Beauty pageants in Uganda are helping to "create awareness for skin cancer among persons with albinism, educate them about their rights, as well as foster capacity development." Although challenges persist, participants and local dermatologists say that the campaign has helped to increase education and decrease discrimination against those with albinism.

At St George the Martyr church in London, an initiative to offer food to people that would otherwise have been wasted is taking on new meaning due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The “community fridge” started in 2019 as a way to combat the environmental impacts of food waste by giving away free fruit, vegetables, milk, bread, and meat, and was helping up to 20 people each week. Now, more than 100 people have turned up because they’re experiencing economic hardship and social distancing restrictions is making it a challenge to deliver food to those who need it.

Wine and Whine is a Nigerian organization that creates a space for women only to feel safe and connect. The goal is to create a woman-to-woman network and to create an opportunity to talk about issues that affect them as women in Nigeria and how to execute relevant solutions. Wine and Whine has successfully pulled off a number of women-only events and there are many testimonials from women who love the opportunities and connections won through the group.

Throughout Sokoto State in Nigeria, community conversations are taking place as part of an awareness campaign to encourage community members to change their perceptions of maternal health and safe-birth practices. The conversations, which are held with both women and men's groups, have resulted in an increase in health center visits and family planning outreach.

Communities in Nigeria have been using WhatsApp to manage isolation and help provide support to their fellow residents during the coronavirus pandemic. In many instances organizations and individuals are helping to raise and provide funds to those who are experiencing financial hardship.

Nigeria’s annual maternal death count has been associated with non-traditional birthing methods, which has led local officials in Lagos State to explore ways to improve the quality of the primary health care delivery system. Although many challenges have yet to be overcome, some success has been shown through governmental efforts to enhance facilities across the state and offering more regular trainings for medicine practitioners.

The Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) has opened seven 24-hour laboratories across the country with the capacity to test and diagnose the coronavirus. They have staff working around the clock to conduct and diagnose the tests. This article takes you through the exact process of how these employees help fight the virus in Nigeria, complete with pictures.

Using cryptocurrency mining, technological innovation, and entrepreneurial thinking, Parallel Garden, a Czech-based initiative, is tackling unsustainable agricultural practices. The project seeks to increase local food production and reduce waste, while sharing best practices with other communities through open-sourcing.

Five recently-graduated doctors put together a virtual bar-trivia-style program called SOLViT to supplement med students' curriculum during their final year, when they should be receiving in-hospital training, but can't because of the pandemic. The 90-minute sessions cover 29 topics in the students' syllabus like maternal infections and bladder cancer, is formatted to quiz the students in a true/false format, and draws from pop culture references to reinforce learning.

When a California law shifted the costs of incarcerating youth from the state to its counties, judges suddenly sent 40% fewer youth to state-run juvenile facilities. That reduction began a long-term trend that combined with a state commitment to evidence-based approaches to rehabilitation instead of punishment, especially for less-serious offenses. The end result is that state juvenile jails have been all but phased out of existence and California, a longtime tough-on-crime state, now has what one advocacy group considers the nation's most humane juvenile justice system.

Intercultural city workers act as bridges between public institutions and the Arab, Moldovan/Romanian, and Russian-speaking, and Vietnamese communities. They accompany clients to government offices, where their presence makes officials more open to working them, and also to healthcare visits. The workers conduct field visits, communicate via social media, and form relationships with prominent community members. They foster inclusion by helping immigrant communities learn the social norms while also informing public institutions about the social needs of the communities.

A program at the Gdansk Shakespeare Theater in Poland is creating job opportunities for people with Down syndrome after partnering with the city and a local foundation that supports job training and coaching for special-needs individuals. The project has not just benefited the participants – patrons of the company as well as other businesses are realizing "that people with Down syndrome who have the appropriate skills can prove themselves at work."

For decades, Sumita Banerjee has mobilized her community to save the Rabindra Sarovar lake. The lake preserves floral species, generates oxygen, and offers green space for locals to enjoy, but it’s threatened by government inaction and festivals the lead to pollution. Her work with petitions, cleanups, and legal action has made slow but steady change to preserve the lake.

Across India, as people are spending more time at home because of restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals in increasing numbers are turning to new ways to connect to nature and each other. They are using their time at home to observe nature out their windows, and in doing so, they are sharing their findings on places like eBird, which “depend on public contribution of data for scientific research.”

Improving outcomes in addressing HIV requires reducing stigma. In Atlanta, Georgia, faith-based communities are embracing HIV prevention campaigns and courses. Bible Way Ministries provides HIV testing at community events and offers awareness campaigns aimed at reducing stigma. In Philadelphia, Faith in Action similarly recruits religious communities to increase HIV awareness.

