Game Changer

Helping a city recover from one of Latin America’s worst COVID-19 outbreaks

April 4, 2016

Educating through entertainment in Mexico

For this week’s Game Changer on Americas Now, we introduce you to the leader of an organization in Mexico that strengthens communities by engaging them with stories on radio and TV.

March 13, 2016

A wealthy resident of Rio dedicates her life to the poor

This week’s Game Changer on “Americas Now” is a Brazilian socialite who changes the lives of children exposed to violence in Rio’s favelas. Yvonne Bezerra de Mello is a member of Rio de Janeiro’s upper class but she devoted her life to the poor after […]

February 21, 2016

Single mothers in Mexico transform trash into treasure

This week’s Game Changer on “Americas Now” has literally found opportunity in a bottle. She’s taken the eco-friendly practice of litter collection and turned it into a jewelry collection. It’s a program in Mexico that gives new life to discarded materials and to single mothers as well. For […]

January 31, 2016

A Venezuelan mountaineer leads an expedition into integration

A mountain climber from Venezuela who believes in nature’s power to change is this week’s Game Changer on “Americas Now.” Marcus Tobia brings kids from different backgrounds together to teach them how to climb. And with his program “Children on the Summit,” he sees them change […]

January 24, 2016

Giving Mexico City a makeover by growing gardens

Smog caused by heavy traffic and industry has given Mexico City a gloomy reputation. But one man is working with the local government to brighten that image. He designs community gardens in public spaces and offers workshops to residents.

January 17, 2016

“New School” improves literacy rates in rural Colombia

Literacy is an important part of social inclusion. The consequences of illiteracy range from low self-esteem and unemployment, to poverty and poor health.

December 20, 2015

The Medicine Man of Margarita Island: Jonas Chitty

Citizens of Venezuela are leaving long lines at the pharmacy behind and turning to a local expert for alternative treatment.

December 6, 2015

Dora Maria Ruiz educates and empowers Mexico’s indigenous

This week’s Game Changer on “Americas Now” is the founder of an education center in Mexico called “Tanesque.”

November 1, 2015

CMAX: A safe housing solution for those displaced by natural disaster

For this week’s Game Changer on “Americas Now,” meet Argentina’s Nicolas Garcia Mayor. Nicolas has designed an emergency shelter for victims of natural disasters. Called CMAX, it looks like a tent, folds up and can be transported too. It even comes with collapsible furniture.

October 25, 2015

“Special Chefs” serve up classes that change lives in Brazil

An institute started by a renowned chef in Sao Paulo Brazil is preparing more than just meals. Through her classes, she’s serving students ample helpings of confidence as well. This week’s Game Changer on Americas Now is Simone Berti who began the NGO “Chefs Especiais” […]

October 11, 2015

Students in Mexico save an indigenous language with rap

They are a band in Mexico whose goal is to save an indigenous language with their music. They call themselves “Juchirap” and they sing lyrics written in the language’s native tongue that are catching on with others.

September 27, 2015

A swim team for girls with Down Syndrome inspires

They joined a swimming team with the hope of improving their physical and mental abilities. Little did they know they’d become World Champions. Coach Paloma Torres has changed the lives of girls with Down Syndrome through her synchronized swim team called “Special Sirens.”

September 20, 2015

Enabling Mexico’s disabled through ‘Pina Palmera’

According to The World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), over 50 million people in Latin America have disabilities. For those in poverty, the result is often limited care and social exclusion. This week’s Game Changer on “Americas Now” has championed the rights of the […]

September 13, 2015

Empowering the poor in Mexico by teaching them self-help

Dr. Susan Pick is a social psychologist who has used her expertise to change the behavior of Mexico’s marginalized. By teaching them what she calls “life skills,” she helps boost their feelings of self-worth and enhance their problem-solving abilities.

September 6, 2015

Former gang member in Mexico City steers kids away from violence

The founder of a Mexican NGO that seeks to reduce youth violence by encouraging social development is this week’s Game Changer on “Americas Now.”

August 30, 2015

Teaching rugby to underprivileged kids in Brazil

At the 2016 Olympics rugby will be played for the first time since the 1920’s. But in Brazil, the host-nation for the games, rugby is a sport that is relatively new to many, especially kids from the city’s slums.

August 23, 2015

Colombia’s refuge for abused animals

With Colombia’s 50-year armed conflict and drug war dominating the national conversation, neglected animals don’t even make the list of national concerns. However, many animals have been casualties of these events.

