For the past ten years and more, in Yaoundé, Georges Bwelle, a surgeon, has been dedicating all his free time to bring medical care to the people of the underserved remote areas and villages of Cameroon, bringing smiles to the faces of the distressed and sharing hope with those who had reason to believe they had none left.

In Afghanistan, in Brazil and in India, the Swiss-based Womanity Foundation develops schools to advance girls’ education and boost female careers through fellowship programs, and thus help give women a stronger voice in their country and region.

And in New York, Stephen Ritz of Green Bronx Machine, carried by a huge young student’s dedication, is reclaiming vacant lots in the city and turning them into an oasis of urban farming.

What is it that is so special about those people and organizations? It is that they are not alone and forsaken. They can count on help from thousands and sometimes much more people around the world that, on the Internet form a community of global citizens that chooses to support them both online and offline, and help them uphold their effort and achieve their goals.

Over 3 billion people from all corners of the globe use the Internet, and we’re still counting. Limitless content, dissolved boundaries, one time zone and space for all are typical of this new era of interconnectedness that takes shape in social networking, the most shared Internet activity, all generations considered.

Conventional wisdom, however, is that social networking is mostly self-centered and shows little concern about “someone that’s not me”. And that the word “sharing” only means “here’s what I am at” rather than “let’s share experience, understand the world, and see how we can act together and help make it a better place”.

Yet we have reason to believe that conventional wisdom is only about perception, not reality. For there is a new online philosophy, particularly among the younger generation of global citizens; it is based on the premise that humanity is in a critical need for positivity, knowledge sharing, creativity and solidarity.

That’s what Bwelle, Womanity and Green Bronx Machine, and thousands of NGOs and philanthropists worlwide, have come to realize and are banking on.

This philosophy calls for an Internet with a purpose and promotes using this unparalleled technology to connect for good and make difference in advancing social good causes. It is a new form of social networking whereby the youth are turning online ideas into concrete actions to further social progress and social good. Of course, this evolution of the actively involved youth does not end here. It is embracing all generations and spreads in every direction.  

From theory to practice: this is a philosophy of action. This is a really proactive concept that tells us that in many corners of the world, behind the theory, there is social good in the making. Some of these projects can be seen on the Horyou platform, a social network that promotes many wonderful people who are acting behind the scenes; the so-called “anonymous heroes” who, in all areas, try to help improve living conditions and address, in their very own personal way, today’s world challenges.

The philosophy of online social good is about embracing the challenges with positivity to share ideas, experience and strategies, and propose concrete solutions wherever they are needed. In doing so, the Internet highlights the best and the brightest of humanity and, regardless of the challenges that we face, this is a pathway to truly make a difference.

The first man who thought about building a fence around a piece of land and calling it his own, had no idea how much he would change the world. As if foretold by a magic elf, in enclosing a part of nature, he also trapped a part of himself forever. Thousands of years later, breaking down our walls to discover our own secrets may finally set us free.

You see, when a part of ourselves has been trapped in a hidden cage, we can’t feel that part anymore. And because we can’t feel our deeper selves, we lose the ability to connect to others on that level. We can only swim over the surface of relationships, both personal and professional. We often go round in circles, repeating the same patterns over and over again… unknowingly looking for an entrance to that mystery within us.

A glimpse at the conversations on Twitter shows how incredibly superficial we’ve all become. Articles about leadership are amazingly shallow. The same quotes are repeated over and over by celebrities, successful business moguls and celebrities. We take our advice from the luckiest people on the planet, whose experience of life is mostly limited to success and popularity. That is how deep we dare to go these days!

True leadership, however, is as deep and timeless as our soul. Medieval symbolism already knew it, with heroes from many cultures and legends going down into deep scary caves to slay dragons. Admirable men penetrated impossible mazes to kill the ghostly beasts who ruled them. We’ve known for hundreds of years that the only path to true heroism and authentic leadership is found deep beneath the surface. Still, we shy away from the dreadful horrors we may find. And so here we are, tweeting and retweeting gibberish.

Luckily for our hidden inner heroes, the world is a magical place after all. Communication bring us an inch closer every day, and resource scarcity is shrinking our world as we speak. We’ve come up with new business models to share. It began timidly, by timesharing our second homes and boats. Now we’re sharing cars, bikes and even phones. Sharing space and objects forces us to become more considerate of others, unless we want to pay big ugly fines. Despite our intention to keep growing our own businesses, our potential, and owning our piece of private land, sharing our stuff may become the future.

As often happened in ancient tales, divine intervention is right on time. Our trapped hidden selves had relentlessly increased their hold on our souls. When heroes lost confidence in their ability to triumph over injustice, men and women stopped reading legends, no longer dreaming of true love, creative passion or Holy Grails. Unfair convenience took over almost everything in life, making each generation grayer, more passive, more focused on pure survival. Feeling deep, real emotion became the obstacle to happiness in somebody’s ridiculous playbook. The playbook of superficial leadership we all seem to be quoting on twitter these days.

Schizoid personality disorder is not discussed very often. Those who suffer from it never get around to asking for help. Those who don’t present it hardly know what it’s about. Yet experts calculate one percent of the population suffers from it, and the number is growing. More than a few high powered businessmen and women have made a lonesome life out of constant travel, important work-related interruptions and just-in-time socializing. Great at small talk, incapable of heart-to-hearts. And our younger generation is even worse.

