This week on Full Frame: Make a difference in the world

Full Frame

Not Impossible

Globalization and technology are reshaping the way we give back, making it easier and more effective than ever before.

In this episode, we’ll explore what the future of philanthropy looks like as we talk to leaders who are fighting inequality in new and innovative ways – and harnessing the powers of technology, celebrity and the written word to do it.

Tune into Full Frame on CCTV America at 6:00 pm ET on November 29, 2014. Or watch the livestream of the program here.

Nicholas Kristof: The Power of Hope

There are many journalists who hope to change the world through their stories, but few can claim to have done as much to accomplish that lofty calling as Nicholas Kristof.

Heralded as “the moral conscious of modern journalism,” the two-time Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times columnist has covered stories of suffering across the world, from genocide in Darfur to human trafficking in Asia.

In his thirty-year career at the New York Times, Kristof has traveled to more than 150 countries and covered beats from economics to presidential politics.  He was a correspondent in Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Beijing and Tokyo before he became a columnist in 2001.

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Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, have co-authored four books: China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power; Thunder from the East: Portrait of a Rising Asia; and Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. Their latest book, A Path Appears, is about innovators using research and evidence-based strategies to make a difference in fighting inequality. Aptly titled, the book also serves as a roadmap on how to help for how anyone who has ever wondered, “What can I do?”

“We wrote this book mostly to encourage others, rich and poor alike, to join in this push to improve the world,” write Kristof and WuDunn in the book’s introduction.

A self-proclaimed optimist, Kristof is a believer in the power of hope. Though he has seen the worst of humanity, Kristof says he has also seen the best – and they are often found side-by-side.

On this week’s episode of Full Frame, Kristof joins Mike Walter in Washington, D.C. to discuss his book, the stories that have stayed with him, and the role of journalism in today’s world.

Follow Nicholas Kristof on Twitter: @NickKristof

Omaze: Celebrity Experiences for Charitable Causes

Win a double date with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck and support charities in the process. Sounds amazing, right? That’s the idea, and the name inspiration, behind Omaze.

Omaze is an online auction platform, founded by Matt Pohlson and Ryan Cummins, that allows users the chance to bid on once-in-a-lifetime experiences with celebrities. Bids start at $10, and proceeds go to benefit a partner charity organization.

Besides Damon and Affleck, lucky bidders have gotten to hang out with Jon Stewart, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the cast of Breaking Bad, to name a few. And this past summer, the chance to be in a scene of Star Wars: Episode VII raised $4.26 million for UNICEF Innovation Labs.

According to Pohlson and Cummins, they are on track to raise $20 million this year. But they won’t stop there. The entrepreneur-philanthropists want to bring their online auction model to communities  across the country and help the 350,000-plus small nonprofits and foundations in the United States fundraise more effectively.

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It was a missed celebrity experience of their own that inspired Pohlson and Cummins initially. Best friends and broke grad students at the time, they attended an event where the chance to play basketball with Magic Johnson, their lifelong hero, was auctioned off for $15,000. Though too expensive for their budget, it struck them that a celebrity like Johnson could raise so much more if the process was more democratic.

Now, they will actually get to prove that theory with the sports legend himself:  Johnson has partnered with Coca-Cola and (RED) to fight AIDS by offering one lucky fan and a friend the chance to watch the NBA All-Star game in a VIP suite with him.

Pohlson and Cummins join Mike Walter this week to talk about the meaning of celebrity and the future opportunities in the world of philanthropy.

Follow Matt Pohlson on Twitter: @MattPohlson

Follow Ryan Cummins on Twitter: @ryan_cummins

Technology for Humanity: Not Impossible

Help one, help many, that’s the philosophy of Not Impossible, a foundation which aims to develop low-cost solutions for healthcare issues around the world.

Their first project was the successful invention of the “Eyewriter,” glasses designed to allow fully paralyzed street graffiti artist TemptOne to use his eyes to draw. Named one of Time magazine’s “Top 50 Inventions of 2010,” the open-source design is available online, providing an inexpensive, do-it-yourself solution for people all over the world.

Then, when co-founder Mick Ebeling read about a boy in Sudan who had lost his arms when a bomb was dropped on his village, he felt compelled to help. Equipped with 3D printers, laptops, and a crash course in creating a prosthetic, Ebeling flew to Sudan, where he found the boy, Daniel, and built him an arm.

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But their work didn’t end there. Ebeling and the Not Impossible team set up the world’s first 3D printing prosthetic lab and training facility, in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains, where they trained volunteers on how to make arms like Daniel’s for other amputees in need.

Since the initial visit a little over one year ago, arms are now being printed at the rate of one per week, each for around $100.

Elliot Kotek, co-founder of Not Impossible, joins Mike Walter in Los Angeles to discuss creating access for people through “technology for humanity.”

Follow Not Impossible on Twitter: @notimposs

Follow Elliot Kotek on Twitter: @ElliotKotek

Wheelchair Art

Twenty-nine years ago, Tommy Hollenstein was in a mountain biking accident that left him paralyzed and wheelchair bound, unable to fulfill his childhood dream of becoming an artist.

He tried painting with a mouth stick, but didn’t enjoy it so he gave up on art for years, until the desire to immortalize his beloved service dog Weaver gave him an idea.

Hollenstein covered the tires of his wheelchair in paint and rolled over a canvas creating tracks which, next to Weaver’s paw prints, were meant to symbolize the many great days the two had shared side-by-side.

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That was the first of Hollenstein’s many colorful paintings that are now sold and exhibited around the world.

On this week’s Close Up, we visit Hollenstein’s studio, where we hear from him about what it means to fulfill a dream he thought was lost, and what he hopes his art means to others.

Tune into Full Frame on CCTV America at 6:00 pm EDT on November 29, 2014. Or watch the livestream of the program here.