By returning to indigenous varieties of crops, farmers can increase ecological diversity and reliance to climate change. In India, hundreds of farmers in the state of Odisha have been returning to indigenous crops, like millet, vegetables, and tubers. In contrast to the high yield varieties of seeds provided by the government, heritage crops prove more resilient to changes in climate, water shortages, and local pests. Using heritage crops also reduces the need for pesticides, helping to restore ecological balance in the region.

Symbios, a group home in Brno, Czech Republic, aims to equip young adults who grew up in children's homes with life skills by pairing them with college-aged adults, who come from traditional home environments. Within the affordable flat, participants are paired by gender, given their own private room, and those who came from children's homes to learn basic skills like cooking, finding furniture for their unfurnished quarters, and being responsible for their own bills. The experience also allows residents to learn more about people who grew up differently, sharing similarities and differences along the way.

What started as a small group of people taking pictures of waste in their communities and tagging it on Instagram with the hashtag #Litterati, turned into a global effort, and even an app, to map and dispose of trash. Users can upload to the app an image of trash and machine-learning algorithm can tag it location, material, and company who made it. The city of San Francisco asked the makers of the app for help documenting cigarette butts and tobacco products on its streets and ended up winning a legal victory over the tobacco industry to increase the taxes on their products.

Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises of India (FTTI) is a research and conservation group protecting the 29 species of turtles and tortoises in the country. For founders Anuja Mital and Sneha Dharwadkar, the project is extra important as many of these species are endangered, and they play a crucial role in maintaining balance in river and lake ecosystems. The project has also allowed them to serve as role models for the importance of female researchers feeling comfortable doing important fieldwork.

To reduce food waste, a pilot project in Connecticut organized by a professor aims to deliver the still-viable thrown-out products to a local food pantry. With the help of her students, the project has successfully helped to consistently divert perfectly edible produce to "people who don’t care whether an onion isn’t in season or if an avocado is too soft."

A Belarus women’s-empowerment support group using the Wen-Do method ends each session with the students breaking a piece of wood with a chop of their hand, a literal show of strength that communicates how defending against men’s harassment and physical attacks may require physical force as well as assertiveness. In Canada, where the method began, the training -- a mix of martial arts lessons and support-group dialog -- is associated with a 46% reduction in rape and 64% drop in attempted sexual assault.

Aula em Casa, which translates to School at Home, is a television program that features class material for students living in remote parts of the Brazilian state of Amazonas, who likely have televisions, but not access to the internet or a computer. The program, which reaches 450,000 students in Amazonas, features elementary and secondary school lessons transmitted over major TV channels, and is supplemented by teachers through the use of popular messaging app WhatsApp, Google Classroom, and is now being used by at least three other states in Brazil because of the pandemic.

Providing people with housing and then giving them the services they need to stay housed is also a very effective way to save tax-payer money. Reducing chronic homeless through programs like The Madrone Project helps keep the unhoused healthier, reducing their trips to the ER, and also saves tax dollars that go into policing those living on the streets. Spending money on housing and services can be considered an investment that helps get people housed and healthy again, as well as a financial strategy to reduce government and hospital costs.

During the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, volunteers across Belarus worked together to collect and deliver personal protective equipment to frontline workers, despite the Belarusian government denying the spread of the coronavirus. Using social media to organize, the volunteers "served as a kind of SWAT team able to bypass the bureaucracy to obtain the necessary equipment."

As an alternative to traditional courts, community courts provide resources to those experiencing homelessness. Fines and jail time are often the punishment in traditional courts for those charged with trespassing or loitering, but community courts provide services that help people find housing, jobs, health care, and even offer mobile showers, food stamp assistance, and mental health care. While the long-term data are lacking and don't offer a clear picture of recidivism rates, community courts do provide a better quality of life for those living on the streets.

Pregnant women in Nigeria are turning to virtual support groups to help manage anxiety and fear they feel about delivering a baby during the coronavirus pandemic. Although the telehealth transition for doctor visits has provided more limitations than success, the use of WhatsApp and Telegram for support groups has been received well as a means of creating connections.

Public private partnerships are helping hospitals in Nigeria provide more efficient care, especially as it relates to maternal health. In Lagos State, the model – which partners a private healthcare management firm with the hospital – has helped better equip facilities so more laboratory tests can be conducted in one place. Although this solution doesn't necessarily solve all problems faced by those seeking care, it has helped to provide a more sustainable model of healthcare in many cases.