July 26, 2015

Alexandra Posada is building new homes with old tires in Colombia

It’s a new development in green technology that you could say bends the rules. Using discarded tires to construct a home.

July 12, 2015

A coach in Mexico lifts kids off the streets to teach them weightlifting

The name of his town in Mexico is La Reforma, and this coach is trying to reform the way kids in the community grow up.

July 5, 2015

With art, Leonel Portillo challenges Juarez’s violent image

Ciudad Juarez is border town between Mexico and the U.S., and became infamous for a wave of attacks beginning in the 1990s that left hundreds of women dead over the course of a decade. Though homicide rates there are falling, the scars have yet to […]

June 26, 2015

Former sea captain and diver is saving Venezuela’s coral reef

You may not know it, but the country with the longest Caribbean coast line is Venezuela. Destruction of the coral reef, however, has threatened its ecosystem.

June 18, 2015

From a broken family in Mexico, Martin Nunez creates the home he never had

Ciudad Juarez is the biggest border town in Mexico. This city of 1.5 million people has been seeing a big growth in industry in recent years, but it also has had a reputation for being a center of violence and crime. Many young people consider […]

May 17, 2015

The Beautiful Game turned into a force for social change

Modern football was invented in England in the late XIX century, spreading rapidly around the world. Perhaps no other country adopted it as faithfully as Argentina, where it has become a national obsession. Buenos Aires, for example, is the city with the largest number of […]

May 8, 2015

Corruptour highlights the corruption of Monterrey

At first glance, it may look like a big happy blue bus, like so many vehicles servicing the thousands of tourists that flock to Mexico every year. But this particular vehicle offers visitors a very unique experience.

May 3, 2015

A tour guide points out grim reality on other side of a walled city

The old city of Cartagena is one of the largest and best preserved Hispanic settlements in the Americas. It’s surrounded by massive walls that in colonial times protected the city and its countless riches from the attacks of British-sponsored pirates.

April 26, 2015

Running against human slavery

Human trafficking is known as the slavery of the 21st century, especially with women and children forced into prostitution and labor.

April 19, 2015

Jose Junior: the man who reclaimed Rio’s favelas through music

Rio de Janeiro is as famous for its wonderful beaches and incomparable landscapes, as for its almost one thousand favelas or slums where gangs still battle to control the territory and a lucrative drug business. It is estimated that 22% of Rio’s population of over […]

April 12, 2015

A lawyer shines light on systemic femicides in Ciudad Juarez

In Ciudad Juarez, on the border with the U.S., women go missing every week. Some are forced into prostitution and human trafficking, others disappear without leaving trace, and some are found murdered.

April 5, 2015

The human rights advocate who made marriage equality a reality in Argentina

She’s a human rights advocate from Argentina and the woman behind the law that gave same-sex couples the right to marry. This week’s Game Changer is social leader Maria Rachid.

March 27, 2015

In Mexico City, a photojournalist recruits volunteers for a ‘war’ against cartels

Mexico City’s east side is known to be the roughest, most dangerous part of town. Life can be unforgiving in the slums, especially in one of the most populated cities in the world.

March 15, 2015

In Colima, crowdsourced housing solutions with architecture that imitates nature

In the state of Colima, in Mexico, about 10 percent of the residents don’t have adequate housing. Low-income families in rural areas live in homes made of plastic and cartons. But architect Fernando Rodriguez is making a difference. Using traditional materials and innovative techniques, and […]

March 6, 2015

Game Changer Pablo Salazar helping the disabled in Colombia

10 years ago, Pablo Salazar had an accident diving into shallow water that left him paralyzed from the waist down. As a quadriplegic, he quickly realized how ill equipped his hometown of Bogota was to facilitate every life to people with disabilities.

March 1, 2015

Game Changer: Alfredo Quinones works to find a cure for brain cancer

This week’s Game Changer has always relied on his hands to get him ahead. He first used them to pick fruit in California as a migrant farm worker, now he uses them to operate for neurosurgery.

