people are amazing- official thread

[stew]

so we have many videos on the internet which show human triumphs and can inspire and motivate. Thought I'd start a thread here, because we can all do with a bit of inspiration from time to time...

This is my starter for 10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6Alt2DssYc

warning, there may be onions being chopped somewhere near you.

Great thread heganboy, very inspiring stuff, that wee man has a rare pair on him, and fair play to everyone who went to support him, that shows that there is still a lot of good in the world.

[laoislad]

You may have to log into your facebook account to see this.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150919030186821.398015.132461566820&type=1

[Square Ball]

made me smile, may be somewhere else but what the hell


Irish flag 'Merkel thinks we're at work' visit Wee Oscar

The power of social media: The Don't Tell Merkel lads meet Wee Oscar at home in Mallusk.
Continue reading the main story
Related Stories

Fans wave cheeky flag to Merkel
It was the flag that showcased Irish wit and grabbed headlines across the world. 'Angela Merkel thinks we're at work.'

Posing for pictures in Dublin airport before heading off to the Euros the boys had no idea the media storm that was about to kick off.


Then take one little boy who was inspired to make his own Euro 2012 flag after seeing the lads and what do you get?

A social media phenomenon that went global.

When BBC NI News Online first published the picture on 8 June 2012 its popularity soared, it became the most read story globally for three days. The image also appeared on the front pages of a number of Irish newspapers, on US television and even the front page of German newspaper Bild.

The friends behind the flag Gerry Nolan, Richie Tuohy, Richie Leahy, Eoin Cantwell and Eoin O'Brien became instant stars and their flag was recognised the world over.

Richie Tuohy said: "We flew into Prague, we had only been in the air for a few hours and by the time we landed the thing had gone global.

Doing something good
"It's funny because we were just a few lads who got a flag made and went on the beer. We knew we wanted to make a flag and hoped our friends at home might be able to spot it during the games but we couldn't believe the popularity of the flag."


Oscar made his own flag in hospital "my ma thinks I'll be in bed early."
The flag was incredibly popular and was retweeted thousands of times. That is when Stephen Knox saw the flag.

Stephen was staying in hospital with his three year old son, Oscar, who was being treated for cancer.

Oscar Knox, from Mallusk in Co Antrim, was diagnosed with neuroblastoma in November. It is a rare cancer which mainly affects children.

His parents set up the Twitter account so they could update friends and family on Oscar's condition each time he was in hospital.

Neuroblastoma is a cancer that affects about 100 children each year in the UK. It develops from nerve cells called neuroblasts.

Oscar had been allowed to stay up late to watch the Ireland match with his daddy so they decided to make their own flag and send a picture to the boys.

His flag "my ma thinks I'll be in bed early" became another instant hit online.


The 'Merkel lads', as they have become known, were so touched by the picture they decided to auction their flag on RTÉ to raise money for the toddler.

"Before each game Oscar tweeted us a new picture. People kept offering us money when we were out there and decided it would be best to give the money to Oscar so we contacted his dad and said we would like to give them the flag", said Mr Tuohy.

"Stephen thought we should auction it and spilt the money between Oscar and The Children's Medical & Research Foundation which is the fundraising arm of Our Lady's Children's Hospital Crumlin in Dublin and we agreed.

"We just wanted something positive to come out of all this."

The boys arrived back in Dublin on Wednesday evening and drove from the airport straight up to Mallusk to meet Oscar and see each others' flags as well play a bit of football.

Oscar was delighted with the meeting referring to the Limerick lads as "his new best friends."

[LeoMc]

Was about to post that.

Warmed me to the point I went onto his justgiving page and donated. http://www.justgiving.com/OscarAppeal
Not like me at all.

[Square Ball]

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/irishsun/irishsunnews/4387735/Oscars-a-wee-Merkel-man.html

More about him here.
Theres other stories like this over the years but for some reason or another I have really been taken in by this one.

[maggie]

Same here, have been following them on twitter too. Hope they get loads of cash for the flag.

[Square Ball]

15,800 yoyos for the Merkle flag 

[TyrionLannister]

29-Year-Old Deaf Woman Hears Her Voice for the First Time
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjU9U81O1n8

[LeoMc]

15,800 yoyos for the Merkle flag 

+ another 5K from Coppers.

[maggie]

Over 20 grand raised between the 2 charities and then the lads gave the flag to Oscar to keep. Sometimes the
generosity of strangers is amazing. A really inspiring story.   

