 Shamsea Alizada’s story could so easily have ended when she was just 15.
A coal miner’s daughter whose family had moved all around Afghanistan seeking safety and the chance for her and her siblings to get a good education, Ms. Alizada was among the lucky who evaded the suicide bombing that killed dozens of her fellow students at a Kabul tutoring center two years ago. But if it was luck that saved Ms. Alizada, now 17, it was resilience and hard work that made her a national inspiration, when it was announced on television on Thursday that she had achieved the highest score out of nearly 200,000 students on Afghanistan’s national university entrance exam. Her mother saw it and gave her the happy news personally. “I thought she was kidding. But when I entered the room, I saw the brightest smile on my mother’s face,” Ms. Alizada said in an interview. “I have seen her smiling, but yesterday’s smile was something else. Her smile was a gift and made my day; it was better than gaining the highest score in the country.” A generation ago, she would probably never have gotten the chance. Under Taliban rule, girls were prevented from going to school. It is the success of Ms. Alizada and young Afghans like her that have provided one of the few bright spots in the decades of war and unrealized Western goals since: More girls are not only going to school, they are also starting to translate that into social mobility. Ms. Alizada was a junior student at a tutoring center that prepared underprivileged Afghans for the country’s competitive university entrance exam when a suicide bomber walked into a lecture hall packed with more than 200 older students and detonated his explosive vest. Half of the students in the room were killed or wounded, and Ms. Alizada lost friends and young women she looked up to. A center that incubated a universal dream — a good education as the ticket out of poverty and oppression — was turned into a scene of carnage, the algebra equations on the whiteboard covered in blood. That kind of violence keeps ending young, hopeful Afghan lives every day, curtailing the dreams of women and minorities even before the Taliban can start imposing terms. Extremists in Afghanistan, in essence, control both sides of that equation — keeping up the violence to help their position in talks now, while holding to their goal of a return to an unbending Islamic rule later. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/25/world/asia/afghanistan-woman-university.html HELP US SPREAD GOOD NEWS! I run this site in my spare time and thoroughly enjoy giving you all positive news! If you've enjoyed the site we'd love for you to help me share the good news far and wide, share us on Reddit, your Facebook or your Twitter and spread a little positivity around. ENJOY FEEL GOOD, INSPIRING STORIES AND VIDEOS ? Our new page here is just what you need, with just good news, feel good stories unrelated to COVID.  Becoming a billionaire would be, for most of us, the very apex of achievement - and a very unrealistic dream come true.
Chuck Feeney lived that dream but he wasn't content simply with becoming a billionaire - no, he set himself a further a goal. To give away his entire multi-billion dollar fortune while he was still living. The 89-year-old American businessman has now achieved that, donating almost $9bn (£7bn) worldwide. And through his private foundation the Atlantic Philanthropies, Mr Feeney, born to Irish-American parents, gave $570m (£447m) to causes in Northern Ireland over four decades. Who is Chuck Feeney? Charles F Feeney was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey in 1931, during the Great Depression. His mother worked as a hospital nurse and his father was an insurance underwriter. The philanthropist traces his family history back to County Fermanagh, where his grandmother was brought up close to the village of Kinawley. The entrepreneur made his money selling luxury duty free goods to travellers across the world, but he rejected the trappings of wealth himself. For the first 15 years of his philanthropic mission, Mr Feeney donated money in secret leading to him being dubbed the James Bond of philanthropy, only emerging from anonymity in 1997. He now lives in a two-bedroom apartment in San Francisco with his wife Helga, having travelled extensively to examine projects to donate to. Christopher Oechsli, president of the Atlantic Philanthropies, said it was "an honour" to support so many projects in Northern Ireland since first beginning its operations here in 1991. "It's heartening to see the progress made and the way groups Atlantic supported continue to drive change in these challenging times," he said. "That's the legacy." According to biographer Conor O'Clery, Chuck Feeney is "very happy" that he has now completed his almost 40-year mission and celebrated the milestone with wife Helga. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-54300268 HELP US SPREAD GOOD NEWS! I run this site in my spare time and thoroughly enjoy giving you all positive news! If you've enjoyed the site we'd love for you to help me share the good news far and wide, share us on Reddit, your Facebook or your Twitter and spread a little positivity around.
According to NBC affiliate KSL, the 89-year-old deliveryman for Papa John's Pizza took the 30-hours-a-week gig to make some extra money because his monthly bills cost more than his social security covered. One of his customers, Carlos Valdez, began recording Newey's deliveries to his family's front door and sharing them on the social media platform TikTok. Known for saying, “Hello, are you looking for some pizza?” when he delivers, Newey soon became a fan-favorite to the Valdez's 53,000 followers. “It’s insane. Everybody loves him,” said Valdez, adding that many of his followers commented their frustration that Newey had to work still. “Somebody at that age should not be working that much." So the Valdez family got the idea to crowdsource funds from their followers to help out Newey. “Collectively as a TikTok community, we all came together, and we were able to raise $12,000 for this amazing person,” said Valdez. https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/national-international/89-year-old-pizza-deliveryman-gets-surprise-12k-tip/2543062/ HELP US SPREAD GOOD NEWS! I run this site in my spare time and thoroughly enjoy giving you all positive news! If you've enjoyed the site we'd love for you to help me share the good news far and wide, share us on Reddit, your Facebook or your Twitter and spread a little positivity around.
80-year-old dementia sufferer Paul Harvey shows just how brilliant his piano improvisation is live9/21/2020
Teenage pianist with rare muscle disease is showing music’s power with incredible Chopin videos9/17/2020
www.classicfm.com/discover-music/wheelchair-pianist-valentina-irlando-chopin/ HELP US SPREAD GOOD NEWS! I run this site in my spare time and thoroughly enjoy giving you all positive news! If you've enjoyed the site we'd love for you to help me share the good news far and wide, share us on Reddit, your Facebook or your Twitter and spread a little positivity around. |
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