Stories of Kindness from Around the World

One of the few freight networks that still makes the rounds on Mexico's rugged countryside. Immigrants from Central and South America board the trains in an attempt to reach Mexico's northern border quickly.

The trail is dangerous: the travelers face mutilation and death from falling off the train. Criminal gangs stalk the southernmost lengths of the network, stopping the trains in their tracks. The travelers are lucky if they are left alive. The few women that board the trains' roofs are raped and kidnapped. On the central and northern lengths of the trail, narcos are always prowling, ready to scare the travelers into surrendering their belongings. Some of them are forcibly recruited into the narcos' ranks as slave footsoldiers. Some are killed in cold blood, their bodies ditched into mass graves. They are chased by inmigration officers and federal police, who have been known to commit shameless acts of human rights violations under law and corruption's protection.

By and large, however, the biggest peril they face is death by starvation and dehydration. These are people of scarce resources, who'll use the little money they possess to pay for a pollero to help them cross into the USA. They can't afford food, and they can't get off the train for supplies: they risk being arrested, looted, murdered, or losing their ride in doing so.

For close to 20 years, this group of 15 women from Amatlan, Veracruz has provided much needed aid to the people who board the train in their search for a better future. They do so without any tangible reward, at the risk of losing their lives. The women from the group have been threatened with death and kidnapping in several occasions, by criminal groups and law enforcement officials alike.

Their effort is small but appreciated: The women stand next to the train tracks, holding out bags with lunches for the immigrants, some of whom may have spent whole days without drinking or eating. They also provide care and shelter for injured and lost immigrants.

How does it change the world?

In a country ravaged by turf wars between cartels, widespread poverty, and discrimination towards any individual whose skin tone is a few shades darker, all facts enabled by a government that is too corrupt, too incompetent, or simply doesn't care, these women have made the traveler's lives a little easier, a little brighter, a little less frightening. They care not for international politics or law. They care for their fellow humans' lives.

What they do does not solve the problem of illegal immigration to the US. It does not accelerate the economy of these immigrants' home countries. But it has done a lot more than 40 years worth of immigration policy and enforcement have been able to do: ensure that some of these travelers, chased from their countries by poverty and crime, will stay alive.

Their labour shows that one does not need a college degree to make the world a little brighter. It takes consideration, conscience, and love towards our fellow man. It is not a panacea, but it is better than sitting at a desk, pretending to care for the people.

It is a small effort, that has saved lots of lives. And that, in my book, makes the world a brighter place, a place worth fighting for in more significant ways.

(Source - â€‹http://www.quora.com/Altruism/How-does-human-kindness-change-the-world-and-enlighten-us"