Zoe Isaacs – Change the World Kids

At 13, Zoe Isaacs joined the Change the World Kids.  Started by two of her friends when they were only 8 years old, the group helps sick or elderly people in their town with household chores for free.  A trip to Costa Rica inspired the group to raise money to reforest a migratory corridor for endangered birds as well.  Now, at 16, Zoe has started the group’s newest project: a youth program bringing education and HIV/AIDS testing to some 2,000 kids in Rwanda!  To make it happen, she wrote letters to Bill Clinton and Paul Farmer to get help from their aid foundations, and now they’re all working together!

Do you feel like you still have a normal teenage life?

“Yeah, definitely!  I mean, I’ve been places that obviously a lot of people my age haven’t, like Africa and Costa Rica, but it’s pretty normal.” 

What’s in it for you?

“Before, I had never done anything like this.  But now, it’s something that I want to do all the time.  It’s really changed me as a person.  You know, got me out of that ‘high school drama’ … gave me more of a world view, I guess.” For more about their work, and to start a Change the World Kids group in your area, go to: www.changetheworldkids.com