The degradation of peatlands is a public health and climate change issue. Organizations in Indonesia are working to understand these wetlands better by mapping the location of them throughout the country and around the world. By creating a comprehensive picture of peatlands, which contribute up to 10 percent of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, key partners can understand how to prevent carbon emitting from the wetlands into the atmosphere.

The people in a neighborhood in Mexico City are coming up with innovative solutions to handle climate-related disasters like flood. They use an early warning system that uses a radio signal and WhatsApp to warn residents of environmental dangers. However, the app does not always work. And a mobile classroom offers simulations about how government decisions are made when deciding danger levels of disasters. While thousands of residents had been trained, the classroom is usually only in the neighborhood for a day. Yet, these solutions based on education and communication could be applied to other communities.

In Pécs, Hungary, the Rolling Basket wheelchair basketball team is helping to integrate typically isolated people into the community through sports and recreation. Beyond the physical benefit, wheelchair basketball is helping players develop adaptability, autonomy, and improved stress tolerance.

The Minsk-based organization Radislava runs a house for women and children who have experienced domestic abuse. In a culture and a country that have yet to protect survivors of abuse, this house runs on privacy and anonymity, for safety’s sake. Radislava does more than provide shelter – it also provides psychological and legal support and organizes advocacy events. Since its creation, the home has seen 70% of clients create new lives for themselves.

On his organic farm in Illinois, Will Glazik is experimenting with different types of agricultural methods to increase his crop yield while also avoiding the harmful impacts of industrial farming. He’s part of a growing movement called “sustainable intensification,” which combines both conventional and organic farming techniques. While there are challenges with this approach and what works in one place might not work in another, combining these types of farming could help feed a growing global population.

Across Georgia, a community-based mental health care approach has decreased both the duration and frequency of hospitalization for clients. This approach relies on mental health and other healthcare specialists delivering care to clients via mobile teams.

After climate change led to a declining fish catch, fishermen in Tamil Nadu experimented with artificial reefs to boost biodiversity that would provide fishermen with a better catch. Artificial reefs can serve many purposes, but it must identify the needs of the community before it can be successfully implemented. Only a year later nearly 60 concrete structures have been built around the city and fishermen report bigger catches.

A group of women volunteers, known as the Mahila Mandal, from Sudher in India are fighting against the dumping of garbage in their village and the pollution and potential negative health effects that come with it. Despite daily household and farm work, the group has been pressuring authorities through demonstrations and protests to clean up the solid waste dumping site.

Diabetics require fresh food and produce to maintain their health, but doing so has become difficult during the pandemic, especially for people who are immunocomprised and therefore unable to frequently venture out to food banks. One food bank found a solution which involves bringing out food packages to cars so diabetics do not have to expose themselves to potential germs. This vulnerable population relies on their bi-weekly haul of fresh produce to stay healthy.

In Kooskia, a rural area in Idaho, local farmers are finding success in working with residents to make sure produce is being used to its fullest. From using the leftover apple chunks from cider-making to feed livestock to relying on neighbor's produce to provide for local businesses, sustainable homesteads are gaining popularity amongst communities.

As coronavirus continues to spread around the world, social distancing is being implemented due to its proven success with helping to drastically slow the spread of the Spanish flu in St. Louis Missouri. In a comparison of St. Louis and Philadelphia – a city that did not institute social distancing practices – limiting the time in public spaces helped to keep per capita flu-related deaths in St. Louis "to less than half of those in Philadelphia."

Nas Most uses artistic and cultural initiatives to combat loneliness among seniors. Over seven years, informal weekly meet-ups turned into formal painting and handicraft courses and membership grew from 30 to over 100 seniors. The association also organizes events to exhibit members’ works and partners with other groups to create and share podcasts, organize concerts, and offer other artistic events for seniors. Cultural exchanges with organizations in Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia, and Serbia also help build social connections, which provide physical and mental health benefits for seniors.

A group of farmers in India have been trained to monitor their village’s groundwater levels to help its residents make more informed decisions about irrigation based on water availability. The farmers-turned-researchers are known as “Bhujal Jaankars” and they monitor rainfall, dam water levels, and water quality to notify residents so they can plant crops that don’t require a lot of water. While there is a lack of gender diversity in the group, they are working on developing training to include more functional literacy skills to encourage participation from others.

As part of a social work graduate program through Alirajpur Post Graduate College, a group of students are using “citizen science” to share their research that water with elevated levels of fluoride can be dangerous to drink. This has especially been an opportunity for female students to develop public speaking skills while connecting with women whose role it is to manage water for their households and encourage them to use wells with the appropriate fluoride levels, based on their data and research.

