r/OneKindAct

Catherine Conteh was 18, newly married, and at Princess Christian Maternity Hospital in Sierra Leone. The country was in civil war. She and her husband, Augustine, could not pay for the surgery the hospital said she needed. Staff told a visiting nurse that both mother and baby would die.

The nurse was Aly Hall, from New Zealand, volunteering with Mercy Ships. The ship Anastasis was docked in Freetown. Aly and a British anaesthetist, Dr Keith Thomson, were touring the ward when Aly heard Catherine. Thomson paid for the caesarean. Reports put the cost at about £70, or $100.

Both Catherine and the baby came through. The girl was named Regina, after an American volunteer nurse who also visited the ward. Aly and Gina brought medicine and came back in the days after. Catherine later called Aly sister.

The family eventually settled in Australia. Catherine trained as a nurse. Regina did too, and at 18 volunteered on a Mercy Ship. Catherine has said that one yes saved a whole family: her life, her daughter’s, and a future they had not expected.

On 1 October 2023, they met again on the dock beside the Global Mercy in Freetown, 30 years after the hospital room. Catherine had come from Australia to volunteer in the ship’s dining room. Aly was back on board. It was the first time they had seen each other since the recovery ward.

“Sometimes the smallest acts of love say the most. This is so pure and heartbreaking at the same time. ❤️”

Marvin Winston kayak-fishes Lake Lanier in Georgia and records the trips for people who cannot get on the water themselves.

On February 19, 2026, a windy day, he was near the Clarks Bridge ramp and the Olympic rowing venue. Before he started fishing, he heard what he first thought might be an animal over the wind. He paddled toward the sound. On a remote stretch of shore he saw a person lying down. He got out of the kayak and called out. A woman answered. She was crying, gasping, and not fully coherent.

Winston stayed with with the woman, called 911, and gave dispatchers his location and what he could see of her condition. Hall County responders used that to find the spot. He kept talking to the woman until they arrived.

The U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary later gave him a letter of commendation. The citation said his call shortened the response time. A Texas paramedic who watched the video wrote that the woman had been treated as a severe trauma patient and was released alive from the hospital. He said she likely would have died on that beach without getting care.

Ferid Spahić was 29 and from the Višegrad area. On 15 June 1992, he was among about 50 Bosniak men taken to the Paklenik pit, in the woods between Sokolac, Rogatica and Višegrad. Their hands were bound with wire. Men were shot at the edge of the ravine.

Spahić was last in line and not tied to anyone else. He started running. The Serb forces fired at him. The bullets missed, and he got away. He crossed forest and rock and reached the village of Mrčići that afternoon, badly beaten and covered in blood. An older man he met would not take him farther.

He made it to a neighbor’s garden in the same state. The neighbor went to Mina Jahić. Mina told her to bring him to the house after dark, so no one would see.

Mina knew the risk. Armed men were searching for him. One Serb neighbor even came to the door and said he was looking for a lost sheep. She hid Ferid in the attic. He had to stay completely still and silent. People downstairs could hear movement above them.

Mina lived there with her husband and four sons. If the man was found, the family could be in danger too. She dressed his wounds, crushed black onion for compresses, and later said she nursed him “like a baby.” He could not move for 10 or 12 days. She brought him food. She kept him hidden for about a month, until he could leave. He later reached Goražde with others, and later his wife.

Years later, asked why she did it, Mina said he was a human being and he needed to live.

In 2011, on the 60th anniversary of the UN refugee convention, the US State Department formally recognized her for personal courage.

Anke Gowda grew up in a farming family in Mandya district, Karnataka, with almost no books in the house. A college lecturer told his class to pick up a habit. Gowda picked books.

He worked as a bus conductor, then as a timekeeper at a sugar factory in Pandavapura. Reports say he put most of his pay into the collection. He sold land and a house in Mysuru when the piles outgrew the rooms. Retirement money went into books as well.

The books are in Pustaka Mane — House of Books — in Haralahalli, Pandavapura taluk. Hari Khoday paid for the main building. Later, state money added more space. The collection is estimated at more than two million volumes, in more than 20 languages, including rare foreign titles, thousands of dictionaries, and old manuscripts. There is no membership fee. Students, exam candidates, and researchers use it. Gowda and his family live on the site and still find titles from memory. Hundreds of thousands of books remain in sacks outside, unsorted.

He received the Padma Shri award in 2026, in the unsung-heroes category, for the library. He has said he did not want the money for himself. He wanted a place where anyone could read.

For more than 20 years in Dubai, Julieta Solas worked as a nurse—and spent her free time caring for other Filipino migrants.

Julieta arrived in the UAE in 1984 and began working as a staff nurse at Rashid Hospital.

Over the years, she moved through several departments and eventually became the unit-in-charge of the pediatric department at Latifa Hospital.

But her work didn't stop when her shift ended.

For two decades, Julieta also led the St. Mary’s Filipino Community in Dubai, organizing activities and leadership programs and volunteering whenever medical teams were needed.

She understood that migrant workers needed more than medical care.

Many were far from their families, dealing with loneliness, stress and difficult working conditions. Julieta organized community gatherings and recollections to give them somewhere to turn.

She was also involved in medical missions that brought care to people who needed it.

Western Union recognized her in 2015 as one of its Heroes for Better, honoring Filipino migrants who used their time, skills and resources to help others.