UN Sustainable Development Goals Teacher Resources

Ana Dodson is an American who was adopted from Peru. As a teen, she started the nonprofit Peruvian Hearts, which helps orphans in Peru.

Chen Guangcheng, known as the "Barefoot Lawyer," is a blind civil rights activist in rural China, focusing on human rights, women's rights and the rights of the poor.

Bryan Stevenson has been recognized across the globe for the work that he has done to address poverty and racial inequality.

Dr. J. Larry Brown directs the national Center on Hunger and Poverty.

Farm2People is a nonprofit that works to deliver produce to food insecure areas of Los Angeles County in the wake of COVID-19.

Gerda is a human rights activist and 2010 Medal of Freedom recipient. She and her husband established the Gerda and Kurt Klein Foundation to combat hunger and intolerance.

Rowena Gerber and her students raise money to send Solar Ovens around the world.

Norman Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his success in increasing the world's food supply.

Sarah Ramirez works with local food banks, where food is distributed to impoverished people all across the community. Available in text with audio.

Robin Emmons is an organic farmer who has created a foundation to fight hunger.

Learn about the importance of World Food Day, which promotes the #2 UN Sustainable Development Goal -- a world free from hunger and malnutrition.

Doctors Without Borders gives medical care to people in 70 countries worldwide.

Rachel Gemara is an oncology nurse in Jerusalem who treated patients with COVID-19 at a popup unit at Shaare Zedek Medical Center.

Baby Malick was flown from Senegal to Italy for a life-saving heart operation by surgeon Federica Iezzi through the nonprofit One Life Onlus.

Abdul Satter Edhi was a Pakistani humanitarian and philanthropist who founded the Edhi Foundation, a social welfare program that crosses religious barriers.

Students returning to campus in 2020 must take precautions to protect themselves from COVID-19.

Fabiola Cabeza de Baca Gilbert made tremendous advancements in food safety in the American Southwest.

Marcus Samuelsson is an Ethiopian-born, Swedish-raised chef and restaurant owner who focuses on the food needs of the world.

Global education activist and former child soldier Mohamed Sidibay has dedicated his life to education for all.

One of the most important heroes in the fight against segregation in America was a six-year-old girl, Ruby Nell Bridges.

Salman Khan created Khan Academy, a free online educational platform.

Erin Gruwell continues to inspire educators and students around the world with her compassion and wisdom.

Viola Vaughn founded an organization that supports girls working to achieve academic success in Africa.

Vicky Colbert de Arboleda works to provide equal access to all children in Colombia.

Inspired by their teacher, Erin Gruwell, and the writings of Anne Frank, the students discover a new way to express themselves.

Bianca Valenti is a professional surfer and a co-founder of the Committee for Equity in Women's Surfing.

Melinda Gates' women heroes in Africa and India teach her how to uplift the women in their communities through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Emma Watson is an English actress who created the HeForShe campaign, which encourages both men and women to fight for gender equality.

Malala Yousafzai speaks out for the rights of girls to have an education.

Fadela Amara is recognized throughout France as a champion of women's rights.

Hazviperi Betty Makoni founded the Girl Child Network to transform lives.

Armene Modi is a film director who has focused on adult women and literacy in Sone Sangvi. (Text with audio link story)

Film: An Indian girl gains a bicycle, and the will to achieve.

Shomy Hasan Chowdhury created the WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) organization, for which she received an Diana Award, to combat deadly diarrhea in underserved communities.

Ryan Hreljac helps build wells for clean water in Africa.

Jack Sim has started a worldwide campaign for clean public toilets and better sanitation standards.

Fin Donnelly works to keep our rivers and waters clean.

Jon Rose founded Waves for Water, which works on the front-line to provide clean water.

The Seawater Greenhouse transforms seawater into drinking water.

Josue and Chrismedonne Lajeunesse work together to provide access to clean water for their village of La Source, Haiti.

Where water runs, life flows.

William Kamkwamba is a Malawian engineer, TED speaker, and memoirist who built his first windmill from junkyard scraps to help his struggling family farm.

Paul Munsen Solar Oven Man manufactures sun ovens, which harness the sun's rays to provide an environmentally safe source of energy.

Sandra Begay-Campbell is a Native American engineer who brings solar-powered energy to the Navajo reservation.

What do trees know that we don't? 13-year-old inventor Aiden set out to find out.

Internet.org Everyone of us. Everywhere. Connected. launched to provide internet access to the two thirds of people around the world who are not connected.

Samuel Mockbee was an architect in Alabama and the cofounder of the Auburn University Rural Studio program.

Efren Penaflorida helped create Dynamic Teen Company.

