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

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  • South African Women Are Reclaiming Their Voices in the Media

    August 20, 2021 |

    Reasons to be Cheerful |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: South Africa

    Quote This Woman+ (QW+) is a database of women experts – as well as other people systematically ignored or misconstrued by mainstream media narratives. QW+ provides an easy way for journalists and news producers to find a vetted expert to speak with. Founders relied on referrals to build the database, with each newly added expert asked to refer at least five other experts in the field. The platform launched right before South Africa’s 2019 election with 40 experts in 25 categories and now has 513 experts across 49 categories and a newsletter subscription list of about a thousand journalists.

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  • In India, Hospitals Are Turning Relatives into Expert Caregivers

    August 17, 2021 |

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    Under 800 Words

    Response Location: India

    Noora Health’s Care Companion Program (CCP) trains nurses to deliver actionable health information to the families of hospital patients on how to care for them once discharged. The trainings are in local languages and are engaging and accessible, using formats like videos, animations, and pictures. With government collaboration, the CCP was able to scale up and is now used in 156 hospitals in India and four in Bangladesh. Noora’s staff continues to support families using WhatsApp and CCP interventions have shown to substantially increase proper care adherence and reduce post-discharge complications.

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  • The Surprising Lives of Germany's 'Basic Income' Raffle Winners

    August 10, 2021 |

    Reasons to be Cheerful |

    Multi-Media |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: Germany

    A randomly selected group of lucky Germans are reaping the benefits of a guaranteed monthly income. An organization raffles off a year’s worth of guaranteed monthly income, allowing recipients to experience less stress, connect with their friends and family, and focus on work that interests them.

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  • Beirut Is Greening the Aftermath of Disaster

    August 03, 2021 |

    Reasons to be Cheerful |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: Lebanon, Beirut

    In 2020, a devastating explosion in Beirut that came from a warehouse released 800,000 and one million tons of construction and demolition waste and 20,000 tons of shattered glass into the city. The waste was being thrown into landfills. However, landfills are notoriously bad for the environment. Out of that rubble an idea was created; disposing waste sustainably. Rubble Mountains was created specifically to do this. They've been able to restore four quarries, use materials to create public amenities, and diverting up to 50 tons of demolition waste from landfills.

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  • From a Prison Garden Sprouts Real Growth

    July 27, 2021 |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Oregon

    Lettuce Grow teaches gardening skills to 200 incarcerated people per year in 16 Oregon prisons and juvenile detention centers. The teaching includes college-level courses and hands-on gardening on prison grounds, which then yields hundreds of thousands of pounds of fresh vegetables for prison kitchens. Graduates of the program commit many fewer crimes than the average ex-prisoner and have found work after prison at nurseries and in other horticultural pursuits.

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  • This Seattle Affordable Housing Project Is a Transit Rider's Dream

    July 23, 2021 |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Seattle, Washington

    Affordable housing a stone’s throw from accessible public transportation is the dream. It’s now becoming a reality for some lucky residents in Seattle.

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  • This Is the First Ecosystem With Its Own Insurance Policy

    July 20, 2021 |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: Mexico

    In Mexico, the Mesoamerican Reef, a 100-mile long coral reef system, the second largest in the word, is insured. The insurance policy is the result of a collaboration between the local government, hotel owners, an international NGO, and an insurance company who saw the value of protecting the reef. After Hurricane Delta, the insurance first kicked in, the insurance paid out $850,000. The money was used to uproot 2,152 coral colonies and close to 14,000 coral fragments. The model could be an example of future moves to insure the environment.

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  • Hey Siri, Learn to Speak Kinyarwanda

    July 13, 2021 |

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    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Rwanda

    Common Voice is an open-source initiative to capture more languages for voice-recognition software. Users “donate” their voices by recording themselves reading text out loud. They can also validate the accuracy of already donated voices. The platform has over 9,000 hours of voice data for 90 languages contributed by more than 166,000 people. The group runs creative campaigns to encourage native speakers to contribute, like “Digital Umuganda” in Rwanda, which is a play on a national holiday when people engage in community service. The campaign gathered over 1,700 hours of Kinyarwanda language from 840 people.

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  • Keeping People Out of Jail Keeps People Out of Jail

    July 12, 2021 |

    Reasons to be Cheerful |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Boston, Massachusetts

    When prosecutors in Boston and Baltimore stopped prosecuting certain non-violent, minor offenses, crime of all sorts, from minor to violent, went down. Getting prosecuted and jailed can in itself increase the probability that people will get in more trouble. When their mistakes are not compounded by an arrest record that limits their job and housing prospects, they are apt to stay out of trouble. The prosecutors and research found that simply excluding cases of non-violent, minor drug possession, disorderly conduct, shoplifting from the system does not encourage more crime; probably the opposite.

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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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