Local people in Sulawesi island, Indonesia have developed a community-based forestry cooperative, the first in the country to achieve Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification for sustainability. This has helped to regulate teak production and secure fair prices for producers. However, the group's members face an ongoing battle with Indonesia's endemic corruption.

The Knasaimos people in Indonesia have been severely affected by an illegal logging trade that has destroyed the livelihoods and social structure of their villages. Recent government enforcement action has clamped down on this illicit trade, and now the local communities are benefiting from having increased control over their ancestral forestland.

Midwives in Chiapas, Mexico's poorest state, represent the front line in a nationwide battle to improve the lives of women. They are helping to reduce domestic violence and improve education, while also working hard to maintain a maternal mortality rate of close to zero.

A small town in northern Mexico has come up with a unique way to stem the exodus of workers migrating illegally to the United States: create a theme park–style event for tourists to experience a simulated border crossing, complete with fake immigration patrols and balaclava-clad coyotes. This film adds a fresh perspective to the ongoing debate surrounding economic migration, especially with regard to its impact on those people left behind.

In Hong Kong, domestic helpers are often denied basic employee rights, like equitable wages and time off. Helpers for Domestic Helpers is empowering workers to stand up for their rights, and Empowered in Hong Kong is one example of their work.

In 2003, a devastating flash flood caused over 239 deaths in the Indonesian village of Bukit Lawang. The deluge was attributed to illegal logging in the surrounding Gunung Leuser National Park. Since the floods, the local community has begun to organize patrols of the forest in an attempt to curb illegal logging.

Brenda is a health care worker in South Africa who is educating young women about sexual and reproductive health, particularly the dangers of illegal abortions. But she faces many challenges, including corrupt doctors and powerful cultural taboos.

Kakenya Ntaiya had a dream: to become a teacher. On the way to achieving it, she has had to overcome obstacles and make tough compromises. But, after becoming the first girl from her Maasai village to attend college, she has opened a path for other young girls achieve their dreams.

Cleto Choque is a Bolivian shoeshiner who's fighting the negative stereotypes surrounding his profession. As he struggles to pay his way through school and support his younger brothers, he's being helped by the Nuevo Dia Foundation.

The Taliban's home city of Kandahar is a volatile and dangerous place. In the midst of the ongoing conflict there, Rangina Hamidi, an Afghan-American woman, has started a business that provides local women with jobs creating embroidery. Earning their own money empowers these women, raising them out of poverty, improving their self-esteem, and enabling them to make independent financial decisions.

An HIV epidemic is ravaging Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world. At Embangweni Hospital, in the rural northern region, a skeleton staff serves a catchment area of over 120,000. But this small group of devoted healthcare workers uses all the tools at its disposal, including theatre and music, to educate their communities.

For many children in the West, usually a bicycle is little more than a toy. For Bharati it is a means to an education, a means to a better future, and a tool to achieve what women in her mother's generation could not. Bharati wants to change her world with a little help from her own two wheels.

In the past, investing in African enterprises was too complicated a task for anyone except banks or large companies. But now, thanks to websites such as MYC4, just about anyone can use their capital to fund small businesses and individual entrepreneurs in developing nations -- all from the comfort of their own home.