Welcome to the searchable database of Giraffe Heroes, over a thousand real people who have stuck their necks out for the common good.

We’ve set this up so you can search for heroes by ~

• Name (in the alphabetical search above, or the drop down to the left)
• Field of work they were commended for
• Location by continent, country, state or province-
  • of their Giraffe work
  • when commended
  • where they live now
• Gender
• Age at the time they were commended
• Profession/trade

You don’t have to know all those things to do a search—just select what you do know and then click on Search. If you change your mind about something you’ve selected, use Clear Selections to restart.

Say you’re looking for female doctors who are doing public health work in Central America. You can move through the categories and the “select” options and come up with stories that fit.

Need to find all the Giraffes active in your state or country? You can do that.

Want to read about US public officials who have gone above and beyond their job descriptions? Go to Field of Giraffe work, Location, and Occupation—click on the relevant words, and you’ve got the stories.

If you know the last name of a Giraffe Hero you’re looking for, select it in the dropdown and you should get right to that person.

The information on this site tells you why each Giraffe Hero was commended. For news on what a commendee is now doing, we urge you to use the link we’ve provided to the Giraffe’s website. If we haven’t provided one, our apologies—not all Giraffes are Web-oriented.

We are still adding stories and pictures and we’re constantly taking in information on Giraffes new and old. If you have news about a Giraffe, contact us.

FYI: The Project does not commend Giraffe Heroes posthumously, but like all of us, they do die. We don’t then remove their stories—we still want you to know what they did.

And PS: If there’s a “sort” you need but can’t find here, email us This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Not everything we know is in this database.