In the Indian Sundarbans, home to a huge mangrove ecosystem as well as native tigers, ecotourism has come to a halt due to restrictions imposed to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus disease. In response, locals involved in conservation efforts and ecotourism have stepped up to educate their communities, especially those that are the most remote, to ensure safety precautions are taken, as well as advocating for government support of those whose livelihoods are threatened.

In the Czech Republic, a seamstress named Michaela Moudra encouraged people across the country to meet their nation's acute need for face masks to reduce COVID-19 transmission. From her Facebook group Czechia Sews Face Masks, which now has tens of thousands of members, Moudra inspired hundreds to start sewing masks.

After an unexpected summer cyclone in the Indian state of Odisha, hundreds of women from slums across the region formed a community fund for disaster preparedness. The women all try to contribute 10 rupees per month to the fund, slowly building their security net in case of another natural disaster.

Pramila Bisoyi, a Member of Parliament hailing from the Indian state of Odisha, has shown the power of women in protecting the environment. She has created and led multiple Women Self Help Groups, who work together to protect forests, plant trees, and encourage native peacocks to come back to the land, all in the hopes of creating a more sustainable future for their children.

To help mothers who aren't able to supply their newborn with an adequate supply of breast milk, a hospital in Kenya has developed a milk bank. At the breast milk bank, new mothers can donate a portion of their supply of milk that is supplied to preterm babies whose mothers have "died or were not present, full-term babies who are sickly and those whose mothers are unable to breastfeed, due to lack of breast milk."

Libraries around West Palm Beach, Florida, have collaborated to offer resources to children who need to work on technology-dependant homework after school, but who don't have access to the Internet or a computer at home. The libraries offer free group-style tutoring with adult supervision and assistance, allowing kids to ask questions and get help with difficult assignments.

Foster families in Oregon are facing unique challenges during the stay at home order of COVID-19, so a new program called My Neighbor aims to alleviate some of their burdens by utilizing their local networks. The Department of Human Services partnered with nonprofit Every Child to create a program that connects Oregonians willing to help out in any way they can to foster families who are looking for support for things like getting groceries or cleaning supplies. They have already received requests from 260 families and foster children and filled 189 of them.

The Postpartum Support Network Africa turned a foothold in one Lagos hospital into a 50-hospital network in two states combatting postpartum depression by training healthcare workers, screening for the problem, and providing therapy to mothers. The World Health Organization estimates that postpartum depression affects nearly 1 in 5 women in developing countries. Though common, it can be hard to detect and many lack awareness of its symptoms and treatment. PSN Africa's six-year push to improve the response to the problem has reached tens of thousands of mothers and their caregivers.

In the wake of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement of a lockdown as a response to COVID-19, wildlife protection workers are still showing up to work. Their services have been deemed essential because illegal activities such as poaching that threaten native endangered species are still at high risk during a lockdown. By limiting staff and using social distancing, they plan to continue their important work amidst this crisis.

Online counseling websites that utilize the practice of cognitive behavioral therapy are helping teenagers and young adults access services they may need during challenging times. Psychologists do caution that these aren't replacements for face-to-face therapy, but that they do help when in-person options are not available or feasible.

Czech Technical University's online learning platform, HERMES, combats terrorism based on proven methods of deradicalization of former jihadists and preventing recruitment of new people to terrorism. Interactive exercises and other tools teach prison and court officials to separate radical jihadists from other prisoners. As thousands of people imprisoned on terrorism charges finish serving their sentences and are released from prisons, the programs also target community-based spread of radical thought, including with job opportunities for former prisoners.

Oregon's CAHOOTS program has succeeded in replacing police on many mental-health crisis calls over its 30-year history because it is integrated in a larger system of services, including law enforcement. CAHOOTS' crisis workers, who cover the cities of Eugene and Springfield with three vans taking dozens of calls for help a day, come to their jobs with expertise as EMTs, nurses, or social workers. Then they spend 500 hours of training in crisis management and de-escalation, learning to offer help without forcing it, and without the threat of arrest except in the few cases when police backup is needed.

Two decades after a massive cyclone killed close to 10,000 people in India's Odisha state, the government's efforts to protect coastal villages vulnerable to cyclones and tsunamis has produced a host of safety measures, from reinforced shelters and early-warning systems to search and evacuation training. Two villages were singled out as the first in the Indian Ocean region to achieve UNESCO's "tsunami ready" certification. A drill in 2019 showed how quickly villagers were trained to respond to an imminent threat.

