By MEREDITH MAY, San Francisco Chronicle

SAN FRANCISCO -- Retirement is anything but slow for two Episcopal deacons saving lives a half a world away.

Each year, the Revs. Christie McManus, 60, and Patricia Ross, 57, journey to from San Francisco to Sierra Leone to help deliver babies in remote villages with some of the highest infant mortality rates in the world.

They are tactical philanthropists -- part of a growing group of socially conscious givers in the San Francisco area whose generosity accounts for more than half the $1 billion in assets at the San Francisco Foundation.

As foreclosures mount and food banks run dry, one of the nation's largest community foundations has decided to target the remainder of its 2008 philanthropy to keeping families from slipping below the poverty line.

Olga Murray of Sausalito, Calif. had been volunteering for five years in Nepal, helping abandoned and disabled children get an education, when she read something in the newspaper that she couldn't believe.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Like so many good ideas, it started out with a sketch on a piece of scratch paper.

One Dollar for Life began two years ago as an idea between Los Altos (Calif.) High student Margaret Lewis and her world studies teacher, Robert Freeman.

A group of Kenyan orphans is tasting milk for the first time.

On a train platform in India, teachers are giving lessons to children whose families force them to beg from passengers.

And in Thailand, health workers are showing Burmese refugees how reduce their chances of contracting HIV.

All three projects are largely funded by San Francisco Bay Area students.