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[Editor's Note: This piece by Allison Ford was originally featured in Divine Caroline]

If you work in the fields of design, technology, publishing, art, entertainment, public health, science, non-profit, or government, you’ve probably heard of TED. But even if you’ve never heard of it, you’ve likely heard of some of its endeavors.

Started in 1984, TED has grown into a series of global conferences that bring people together to talk about ideas―big, transformative ideas. TED solicits presenters and speakers from all walks of life to discuss world-changing innovations, and to try to solve intractable global problems. Every year, more than one thousand people attend the main conference in Long Beach, California, to hear industry leaders and information pioneers talk about their plans to effect change through the dissemination of these groundbreaking ideas.

Each year, TED gives out $100,000 in prizes to people with big ideas to help them bring their ideas to fruition and make their dreams come true. These winners make a wish, and with the help of other TEDsters and professionals, they attempt to do nothing less than change the world.

[Editor's Note: This piece, by Changemakers' Kristie Wang, was originally featured in Divine Caroline]

Dr. Elizabeth Odera began working with children from Kibera, Africa’s largest slum, nearly two decades ago. “We were inundated with many young men and women from Southern Sudan who had run away from wars in East Africa,” Odera explained. “They had nothing to do. They would just roam around.”

Odera knew firsthand about the power of sport and achievement to build self-esteem. A former international competitive tennis player, she had gone on to become one of the first women to earn a PhD in immunology in Kenya. She decided to start a basketball league that would also engage the children in service related activities like tree planting and fund raising for improving their communities.

But even basketball had its risks in Kibera. For Odera’s children, playing on the dirt courts meant braving threats from the gangs that laid territorial claim to nearly every inch of the slum. “In Kibera, there is no place to call your own. We got chased from one point to another,” Odera said. “A number of times we were attacked. The men in the area ran away, but of course, I couldn’t leave the kids. I was left with hundreds of children cowering and wondering what to do.”