An app is offering reproductive healthcare help to women in Nigeria who don't always have access to reliable maternal and prenatal health information. While it does require the user to have access to technology, it has attracted 40,000 users so far, providing "pregnant women and mothers with access to life-saving maternal and child health information, as well as access to doctors with the touch of a button."

The Covid-19 pandemic complicated health care for women living in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in Nigeria who already lacked access to family planning services and education, but collaborative efforts are working to change this. Through collective action, a group of non-profits worked together to create a one-day outreach event that provided education and trained community members to carry on the work.

The local primary health center in Tayi, a new community in Chanchaga Local Government Area of Niger state, has helped normalize the discussion of family planning which includes topics such as primary health care delivery and contraception. The center provides on-site educational opportunities but has also partnered with religious leaders to especially help the conversation reach men.

The How Are You Today? program connects elderly Hungarians with young people who are also deprived of social connections during the Covid-19 pandemic. Festival Volunteer Center joined with Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta to connect about 70 pairs for regular, supportive conversations to alleviate loneliness. Volunteers are trained to maintain boundaries to avoid certain emotional risks, however many participants have formed strong bonds and want the program to continue in some form after the pandemic. The organization is working on sustainable funding solutions to enable long-term operations.

Lessons learned from the outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2015 helped South Korea uniquely prepare a quick and effective response to the recent coronavirus outbreak. With several new strategies in place including contact tracing protocols and "laws clarifying the roles of national and local government, public health, and industry sectors in the event of another outbreak," the country was able to largely contain the virus faster than other countries which reported cases emerging at similar times.

An organization aimed at providing peer support for gay black men living with HIV that started in Atlanta, Georgia has now gained an international following. Because the program is not federally funded, data can be difficult to gather; however, "self-reported data from its members including medication type and adherence, CD4 cell count, and demographic information" shows a significant increase in members adhering to their medical regimen.

When COVID-19 cases began spreading in Kano, the local maternity hospital saw a decrease in patients coming for their appointments, so the hospital adapted and started seeing the women in their own homes. Using their already-established "network of Volunteer Community Mobilisers," the house visits were intended to inform the women about the new safety protocols in place in the facilities and encourage them to have their children receive their standard immunizations. The effort not only resulted in more children being immunized, but also improved the women's confidence of the facilities.

A residential home for disabled children in Gomel, Belarus is setting an example for similar facilities by changing the model of care. Designed with the goal of reuniting the children with their families, the facility uses a model of education that aims to support, not substitute families while still emphasizing a "family atmosphere."

In Cambodia 2.5 million people use stoves fueled by forest biomass; charcoal and wood. The emissions caused by using biomass are extremely harmful not only to people but also to the environment. The emissions caused by biomass globally are equal to those of the aviation industry. To counter the problem, several organizations and companies are providing alternatives for Cambodian families like electric stoves. One company, Khmer Green Charcoal, created stoves that run on “clean” charcoal made from coconut shells. More than 6,500 households across the country have made the transition.

Disaster preparedness in the form of close inter-agency coordination and communication helped Cuyahoga County, Ohio, protect its unhoused population from COVID-19 to a greater extent than Lane County, Oregon. Although Cuyahoga (Cleveland) is larger, with more resources, its effective responses still offer a model to Lane County (Eugene), where a scattered approach and homeless-camp sweeps proved counterproductive. In Cleveland, hotels were quickly enlisted to house people, reducing crowding in shelters by half and street homelessness by 30%. Its largest men's shelter ended up with a low infection rate.

The Romani Education Fund in Slovakia is helping children from the Roma community, which has a history of social and economic disadvantages as well as being subject to ethnic discrimination, overcome challenges to finish high school and pursue higher education. The REF works by providing qualifying students with a stipend to pay for educational supplies, as well as providing school guidance and personal mentorship to help both students and parents overcome the social hurdles that impede the student's desire or ability to fulfill their potential.

As smoke from local wildfires created an unhealthy outdoor environment, cities in Oregon looked to expand temporary housing options for those experiencing homelessness. While not all have been successful, the Portland area saw success from being able to rely on their "system for responding to severe weather, as well as the Multnomah County’s Emergency Management Department."

Youth in Oregon who get court-ordered rehabilitation as an alternative to youth detention might end up at the J Bar J Ranch, which despite its name is less a working ranch than a boarding school with individual counseling aimed at helping troubled young people change themselves. Success takes many forms – high school diplomas, reconnecting with family, setting and meeting personal goals – but first the youth must earn a place at the ranch, which can only take 28 at a time.