Quinn Callander is a 13-year-old who invented protective gear for face masks, helping healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Simon Velez is a prize-winning architect who uses sustainable materials.

"...to create a world where science and technology are celebrated...where young people dream of becoming science and technology heroes."

Engineers Without Borders is working to change the world.

Muhammad Yunus developed micro banking for poor entreprenuers.

Bunker Roy has dedicated his life to improving the lives of the rural poor in India.

Ramani Sankaranarayanan and Geeta Vaidyanathan founded CTxGrEn to show villagers how to turn native materials into fuel for electricity.

10-year-old Jaysa rallies the community with her speeches about how the power plant causes asthma and “so much suffering.” When they succeed in shutting down the plant, Jaysa concludes that “words have power.”

Cameron Sinclair is the founder of Architecture for Humanity, which brings services to communities in need.

Angela Brooks is an architect who works to create sustainable and affordable housing.

Millard and Linda Fuller founded Habitat for Humanity.

Hero Frances Moore Lappe is a passionate and pioneering thinker and activist who fights world hunger.

Sanoussi Diakite has aided starvation in Africa through a user-friendly invention.

Wes Jackson was a professor who returned to the land to advance sustainable agriculture practices.

Kenji Williams creates music and films that celebrate the earth from the perspective of space.

David T. Suzuki has been teaching the public about the science of environmentalism for many years.

Climate Activist and Leader of the Global Youth Climate Movement

Youth activists are exasperated by a lack of action from world leaders regarding climate change.

Slater Jewell-Kemker is an award-winning student reporter and filmmaker who works for a better environment and for peace. 

Director Slater Jewell Kemker is a filmmaker and environmental activist whose films document the environmental youth movement.

Jacques Cousteau pioneered marine conservation, underwater sea explorer, born 1910

Nancy Caruso is a marine biologist who helped bring kelp forests back to the California coast.

"The key is to see ourselves as a part of the natural systems that support us."

MacGillivray Family founded the non-profit MacGillivray Freeman Films Educational Foundation.

Reef Ball Foundation restores damaged coral reef systems around the world.

Nine-year-old Milo Cress is concerned about the millions of straws that pollute waterways, waste fossil-fuel resource and harm ocean creatures. He convinces restaurants to “go straw free.”

Claire Nouvian led a campaign against the destructive fishing practice of deep-sea bottom trawling. (running time 5:39 min)

Series of Solutions explores the heroes who are working on tangible solutions for ocean conservation.

Help Mary Save Coral works to repopulate the world's coral.

One woman's effort to save the world's underrated natural resource, coral. (running time 10:58 min)

Overfishing is a human-made threat to our world's oceans and requires immediate action. (Running time 4:11 minutes)

Caroline Cannon, an Inupiat indigenous leader, takes aim at offshore oil drilling that threatens her people and the biodiversity in the Arctic Sea.

Plastic pollution is threatening the ocean's ecosystems, but we can work together to prevent further damage!

A tribute to oceanographer Sylvia Earle from One World One Ocean (4:35 minutes)

Experience the Ocean through the mask of Dr. Sylvia Earle.        (7:17 minutes)

Sylvia Earle shows us the ocean's fate can be controlled, whether we make the decision to stop abusing its waters and let the ocean make a recovery.

Celebrate our world's shared oceans and our personal connection to the sea, as well as raise awareness about the crucial role the ocean plays in our lives and the important ways people can help protect it.

Wangari Maathai was an environmental activist and Nobel laureate who founded the Green Belt movement.

To raise awareness of the importance of biodiversity and issues related to the variety of life on the planet, in different ecosystems and species.

Dr. Vandana Shiva works to preserve biodiversity for the planet.

Chico Mendes died a martyr defending the rainforests.

Bryan Stevenson has been recognized across the globe for the work that he has done to address poverty and racial inequality.

Nelson Mandela was a peacemaker and a freedom hero.

Liu Xiaobo is a Nobel Prize-winning human rights activist.

Womens Peace Movement of Liberia stopped the violence in through peaceful means.

After decades of war and an oppressive Taliban regime, four Afghan photojournalists face the realities of building a free press in a country left to stand on its own -- reframing Afghanistan for the world and for themselves.

Desmond Tutu worked to end apartheid in South Africa and encourages forgiveness.

Defying death in South Sudan. Featuring Humanitarian Hero Award Winner Ken Payumo.

Nearly one half of Syria’s 23 million people have been displaced in its civil war and no group has been as severely affected as children. 

Kofi Annan is an honored freedom and peacemaker hero.

Pope Francis cares for the poor and works for peace.

"During the years of our civil war, they [women] bore the brunt of inhumanity and terror... Yet, it is the women who laboured and advocated for peace throughout our region."