Window Cleaner that was Snubbed + Kiva Changing Lives

I could have stopped Beachy Head tragedy - SNUBBED SAMARITAN SAYS: IT WILL HAUNT ME. A good Samaritan is haunted by the thought that he could have saved the couple who leapt to their death from Beachy Head with their son's body. Keith Lane talked 29 people out of taking their lives at the notorious suicide spot before safety rules drove him to quit. The 58-year-old dad of two said: "Getting rid of me could have cost this family their lives. If I had been there on the fateful night they might still be alive. I will be troubled by that thought for the rest of my life." Tragic Neil Puttick, 34, and his wife Kazumi, 44, hurled themselves from the 500ft cliffs near Eastbourne, East Sussex, a week ago. The body of their son Sam, five, who died of meningitis, was in a holdall. Keith is now discussing with wife Val and his family whether to mount his clifftop vigils again.

The semi-retired window cleaner was recently criticised at an inquest into the death of a mum at the beauty spot. He was told he should have called a Coastguards hotline instead of running after the woman, who plunged over the edge. He claimed volunteer safety groups targeted him for criticism after the inquest. Keith, of Eastbourne, said: "There was so much politics and bitterness involved. It reached the point where I thought, 'I don't need this flak, I've done my bit so let them get on with it'. Then a triple tragedy like this happens and I think, 'To hell with them, I'll do what's right'. "There is no guarantee I would have prevented this incident but I might just have been able to make the difference." Keith started his patrols after the suicide of his first wife on the cliffs in 2004. He said: "I am proud of what I achieved and was touched by the gratitude of people whose lives I saved. I will now do what my conscience tells me."

Home help: One organization having an undeniable impact in the developing world is San Francisco's Kiva. Now the micro-finance organization, which funnels small loans from individuals to would-be entrepreneurs in Ghana, Cambodia, Azerbaijan and elsewhere, is turning its attention closer to home. Few details are available, but I'm told it's launching its "U.S. expansion" on Wednesday. The site ( www.kiva.org) reportedly will feature window cleaners, day care center operators, massage therapists and other entrepreneurs from the Bay Area and New York who are seeking individual loans of as little as $25. It's a first for Kiva in the developed world and, like the changes at Stanford's business school, very timely.



Planning for the future: Venant Nduwayo cleans a window at the Student Rec Center on the MU campus. Venant paints and cleans windows for Shepherd's Co., a job that the Christian Fellowship Church helped him find. "If I'm lucky to learn English and communicate with people effectively," Venant said. "I would like to go back to school . . . but for a job with skills that will enable me to work with my hands."