Scientists, NGOs, conservationists, and the government worked together to bring the Polish wolf back from the brink of extinction. Methods like GPS tracking and genetic sampling have helped politicians made decisions about how to reduce human-animal conflict and ensure human development didn’t interfere with their habitats. As a result, over the last 50 years the wolf population in Poland has increased 50-fold.

To help Syrian women facing the threat of "sextortion" – harassment based on threats to expose women's nude photos – Gardenia magazine's It Is Your Right campaign has encouraged 1,100 women to come forward to sue their harassers. The campaign also provides counseling to the women. Another campaign, No To Electronic Harassment, acts more swiftly, seeking to close Facebook accounts used by harassers. So far it has closed dozens. The harassment often succeeds because of victims' fear, especially in Syrian society, of being found out by their families.

The Asian openbill stork makes its home in the Telukunchi village in India for six months of the year, and the locals band together to protect this migratory bird. The birds thrive off of the wetlands environment and up to 10,000 storks breed and lay eggs there each season. This community has largely been able to protect these birds over the years, but more could be done to work with the government to legally protect these habitats.

Inspired by the Dutch concept of “Energiesprong,” or “energy jump,” a developer in France retrofitted a group of townhouses for social housing to be more environmentally friendly. They installed polyurethane facades to avoid heat loss and solar panels on the roof. Upgrading the units to be more green cost more than a conventional retrofit, but over time, energy bills were cut in half. These green retrofits are being implemented in towns around the world and could be a model for developers that want to reduce their carbon footprints.

A dairy cooperative in Ukraine has brought jobs to farmers in the region and allowed them to work together to sell their milk on the market. An international nonprofit helped the Andriyivka Prosperity cooperative get off the ground. While villagers were skeptical of joining at first, and there are still challenges with operating the cooperative, there are 129 members that sell their milk. “The cooperative has halted the extinction of the village, allowing young people to stay in their homelands and have jobs and a livelihood,” says one of the villagers.

The “hockey hub” mass-vaccination model uses large spaces, like sports arenas, to vaccinate up to 70 people per hour, compared to 6-10 with traditional systems. Rows of 30 cubicles, each with a single chair, allow a health professional and an assistant to visit each patient with their vaccine-laden cart and quickly get consent and administer the vaccine. Once they finish the row, the first person to get their shot has waited the required post-vaccine observation time. The model requires less staff and time spent disinfecting surfaces in between patients, which substantially lowers the cost per vaccine.

Ethnic Azeri students face disproportionate barriers in achieving university education compared to Georgians. One of those reasons is due to language barriers. Isolated from Georgian society, it's not uncommon for Azeri communities to not speak Georgian fluently. The center has now expanded into a network of multiple centers. One center serves as many as 160 children. It’s working. Some of the centers had a 100% success rate in helping Azeri students enter college.

When the coronavirus pandemic made in-person therapy sessions too risky to schedule, therapists in the Czech Republic moved their services online and set up a hotline for patients to call when needed. Although it's yet to be seen if the service will remain financially viable in regards to health insurance reimbursements, it has helped eliminate many barriers including transportation troubles and feelings of stigma.

The Almajiranci system has been criticized for not integrating Western education and English lessons. To solve the issue, Malam Na’ibi, who owns an Almajiri school, started homeschooling around 30 students on subjects like math and English. These students can’t afford to attend schools that integrate Western education. “I just want to be able to speak the English language. I have never missed a class since we started.” Almajiranci school experts say the homeschooling method employed by Malam Na’ibi is exemplary of inclusive educational reforms that need to happen with the wider Almajiranci school system.

Built for Zero is a data-driven approach to ending homelessness with a proven track record of success. The strategy is scalable and takes into account variables within different communities. It aims to bring homelessness rates down to “functional zero,” which means that the number of people experiencing homelessness is low enough that they can all be housed if they wanted.

To fight obesity concerns, a law in Chile is now requiring that foods high in sugar, have a high content of saturated fats, are high in sodium, or high in calories carry a label (or labels) to help inform consumers of their contents. Although the strategy has received pushback from some companies, others have redesigned recipes to avoid the label and consumers report that it has influenced their shopping habits.

In some regions of Czechia, “one in 10 children fails to advance to the next grade.” Every year 2,000 students drop out. One school in the town of Trmice doesn’t have this problem. The school has low dropout rates and the number of students going on to university keeps growing. Their model of empathy, understanding, avoiding punishment, and establishing deep-rooted relationships with families and students is working. “To react with understanding.” “Trmice’s success depends on two things: good communication with families and work with the teaching staff.”

