From helping earthquake victims to sending poor kids to college, they’re boosting the region in many ways.

We pick 48 givers, 4 from each of 12 countries. Some are big tycoons, even billionaires, who have a large vision of how best to help society and have donated millions of dollars to back up that vision. Others are little-known citizens who are extremely generous with their limited funds … MORE

Written by several Forbes contributors, including me.