An inability to experience closeness, deep connection and belonging is as tough as life can get if you find yourself a schizoid (broken) personality. A part of you is trapped on the surface, unable to feel anything real. Another secret part of you is trapped inside an invisible cage nobody can see or touch. A cage that threatens to hold you forever in endless, unfeeling isolation. A mean old dragon guards the door, driving those who get close far, far away.

We obviously need heroes and dragon legends more than ever before. The beastly monsters who await under the surface of our tweets are nothing more than our own unexpressed emotions. It’s true that in the case of schizoid disorders these monsters are bigger and meaner than anything we’ve ever tried to engage in history. The wounds that shape such invisible fortresses are generated as early on in life as gestation in the womb, repeating frequently throughout the first years of life. Small babys’ most primal reactions are surely the most intense emotions to be found on Earth.

Still, they are only emotions. We know how to process them now. We have tools and techniques to work through them. Many experts and weathered warriors of wild emotion are on call to lend us a hand when we get lost. All we need is a will to be better, to live better, to not give up.

Take it from a former schizoid who was once sentenced to eternal invisible jail. It can be done. It takes courage, and it may take longer than you would like. But dragons will give in and walls will topple down. And when you’ve slain the demons nobody even dared to look at, well, you find yourself a true hero. Your jail transforms itself from unfair punishment to the challenge you were always meant to solve. Like all legends tell, you will have become a leader, and admirable warrior, an irresistible force of life.

And you bring faith and strength to others who still battle on. Don’t give up. Don’t give in to convenient moroseness. Don’t listen to advice from those who’ve never dared to climb down into their own caves, or look their own monsters in the eye. It’s time to share, to believe in legends and magic, to bring down old walls and clean out our earliest, most primal wounds.

It’s time to remember there is a hero inside us all. As this year’s Eurovision contest winner sings: “We are the heroes of our time, but we’re fighting with the demons in our mind!”

As Free The Children celebrates 20 years of empowering youth from every corner of the world to inspire change in their communities and beyond, we’d like to take a moment to extend a huge thank you to all of our supporters who have shown tremendous kindness, friendship and generosity over the years.

Without you, we’re not sure where we would be today. Certainly, we wouldn’t have offices across the world or a holistic and sustainable international development model that helps to change lives every single day. Nor would we have made it to 50 We Days across 14 major cities, spreading the message to young people that they have the power to create positive change in the world. Simply put, we wouldn’t be where we are today without you.

Thank you for being a part of our story so far, and we look forward to having you with us as we embark on this next exciting part of the journey. It is an honour to have your support and we can’t wait to see what the next 20 years will bring.

Find out more here Thank You Free The Children & Happy 20 Years!!

In her message for International Women’s Day 2015, UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka says gender parity must be reached before 2030, so that the sluggish trajectory of progress can be reversed that condemns a child born today to wait 80 years before they see an equal world. She calls on all countries to “step it up” for gender equality, to reach ‘Planet 50-50’ before 2030.

In 1995, at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, world leaders committed to a future where women are equal. One hundred and eighty nine countries and 4,000 civil society organizations, attended the conference. Women left Beijing with high hopes, with a well-defined path towards equality, and firm commitments at the highest level. Their hope was that we would see this by 2005. Today, not one single country has achieved equality.

It is more urgent than ever that we define – and stick to – a time frame. There has been some progress in the last 20 years – although it has been slow and uneven. Countries have narrowed the gender gap in education and some have even reached gender parity in school enrolment. They have reduced the toll of maternal mortality and morbidity. Many more women survive pregnancy and childbirth than in 1995. Many countries have created institutions that address gender inequality. Many have passed laws against gender-based discrimination.

Many have made domestic violence a crime. This is all good news. And yet we are still a long way from achieving equality between men and women, boys and girls. Implementation of good policies has been patchy. Allocation of the resources needed for effective implementation has been insufficient to fund women’s ministries, gender commissions, gender focal points, and gender-responsive budgeting. For too many women, especially in the least-developed countries, not enough has changed.

In Africa, 70 per cent of crop production depends on women yet women still own only 2 per cent of the land. Violence against women continues to blight lives in all countries of the world. And no country has achieved gender equality. Women need change and humanity needs change. This we can do together; women and girls, men and boys, young and old, rich and poor.

The evidence is overwhelming of the benefits that equality can bring. Economies grow, poverty is alleviated, health status climbs, and communities are more stable and resilient to environmental or humanitarian crises. Women want their leaders to renew the promises made to them. They want leaders to recommit to the Beijing Declaration, to the Platform for Action, and to accelerated and bolder implementation. They want more of their leaders to be women.

And they want those women, together with men, to dare to change the economic and political paradigms. Gender parity must be reached before 2030, so that we avert the sluggish trajectory of progress that condemns a child born today to wait 80 years before they see an equal world. Today, on International Women’s Day, we call on our countries to “step it up” for gender equality, with substantive progress by 2020. Our aim is to reach ‘Planet 50:50’ before 2030.

The world needs full equality in order for humanity to prosper. Empower women, empower humanity. I am sure you can picture an equal world!