Lithuanian officials are launching a contact-tracing app to better trace the path of coronavirus cases and alert people when they have potentially been exposed. Although there have been delays in the roll-out of the app, other countries have already released the technology and have seen success in people downloading the app as well as quarantining when alerted that they've been in contact with the virus.

When the reality of the coronavirus pandemic arrived in Nigeria, health officials at Lagos University Teaching Hospital prioritized preparatory training and created a COVID-19 volunteer team of responders. These efforts proved especially crucial when the need arose to provide care to women who were pregnant and positive for COVID-19. Although it was difficult to assemble a team who would handle the at-risk deliveries, the first attempt proved successful and the team has been able to expand their services since then.

Kano State, once the epicenter in Nigeria for cases of COVID-19, now boasts the highest rate of daily testing numbers after piloting a community-sampling strategy that allowed for mass testing. The pilot was largely possible due to a massive community mobilization effort and resulted in a decline in community transmission.

Today for Tomorrow Foundation is a youth-led and youth-serving non-profit that provides safe spaces for talking about sexual and reproductive health, gender-based violence, and other socially taboo topics. Over 40 people have participated in the discussions and other programming. Discussions range from dispelling common myths - like the myth that using contraceptives before marriage prevents a woman from getting pregnant in the future - to teaching safe sex practices and developing a sense of empowerment so that the youth can advocate for their own wellbeing and not be constrained by the judgment of others.

A partnership between a Nigerian hospital and a cardiac interventionist group is helping to "bridge the gap in availability of quality cardiac and critical care services" for patients who are in need of care. Although the system was first tested unexpectedly during the coronavirus pandemic, it has shown early success in building and training local specialists to complete cardiac surgeries.

The CAHOOTS program's national popularity as a model for diverting crisis calls from the police to unarmed teams of a medic and counselor belies its inability to fully serve its own community because of under-funding. Program director Ebony Morgan talks about the flip side of the program's cost savings for the city: unfairly low pay for its workers, long response times, and an inability to expand. The program's success with the community is built on trust that people in crisis will be helped rather than viewed as a threat. Morgan says the program itself needs to be valued more by city budget managers.

Almost 1000 women across remote and rural areas of India are caring for beehives as a part of the Under The Mango Tree (UTMT) network. The beekeepers have been employed through a social enterprise that aims to provide an extra source of income for farmers while working towards environmental conservation efforts. Beekeeping not only provided crucial income during the coronavirus shutdown, but it also helped pollinate home gardens, increasing produce output and enabling families to avoid markets during a time of social distancing.

Kano State in Nigeria has implemented a strategy to increase the likelihood of children receiving necessary vaccinations to reduce cases of polio. The strategy, which included enhanced training on administering the vaccinations, taking the vaccines directly to homes and "collaboration between policy makers and traditional leaders," has resulted in no cases of polio for the last five years.

After lithium-ion batteries from iPhones, laptops, or electric cars are used up, the Ontario-based company LiCycle recycles parts of them to be reused in new batteries or in other products. While the recycling process isn’t completely environmentally friendly, the company is able to recover 95 percent of the raw materials and says their operations produces no carbon emissions, wastewater, or solid waste.

In Kenya's rural communities and densely populated areas, accessing sanitation and hygiene methods can be difficult, but in one slum, a nonprofit organization has teamed up with a group of young men in the community to help increase access during the Covid-19 pandemic. Together, they are providing free water and food vouchers to families and setting up hand washing stations throughoutut the area.

Arewa Radio and Freedom Radio, two stations with large audiences in Kano State, actively combat misinformation and false rumors about the coronavirus. The stations run programming that builds trust and confidence between the public and health officials. They engage local religious leaders, who are very influential in the area, provide forums for listeners to ask questions of experts, and air programming in local languages with titles such as “Demystifying COVID-19” and “Eradicating COVID-19." Although they try to make programming widely accessible, some want content available online and in infographic form.

A series of methodically planned and publicized measures to improve traffic safety have significantly lowered Lithuania's highway fatalities in what is now serving as a model for safety advocates in neighboring Poland. Starting nearly a decade ago, after traffic deaths peaked, Lithuania began increasing penalties for violations, toughening enforcement, and improving roadways. Each phase was accompanied by public education. More lenient laws and enforcement are blamed for Poland's relatively high traffic-death rate.