[Square Ball]

Over 20 grand raised between the 2 charities and then the lads gave the flag to Oscar to keep. Sometimes the
generosity of strangers is amazing. A really inspiring story.

its a brilliant story indeed and fair fcuks to the Merkle crew for doing it

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

Powerful antidote to the obscene and ravenous excesses of the 'Celtic Tiger' era...

Nurturing India's street children

MICHELLE McDONAGH talks to Edith Wilkins, who spent 30 years creating caring communities for India's street children

WHEN EDITH Wilkins was handed the keys of her new council home, with its spectacular views across the bay of Crosshaven in her native Co Cork last week, she was over the moon, describing herself and her two adopted children as "so incredibly lucky". Friends have suggested it may be "karma"; Wilkins spent almost 30 years working tirelessly to put a roof over the heads of thousands of street children in India.

Wilkins (55) first went to Calcutta as a young nurse to work with Irish NGO, Goal for three months. However, that three months became three decades once she met the street children who were to change the course of her life.

In the early months, despite threats from pimps, she lived on the streets with children as young as three who were being abused and trafficked. There were plenty of homes and orphanages in the teeming city, but they refused to admit children suffering from sexually transmitted diseases as a result of the horrific abuse inflicted upon them.

"The children were told, 'come back when you're better'. I slept with them on the floor of a school run by Sr Cyril Rooney until we opened our first halfway house, Amadir Bari, in 1984. Things just grew and grew from there," says Wilkins.

Since then, she has helped change the lives of thousands of Indian street children. She has been responsible for initiating the building of maternity hospitals in remote areas. She has set up many residential homes, drop-in centres, night shelters, sick bays and awareness community programmes in the slums, on the streets and in red-light areas of Calcutta. During her time in Calcutta, Wilkins worked closely with Mother Teresa.

Almost 10 years ago, she shifted her focus to the North of Bengal and the border areas to try to stem the flow of children – many as young as three or four years old – being trafficked from Nepal, mostly for prostitution, slave labour or to smuggle drugs and other goods into the country. Wilkins says the situation was not being addressed by any other NGO in the area, so she set up the Edith Wilkins Street Children Foundation.

Through the foundation, she, with the the border police in the area, began to set up an infrastructure to care for these children. Wilkins and her team in Darjeeling have been responsible for hundreds of children attending mainstream schools and training schemes and have rescued many children from exploitation. Learning to trust that they will be cared about, the children have dubbed Wilkins the "Mother Teresa of the Hills".

Over her years in India, Wilkins fostered 17 children, many of whom have progressed on to third-level education. In September of 2010, she and her two Indian-born adoptive children, Omer (19) and Karishma (11) moved home to Cork due to Wilkins's ill health; during her time in India, she had picked up many illnesses including malaria, TB, cholera, hepatitis and typhoid. She also has chronic arthritis.

However, she continues her relentless work for the foundation from Ireland and was awarded the Rehab International Person of the Year award in 2011 for "her compassion, selflessness and unfaltering commitment to improving the lives of the people of India".

"For me, the hardest part of my work in India was burying children who should never have died. That was soul-destroying and heartbreaking. You get kids who are so malnourished and have been so badly abused that you just can't save them, they're too far gone," she says.

One such child was Joy, a boy with cerebral palsy who Wilkins took into her home after he was abandoned in a forest. Her large brood of children fell instantly in love with him. "When we came out of the chapel after Joy's funeral, all of the street children were lined up outside with a rose in each of their hands. There was such honour and love for this child whose life was so short . . . We were so lucky to have had him in our lives, even for such a short time. He was the most incredible child."

Wilkins describes her own children as the highlights of her life, her "two little miracles". Although they all miss India, Wilkins says that the children have a better chance of getting a third-level education here, and both have been welcomed with open arms by their family in Cork and by the local community. She is also enjoying spending time with her parents, sister and five brothers.

While Wilkins managed to run the foundation and raise 19 children on a small stipend in India, she admits that it's very different being "back in Ireland in your 50s without a euro in your pocket". But she quickly dismisses her financial concerns, saying: "Sure, we'll be grand."

"Winning the Rehab award made a huge difference to our programmes in terms of fundraising, publicity and awareness" says Wilkins. "We feed, clothe, teach, house and provide healthcare to more than 600 children for about €10,000 a month. A little goes a long way over there, but we are in the middle of a recession in Ireland and we are so grateful to all of the people who donate to the foundation."

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/health/2012/0626/1224318716975.html

[ziggysego]

[laoislad]

God love her having to live her life which such a condition, she really is in for a life of suffering being an Arsenal fan..

[ziggysego]