response to the election.”

Slatton's jump included recruiting her best friend and law school classmate Michelle Stilwell who was working at a nonprofit firm advocating for civil liberties. Together, they started a law firm that helps people trying to get into the United States and stay here, living and working in peace.

Neither Slatton nor Stilwell had much of an idea about how to run a law firm, but they stuck their necks out and took the leap – and received a storm of harassing and threatening Emails. They say that storm made them realize that they were doing the right thing.

Victoria Slatton and Michelle Stilwell are Giraffe Heroes.

Want more inspiring stories about people sticking their necks out for a better world?
Go to www.giraffe.org and get your free subscription to our only-when-it-matters email list.

“As long as there are Giraffes, there’s hope.”

Allegra Love was teaching a class of 20 third-grade children in Santa Fe NM when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcemen...
06/02/2026

Allegra Love was teaching a class of 20 third-grade children in Santa Fe NM when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers raided the school. The next day, there were just three children in her classroom.

Love couldn’t understand why this was happening. “They’re good people... they work hard... I wanted to help them, but I didn’t know what I could do about it.”

A friend suggested that if she really wanted to help, she should become a lawyer.

Love took that advice and then some. She earned a law degree and created Contigo Immigrant Justice where she and three other lawyers take their legal know-how on the road, driving around the state in an RV she named “Dreams on Wheels." From the RV, they help immigrants understand their legal options, fill out complex English-language forms, and schedule conference calls so the lawyers can keep tabs on their progress.

Working long hours for minimal pay, she's serving about 500 immigrants while learning how to fundraise and be a systems manager, keeping all the team's work flowing. The Project relies entirely on donations. For more information, check out: https://contigojustice.org/

Allegra Love is a Giraffe Hero.

Want more inspiring stories about people sticking their necks out for a better world?
Go to www.giraffe.org and get your free subscription to our only-when-it-matters email list.“As long as there are Giraffes, there’s hope.”

Brandon Coleman was a much harassed whistle blower at the Veterans’ Administration, when he was hired by a group within ...
05/31/2026

Brandon Coleman was a much harassed whistle blower at the Veterans’ Administration, when he was hired by a group within the VA whose mission is to protect whistleblowers. He found so many things going wrong there, he blew the whistle on them.

A former Marine, Coleman worked to give veterans more options for outside care paid for by the VA; eventually, that proposal was signed into law. A recovering addict himself, he worked as an addiction counselor for the VA in Phoenix, where he found that suicidal veterans were being neglected, many being discharged too soon. “There was nothing being done,” said Coleman. “Those on the brink of su***de were falling through the cracks.”

When Coleman pointed this out within the VA, the response was not improving care for suicidal vets. Instead, the VA put Coleman on leave, illegally accessed his medical records, and required him to check in with police before receiving treatment for his own disability. They also shut down the whole drug rehab program, leaving 71 veterans with no care at all.

“Wow,” remembers Coleman. “I defended this country. I did nothing wrong except tell the truth but was treated like a criminal. ”

After Coleman testified before Congress and filed a formal complaint with the US Office of Special Counsel about the VA’s failures to treat vets properly, the drug rehab program was reinstated and improved in the ways Coleman had recommended. He was even lauded for helping to improve the care of suicidal veterans. The reinstatement took two years.

Brandon Colemanis a Giraffe Hero.

Want more inspiring stories about people sticking their necks out for a better world?
Go to www.giraffe.org and get your free subscription to our only-when-it-matters email list.
"As long as there are Giraffes, there’s hope.”



Timnit Gebru emigrated to the US from Ethiopia, earned a PhD, and become an artificial-intelligence expert at Apple and ...
05/29/2026

Timnit Gebru emigrated to the US from Ethiopia, earned a PhD, and become an artificial-intelligence expert at Apple and Google. Throughout her education and her career, she’s repeatedly found herself the only woman, or the only Black woman, or the only African in the classroom, on the job, at conferences, and in positions of authority. She’s dedicated to changing all that.

At Google, she co-wrote a report describing how the company’s search-engine algorithms are biased against all women and against people of color. Google told her to withdraw or revise the report. When she refused repeatedly and adamantly, she was fired.

“AI needs to be brought back down to earth,” says Gebru. “... When AI research, development, and deployment is rooted in people and communities from the start, we can get in front of these harms and create a future that values equity and humanity.”

Gebru has launched the DAIR Institute, an independent, nonprofit research group that shows the world how to do AI right. Follow her work: https://dair-institute.org/

Timnit Gebru is a Giraffe Hero.

Want more inspiring stories about people sticking their necks out for a better world?
Go to www.giraffe.org and get your free subscription to our only-when-it-matters email list.

“As long as there are Giraffes, there’s hope.”





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Margarethe Cammermeyer served 27 years as a US Army nurse, earning a Bronze Star in Vietnam and a citation as the Vetera...
05/28/2026

Margarethe Cammermeyer served 27 years as a US Army nurse, earning a Bronze Star in Vietnam and a citation as the Veterans Administration's Nurse of the Year.

But when Colonel Cammermeyer applied for top secret clearance, she was asked a routine “security" question: Was she a le***an? Sure of the answer for the first time in her life, and sure that her honor as an officerprecluded telling a lie, she answered truthfully and was fired.

As one of the highest ranking officers ever so expelled, she became a voice for all g**s and le***ans who are serving in the military. She established the Cammermeyer Military Justice Fund to assist enlisted personnel less than honorably discharged because of their sexual orientation.
https://www.cammermeyer.com/

Margarethe Cammermeyer is a Giraffe Hero.

Want more inspiring stories about people sticking their necks out for a better world?
Go to www.giraffe.org and get your free subscription to our only-when-it-matters email list.“As long as there are Giraffes, there’s hope.”

Margarethe Cammermeyer served 27 years as a US Army nurse, earning a Bronze Star in Vietnam and a citation as the Vetera...
05/27/2026

Margarethe Cammermeyer served 27 years as a US Army nurse, earning a Bronze Star in Vietnam and a citation as the Veterans Administration's Nurse of the Year.

But when Colonel Cammermeyer applied for top secret clearance, she was asked a routine “security" question: Was she a le***an? Sure of the answer for the first time in her life, and sure that her honor as an officerprecluded telling a lie, she answered truthfully and was fired.

As one of the highest ranking officers ever so expelled, she became a voice for all g**s and le***ans who are serving in the military. She established the Cammermeyer Military Justice Fund to assist enlisted personnel less than honorably discharged because of their sexual orientation.
Margarethe Cammermeyer is a Giraffe Hero.

https://www.cammermeyer.com/

Want more inspiring stories about people sticking their necks out for a better world?
Go to www.giraffe.org and get your free subscription to our only-when-it-matters email list.
"As long as there are Giraffes, there’s hope.”

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