Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • How Bogotá's Waste Pickers Reinvented Their Jobs for a Modern City

    July 05, 2021 |

    Reasons to be Cheerful |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Colombia

    In Colombia, there are about 50,000 waste pickers, they collect and sort through trash to findrecyclabless to make a living. Their livelihood was threatened in the 1990s after Colombia adopted neoliberal policies that privatized trash collection. However, in 2016 the government officially recognized wastepickers as recycling service providers under a decree. That same year, the government introduced a "second payment," that supplement the income of waste pickers. Coupled, these two policies have improved the livelihood of wastepickers.

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  • In France, Accents Are Now Protected by Law

    April 02, 2021 |

    Reasons to be Cheerful |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: France

    The French National Assembly overwhelmingly passed “the Law to Promote the France of Accents,” which criminalizes discrimination against someone based on their accent. The bill makes linguistic discrimination, or “glottophobia,” an offense punishable by up to three years’ jail time and a fine of up to €45,000 (USD$54,000). Early indications of the law's impact include the normalizing of native accents in national discourse, the appointment of a Prime Minister with a strong accent, and the French national broadcaster FranceInfo’s naming “glottophobia” one of the words of 2020.

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  • ‘What's at stake is the life of every being': Saving the Brazilian Cerrado

    February 11, 2021 |

    Mongabay |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: Brazil

    The National Campaign in Defense of the Cerrado coalition of Indigenous peoples and organizational partners is fighting political challenges to preserve the region’s native vegetation and biodiversity. The Cerrado is a tropical savanna In Brazil that is home to about 5 percent of the planet’s animal and plant species, yet only 3 percent of the land is under “strict protection” regulations. Pressure from the campaigners has led to a public hearing and proposal with more than 500,000 signatures to declare the region a World Heritage site.

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  • The country rejecting throwaway culture

    January 28, 2021 |

    BBC |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: France, Paris

    Paris hosts a dozen "repair cafes," which are free, monthly events where residents can fix household objects and electronics with the help and advice of volunteers. The events usually have about 25 attendees who seek to limit the vast amounts of household waste, particularly E-waste, by repairing broken electronics and appliances. France's National Assembly also introduced an index of "repairability" ratings for appliances such as washing machines, lawnmowers, televisions and smartphones, in hopes of increasing the percentage of electronics that are repaired rather than discarded.

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  • The bold plan to save Africa's largest forest

    January 07, 2021 |

    BBC |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: Democratic Republic of the Congo

    Under an innovative scheme in the Democratic Republic of Congo, indigenous communities are obtaining the legal right to own and manage the forests where they reside. This ownership has shown success in slowing deforestation of the Congo rainforest and creating new economic opportunities for residents in these villages. “Rather than just being an add-on, community forestry is now being considered as a mainstream model for forest management,” says a coordinator for the Rainforest Foundation UK.

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  • 'It gave me hope in democracy': how French citizens are embracing people power

    November 20, 2020 |

    The Guardian |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: France, Paris

    Cities across France are using citizens’ assemblies, where a diverse group of citizens study important issues and make policy recommendations. In Paris, 150 citizens spent nine months working on the climate convention, which resulted in 149 recommendations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030. President Macron pledged more funding and accepted all but three of the proposals. The convention also showed how citizens’ assemblies improve community cohesion and reduce polarization. Ireland, the UK, and Belgium have also successfully used citizens' assemblies to address important social issues.

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  • Short on Money, Cities Around the World Try Making Their Own

    August 07, 2020 |

    Bloomberg CityLab |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Tenino, Washington

    Complementary currencies are local alternatives to national currencies that help local economies when budgets are tight. Tenino prints “wooden dollars” and residents in need get up to $300/month to spend at local businesses from grocery stores to day cares. Cities across the US have reached out for advice on starting their own local currencies, which can take many forms including digital-only. There are 3,500-4,500 local currencies in 50 countries, including Brazil’s Maricá where it helped the under-resourced city build schools and hospitals. These currencies have no value outside of the local economy.

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  • Biting back: new hope in the fight against malaria

    November 11, 2019 |

    Positive.News |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Ghana

    A new vaccine to prevent malaria has shown promise in clinical studies and is now being more widely distributed in Africa. Although doctors caution that it is not fail-proof, when used in conjunction with other safety measures, it has shown to reduce the risk of infection and has also reduced the rate of anemia in children.

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  • How One Community Brought Child Mortality Down From 154 To 7 Per 1,000 Live Births

    July 12, 2019 |

    NPR |

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    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Mali, Bamako

    Providing door-to-door health care for mothers and children under five years of age greatly reduces mortality. Thanks to a program of home visits by community health care workers funded by the Clinton Health Access Initiative, the Yirimadio neighborhood of Mali’s capital city, Bamako, has succeeded in dramatically reducing childhood mortality. The government intends to scale the pilot program into a nationwide campaign by 2022.

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  • Norway recycles 97% of its plastic bottles: a blueprint for the rest of the world?

    February 26, 2019 |

    Positive.News |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Norway

    Infinitum, a Norwegian company, aims to create a never-ending loop of plastic reuse and their deposit hub recycles 97 percent of the country’s plastic drink bottles. While critics question the focus on continuing to produce plastic since it relies on fossil fuels, similar collection schemes in other countries could reduce plastic waste.

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