At the end of last July, Jesús Alvelo Santiago, a Puerto Rican pediatrician, was returning to his lodging after a long and exhausting day doing volunteer work in Ensanche Isabelita, an impoverished and overcrowded community on the outskirts of Santo Domingo, when he received a text message from his wife: the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) had selected him for recognition for his decades of humanitarian work across virtually all of the Americas.