Taiwan responded to COVID-19 quickly, which helped keep cases low and avoid widespread shutdowns. The country had closely tracked its PPE stockpiles since the 2003 SARS outbreak, has a national health command center to coordinate responses, and uses a well-defined set of procedures to track and manage people under infectious risk or quarantine. Masks are required and provided to every citizen, inbound travelers were quickly regulated, and contact tracing and testing is widely used to prevent outbreaks. Citizens generally listen to authorities, though fines and other sanctions also encourage compliance.

Współpraca naukowców, organizacji pozarządowych, ekologów i rządu pozwoliła na przywrócenie naturze polskiego wilka, gatunku, który był na granicy wyginięcia. Metody takie, jak lokalizacje GPS i badania genetyczne pomogły politykom podejmować decyzje redukujące konflikty ludzi ze zwierzętami oraz zapewniające zwierzętom siedliska bez presji oddziaływania człowieka. W rezultacie tych działań populacja wilka w Polsce w ciągu ostatnich 50 lat wzrosła 50-krotnie.

Čeští experti z ČVUT se podílí na boji proti terorismu. Vytvořili online výukovou platformu HERMES, která přispívá k deradikalizaci bývalých džihádistů a k prevenci náboru nových lidí pro teroristickou činnost. Pomocí interaktivních cvičení a dalších vzdělávacích nástrojů učí odborníky, kteří se podílejí na procesu reintegrace potenciálně závadových osob do společnosti, jak oddělit radikální džihádisty od ostatních vězňů. Platforma se také zaměřuje na prevenci šíření radikálních myšlenek a možnosti pracovního uplatnění propuštěných věznů.

V ostrom kontraste s ich slovenskou vlasťou, Anglicko otvorilo svoju náruč rómskym prisťahovalcom a ponúklo im súbor opatrení, ktoré im majú pomôcť uspieť v ich novej krajine. Rómovia, ktorí sa stali obeťami rasizmu na oboch miestach, ale najmä medzi Slovákmi, dostávajú v Anglicku zdravotné poradenstvo a pomoc pri vzdelávaní, ktorých podstatou je inklúzia. Napríklad britská politika v oblasti školskej dochádzky zvýšila dochádzku rómskych detí o 30 percent a len málo z nich je posunutých do špeciálnych škôl.

Česko odmítá uprchlické kvóty. Místní politici říkají, že společnost není na příchod a integraci utečenců připravená. Budují v lidech strach z toho, že migrace rozvátí zemi. Zcela odlišný obraz uprchlické krize nabízí sousední Bavorsko. Tato spolková země integrovala tisíce uprchlíků, kterým pomohla naučit se německy, najít si bydlení i najít a udržet si zaměstnání. Využívají k tomu dobrovolníky, kteří téměř po celém Bavorsku organizují vzdělávací a volnočasové aktivity.

In Sri Lanka, instead of letting old buses corrode in a junkyard they are being sunk in the ocean to serve as fish-breeding sites. Over 60 buses have been dumped in the ocean across three different sites. Scientists looked at factors like depth and wave patters to determine where to sink the buses.

In Canada, farmers are rewilding their farmlands, a process where a farmer restores their habitat to a more natural state. It includes things like planting trees, building hedgerows, and creating ponds. Rewilding can prevent soil erosion, carbon sequestering, and filtering water, among many other things, reversing some of the adverse effects caused by farming. One non-profit, the Alternative Land Use Services is funding these rewilding projects by paying farmers. ALUS projects span 31,000 across Canada.

People Plus has begun to fill a vacuum left by the Belarus prison system's lack of reentry services aimed at giving people a better chance to succeed after prison. The NGO provides its "resocialization" counseling for incarcerated people in the six months before their release. In its first six months, the program counseled more than 1,000 people, helping prepare them to find housing and jobs and avoid substance abuse, which in many cases proved successful. Its peer counselors stay in contact with clients after prison through meetings and online forums.

The GEANCO Foundation provides services to increase the health of pregnant women, including an anemia clinic that provides free antenatal care and a stipend to support women’s nutritional needs. Because many women prefer to give birth with traditional birth attendants (TBAs), they’ve trained hundreds of TBAs to provide safe and hygienic care to pregnant women. Post-training, TBAs are supervised by a nurse midwife for compliance and lab technicians test women for more serious complications. GEANCO built sanitary modular clinics, with beds and a delivery room, for two TBAs with plans for more.

When Typhoon Haiyan hit the island of Busuanga in the western Phillipines it brought imminent destruction. It prompted residents, especially the women of the island, to rehabilitate the mangrove forests. Apart from storing high amounts of carbon, mangroves acts as buffers against storms and protect the coast. The indigenous women of the island monitor the growth of the mangroves.