Ana Rosario Contreras, president of the Caracas Nurses’ Association and a fierce proponent of the health and safety of Venezuelans, has spoken out against her government’s gross mishandling of the pandemic, despite that government’s propensity to silence critics, sometimes violently. Contreras is letting the world know that officials got vaccines when health care workers did not, when these frontline defenders of the people didn't even have masks and gloves.

Because Antoine Robinson is a paramedic with the Fire Department of New York City and the volunteer leader of the Bedford-Stuyvesant Volunteer Ambulance Corps—and because there's a pandemic—he's on ambulance duty day and night. The volunteer service constantly needs funding for supplies and protective gear but Robinson and his team go on, helping New Yorkers survive. Read the full story here

When COVID 19 hit South Africa, Mondeka Mabibini put herself in the frontlines, raising awareness and providing food and protective clothing to those in need. . She's launched other projects, including a reading club and an organization to supply shoes to poor students walking miles to school without them. ‘I have a passion for community work,’ says Mabibini, ‘especially with regards to children and youth.' More

When she read about the pandemic overwhelming New York’s hospitals, nurse Brittany Sims resolved to help even though it meant borrowing money for a plane ticket, and getting her mom to take care of her three kids. She went to work at Brooklyn Hospital, taking care Covid patients. After a month of crisis nursing, despite exhaustion and missing the children, she signed on to keep going, the need was still so great. Read the full story here

High school student Daniel Goldberg started Zoomers to Boomers—a group of teenaged volunteers who pick up groceries at stores and deliver them at no charge to people who are susceptible to contracting the coronavirus. The organization has expanded to cities across the U.S., with hundreds of volunteers like Megan Leong, giving their time and risking their health to make thousands of deliveries to people who often have no other human contact. Read the full story here

Reginald Cole is a young Sierra Leonean doctor and a Major in the Sierra Leone Armed Forces. Despite constantly risking his life in the face of infectious diseases and the poor health conditions of his country, he has continued to contribute to the health of his fellow citizens and set an example for his fellow doctors. More

Lauren Leander is a nurse in Arizona who's isolated from her family because she’s working full-time in a pandemic-response unit. When she heard that people who believe the crisis is a hoax were rallying to demand the governor lift anti-pandemic restrictions, she led a group of her fellow nurses to stand between the mob and the governor’s office, conveying a powerful message of how real the crisis is. The mob screamed insults, and a state senator called the nurses actors. Leander continues to speak out about the reality of the suffering and death she sees every day. Read her full story here

Defying initial government sanctions and risking infection from the Covid-19 virus, Samantha Murozoki has been voluntarily feeding hundreds of people in Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe. They are finding it difficult to make ends meet during the national lockdown imposed as part of the measures to contain the spread of virus. More

Asma Hanif climbed out of poverty to become a nurse and to create a free clinic for the poor in Baltimore, and then a shelter where she lives with and takes care of indigent and victimized Muslim women. She provides them not only a home but also medical care, education, and counseling, and in this time of pandemic, she's been taking masks and cleaning supplies to the homeless of the city. The abusive men her shelter's residents have escaped from are an ever-present danger and raising money is a constant worry, but Hanif endures, seeing how vital these services are to the women and children who come to her. Read her full story here

Richard Apramian stepped away from his dream of attending medical school so he can help people who are ill now. He’s volunteering as an emergency medical technician, a job that includes working on ambulances that get Covid patients to hospitals. Read his full story here.

Longtime Giraffe Hero Sushil Koirala MD has once again stepped forward, now speaking out as the pandemic approaches his country, Nepal. He was at the fore when a huge earthquake devastated Nepal. Now he’s challenging his government’s preparations for the spread of the virus, calling them inadequate and calling for stronger preparations. More

Retired firefighter and Giraffe Hero Luis Garcia was commended for using his entire pension to buy and distribute the antidote for opioid overdoses. In this shutdown, he's set up curbside delivery of pandemic supplies—hand-cleaner, masks, gloves, and wipes—in front of his house. His Florida neighbors pull up and he hands them the protection they need, no questions, no charge. Read his full story here

When it was clear that the pandemic would soon reach Sierra Leone, attorney Rashid Dumbuya began pressing a reluctant government to prepare. Long a thorn in that government's side for his championing of civil liberties, Dumbuya now leads a team that is ranging across the nation, demanding respectful, non-violent treatment of citizens, while informing those citizens about the virus and what they need to do to survive. More

Law professor Xu Zhangrun has long been outspoken about oppression in China. When he published a denouncement of that government's handling of the pandemic, it was a step too far for the authorities. "Viral Alarm; When Fury Overcomes Fear" was read all over China, and Professor Xu has disappeared from social media. Friends have been unable to reach him, and are assuming that his "speech crime" has put him under house arrest. More

Dr. Helen Chu, an infectious disease expert at the University of Washington, knew she and her team should use her on-going flu study to test for the coronavirus, but she was repeatedly ordered not to by bureaucrats citing “rules." She repeatedly defied those orders, directing her team to keep testing—an unprecedented pandemic needs to be stopped, never mind the rules. More

Prior to the outbreak of COVID-19 in Sierra Leone, Dr. Nellie Bell worked tirelessly as the head of Ola During Children's Hospital in Freetown. On April 2, 2020, Dr. Bell tested positive for the virus. She's now recovered and is back on the front lines. Her boldness in isolating herself when she got infected and her clarion call for others to take required precautions saved lives, and her continuing efforts will save even more. Read her story here

For years, Chris Smalls has been one of the people who prepare Amazon packages that appear on millions of doorsteps. Then he organized a legal walkout of employees at the Staten Island fulfillment center after management ignored the new need for sanitary working conditions in the pandemic. Two hours later, he was fired. The US National Labor Relations Board is investigating. More

Kiran Martin, a pediatrician, is a Giraffe Hero for focusing her work on the poor of Delhi despite overwhelming obstacles. Now, as India has gone into pandemic lockdown, there are millions of day workers without income for food or shelter. For them, physical distancing and adequate sanitation are impossible. Dr. Martin and her teams of “Corona Warriors” are everywhere, providing funds, food, and medicines. Read her story at http://giraffeheroes.org/1455/KiranMartin

Dr. Ming Lin reported to his supervisors and then to the public that the hospital where he’s worked in Bellingham WA for 17 years was failing to process Covid-19 tests promptly, to screen incoming patients accurately, and to use adequate safety equipment for patients and staff. When he refused to take down his messages to the public, his employers told him not to report for his next shift in the ER, though there are laws against firing doctors in such situations. More