February 22, 2015

Game Changer: Social Entrepreneur Armando Estrada

This week’s Game Changer is Armando Estrada. He’s a social entrepreneur and the co-founder of Via Educacion, an organization that develops leaders that return to their communities in Latin America to implement ideas and strategies. The goal is to create a more democratic society and […]

February 6, 2015

A volunteer firefighter becomes Guatemala City’s unsuspecting hero

Jorge Chiu is a real life superhero. By day, he saves lives as the chief of cardiothoracic services in a Guatemala City military hospital. By night, he is a volunteer firefighter, rushing to crime scenes and other emergency areas, making a difference one case at a time.

February 1, 2015

A four-time Olympian champions disabled athletes in Argentina

Guillermo Marro is one of Argentina’s finest Olympic athletes. The swimmer has competed in four different Games, winning three Olympic medals. In London 2012, he was awarded with the honor of being the pole bearer for the Argentinian delegation.

January 25, 2015

The magic of the circus breathes life back into Venezuela

Jorge Heli has been a part of the circus since his teenage years as a street performer. Working on the public spaces of his native town of La Sabana and other cities in Venezuela, he realized that his country didn’t need more street performers but […]

January 18, 2015

Laura Bustos teaches women to ride bikes in Mexico City

Riding a bike in Mexico City can be extremely dangerous especially if you’re a first time bike rider, and a woman. Weaving in between cars, congested streets and five hours of traffic jams every day can seem intimidating, but one woman who runs a local […]

December 26, 2014

Flavio Pimienta teaches children in Sao Paulo’s slums

Flavio Pimienta’s childhood dreams of being a rock star have come true, but in a way he never imagined. Along with his band, he’s travelled across the Atlantic Ocean and played for world leaders and corporate sponsors like British Airways. The members of his band, […]

December 14, 2014

Petare: a little hope for the most dangerous slum in the world

With over 130 homicides per 100,000 residents, Caracas is the deadliest of the world’s capital cities. Amongt its infamous ‘Barrios’, the large slums that sprawl over its mountainous terrain, perhaps the most notorious is Petare, the largest of them all.

November 28, 2014

In Colombia, floatable housing a solution for adapting to climate change

This week’s “Game Changer” is Lina Marcela Cataño Bedoyo. Her mission is to make floatable housing solutions for the adaption to climate change.

Johana Bahamon: touching inmates’ lives through theater

November 23, 2014

Gamechanger: Changing prison life through theater

The bleak conditions of prison life in Latin America are something Americas Now has reported in the past. From overcrowded jails to security conditions to systematic abuse of the interns, the chances of effective rehabilitation of the inmates are slim.

November 16, 2014

Game Changer Javier Lozano fights diabetes epidemic in Mexico

In Mexico, diabetes is an epidemic. It affects almost 50 percent of the Mexican population. It is partially caused by the fact that 30 percent of the country is obese.

November 9, 2014

Americas Now Game Changer Rosa Poveda builds urban farm and school in Bogota

Amid the urban streets of Bogota, Colombia, Rosa Poveda has built a farm and a school that works to restore pride in Colombian farming.

November 2, 2014

Argentina NGO works to prevent deaths from curable diseases

A non-governmental organization in Argentina is working to prevent senseless deaths to curable diseases. Cuerpo y Alma, or ‘Body and Soul’ delivers supplies and expertise to the poorest regions of the country.

September 19, 2014

Florida woman helps hundreds of immigration orphans

Nora Sandigo has 817 children. Obviously she is not their biological mother, but their adopted one. As their legal guardian, she takes care of their health, monitors their education and defends their rights.

September 14, 2014

How teaching Cuban hip-hop to Catalonians can build cultural bridges

Barcelona, the cultural heart of the Catalonia region of Spain, has suffered along with the rest of Spain in recent years. Once, the streets were alive with musicians and bars were filled with live music, but the city has become quiet.

September 6, 2014

Enova offers schools in low income areas of Mexico City

Over 15 million people live in the massive metropolis of Mexico City, but only about a quarter of them have a high school degree. Despite Mexico’s attempt to increase the amount of money spent on education as a percentage of its Gross Domestic Production, the […]

August 29, 2014

Clowns cheer up patients at Venezuelan hospitals

They say “laughter is the best medicine.” And one Venezuelan hospital program may be proving that to be true. It trains volunteers to become clowns that perform at the bedsides of patients.

August 22, 2014

Caracas boxing program helps troubled kids

This week’s “Game Changer” is Charlie Sarria, co-founder of the Bolivarian Street Boxing program. He grew up in La Vega, and says you have to know how to handle the streets. “How you treat the neighborhood, the neighborhood will treat you,” he said.

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