It is easy to become numb to suffering in the world. So much of the news -- civil wars, corruption, epidemics, disasters, brutality -- is despairing.

Then you see people like Martin Fisher, David Green and Kailash Satyarthi making extraordinary differences on a large scale, and you can't help but feel inspired. Perhaps enough to do something yourself. Tonight, you'll have a chance.

The Palo-Alto based Skoll Foundation has underwritten a four-hour documentary on PBS, ``The New Heroes,'' that will be broadcast in two-hour segments tonight and July 5. It chronicles a dozen social entrepreneurs, individuals whose compassion and business savvy are advancing the lives of the desperately poor -- the half of the world that lives on about a dollar a day.

The foundation is encouraging people to hold house parties this summer to show segments of ``The New Heroes'' and discuss it. If the documentary does move you, as well it might, get your neighbors together and donate to the heroes' organizations.

Fisher, Green and Satyarthi were in San Jose last week for a screening of ``The New Heroes.'' So was actor, director and activist Robert Redford, whose narration of the film is as good as a Palme D'or for any documentary.

Fisher and partner Nick Moon started ApproTEC, a non-profit corporation whose human-powered irrigation pumps, selling for $78, can easily double production of a family farm. They've sold 45,000 so far in Kenya and Tanzania to families so often overlooked by governments and aid agencies.

Green brings sight to the blind for under $15. He has teamed up with Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy, or Dr. V, an Indian eye surgeon, to manufacture hundreds of thousands of inexpensive lenses for patients who have had cataract surgery. His next project: to manufacture a hearing aid that could be sold for $40.

Often at personal risk, Satyarthi has liberated more than 2,000 children in India whose parents have sold them into slavery. Often they're forced to become carpet weavers, which is why Satyarthi created Rugmark, a label on rugs of factories that have been certified child-labor-free.

Many of the New Heroes' efforts have been underwritten by Skoll, who, at age 40, is becoming the godfather for social entrepreneurs. The first employee and president of eBay, Skoll established his foundation in 1999. Just as eBay has activated communities of collectors, the Skoll Foundation is connecting philanthropists with pioneering social entrepreneurs.

The ``New Heroes'' broadcast will give that movement the visibility it deserves -- and perhaps be a catalyst for action. The Skoll Foundation will match house-party donations up to $5,000 to any of the dozen organizations featured in the show.

Programs on world poverty are rare on TV. ``The New Heroes'' is a breakthrough. It can help you break through the futility you feel toward intractable problems.