PEOPLE American Heroes: Inspirational Stories of Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Good

By The Editors of PEOPLE

Get inspired by People's heroes among us! A woman caring for 1,000 orphans & more stories of superhuman kindness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: People
• Release date: Jun 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9781683302988

Book preview

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HEROIC MOMENTS

CARING GESTURES, BOTH THE SMALL AND THE ASTONISHING

ANGELINA SHINES A LIGHT ON REFUGEES

In March, amid Europe’s migrant crisis, Angelina Jolie Pitt traveled to Greece for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Prior to meeting with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, the longtime special envoy visited a refugee camp in Piraeus, Greece, home to some 4,000 people displaced from the Middle East. There she listened to children’s accounts of fleeing home, accepted a bracelet from a girl and said, I’m here to learn and speak with you and the agencies and the government to learn what is happening, okay? Try to stay strong.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: unhcr.org

HIGH WATER, HELPING HANDS

When the Mississippi River rose to historic levels in December 2015, threatening homes and lives in Union, Mo., David Pierce (right), along with a group of friends and neighbors, stepped up to put sandbags around the home of an elderly woman they had just met.

LETTING NATIVE AMERICAN KIDS SOAR

Learning that she was going to be a grandmother, Rochelle Ripley felt she had to fulfill her own grandmother’s request that she do everything she could to help the Lakota Tribe. With her nonprofit Hawkwing, Ripley (at the Noah’s Ark daycare center in Eagle Buttle, S. Dak.) raised $9 million to provide food, health care and education to the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, including 2,600 kids. Says Ripley: It’s an honor to give back.

TO HELP: hawkwing.org

NEIGHBORS FEEDING NEIGHBORS

Following protests that turned violent in West Baltimore after the death in police custody of Freddie Gray, 25, some residents volunteered at a food pantry to provide for those whose grocery stores had been destroyed. Among them were 55 current and former members of the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens, including quarterback Joe Flacco, who told ABC News, It’s just nice to see how many people are actually here helping.

FAMILY BONDS

SOMETIMES STRANGERS BECOME OUR CLOSEST TIES

MOM TO MANY These kids feel so alone, says Sandigo (hosting one of her biweekly fiestas for families). I know what that feels like.

NORA SANDIGO

CARING FOR 1,000 KIDS AFTER THEIR PARENTS ARE DEPORTED

THE MIAMI ACTIVIST WORKS TO REUNITE FRACTURED FAMILIES. ‘WHAT I AM DOING NOW IS WHAT OTHERS DID FOR ME’

Every time People checks in with Nora Sandigo, the number of kids this mother hen is caring for has grown by 100. When we first profiled the Miami-based immigration-rights activist in 2014 (the year she was named Hero of the Year at the People Magazine Awards), she was the legal guardian for some 817 American-born children, allowing them to stay in the U.S. even if their illegal-immigrant parents were being deported. In 2015 that number was more than 900. By May 2016 it was, predictably, up more than 1,000. I love all my kids, Sandigo says. I try to do everything I can, because I’m blessed.

The first two kids came into her life with a frantic knock on the door of her Miami home back in 2009. These two young children were standing there so scared. Their mother from Nicaragua was being deported, Sandigo said. They needed help. I said, ‘You will never be alone.’

She didn’t just keep her promise–she ended up adopting those children, Cecia and Ronald Soza, and has never closed her door to others. Sandigo plays the role of both mother and father to immigration orphans—children born in this country to illegal-immigrant parents who have either been deported or are at the risk of deportation. When both parents are forced to leave the country, the children either go into foster care or leave as well—unless they have a legal guardian. But Sandigo doesn’t have all the children under one big roof. Under U.S. law, if a child has a legal guardian, they’re able to stay elsewhere in the country with relatives or friends, even if those hosts are here illegally. These children deserve a happy home with their families, says Sandigo. They don’t deserve to be torn apart from them. Someone has to step up. I guess that’s me.

As a little girl, Sandigo lived a great life with her family in Comalapa, Nicaragua, until 1979, when the bloody Nicaraguan Revolution tore apart her community. Within days Sandigo was sent to live with her older sister in Venezuela. All my dad thought about was keeping us safe, said Sandigo, just 14 at the time. She never saw him again.

Later, in Miami, she was granted political asylum and worked with a group that assisted refugees coming to the U.S. I understood what they’re going through, said Sandigo, who founded American Fraternity to ease immigrants’ adjustment to American society, culture and legal processes. She also finds homes for stranded children and raises money for their clothing and school supplies, provides transportation any hour of the day and offers endless emotional support.

This isn’t a job, she says. It’s my life. There is no time to rest. Sandigo also hosts biweekly parties at her house where children and their relatives can come to have fun and forget—just for a minute—their numerous worries. Her phone is always on the loudest ringer, and she frequently goes to Washington, D.C., to speak to lawmakers about immigration reform. She is always willing to go the extra mile, says Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who has known Sandigo for 25 years.

Sandigo, who has two daughters of her own, also puts her compassion into action in her home. In January 2016, two teens from Columbia arrived to live with her family. The first week they were just crying and missed their parents, Sandigo says. The solution? We took them to Disney World with our kids. Today they’re much happier.

HOW TO HELP: