SO recently came across a guy called Greg Mortenson - pretty incredible guy and story which summarised goes along the lines of.
Went in memory of sister to climb mountain in Pakistan, ended up spending 75 hours saving one of their lives with co climbers never reaching peak. On way back became so ill that locals took him in and looked after him till he got better.
He pledged to build a school in honour to thank the locals. Since building schools he has survived an eight-day armed 1996 kidnapping in the tribal areas of Waziristan, in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province; escaped a 2003 firefight between Afghan opium warlords; endured two fatwās[citation needed] by hardline Islamist clerics for educating girls; and received hate mail and threats from fellow Americans for helping educate Muslim children.
He's now has established or significantly supported 171 schools in rural and often volatile regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan, which provide education to over 64,000 children, including 54,000 girls, where few education opportunities existed before...
The New York Times says he has "done more to advance US interests in the (pakistani) region than the entire military and foreign policy apparatus of the Bush Administration"
I thougt i'd bring this up because despite spending most of my life in the humanitarian sector I had never heard of him and admire the passion and work he's doing.
Are there any other unsung heroes you know about?
Find out more about Greg on Wiki - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Mortenson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Mortenson)
Christopher McCandless
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_mccandless (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_mccandless)
Ed Freeman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Freeman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Freeman)
Yankee Jim, you beat me to it. captain Ed Freeman, what a guy. I hope many Brits read about him via this thread, not just you American chaps.
Me :028:
