Mutual aid efforts are emerging in Massachusetts as individuals, businesses, and organizations look for ways to help their fellow neighbors get through the coronavirus pandemic. From restaurants who are delivering food to students who aren't attending school any longer to people who are offering space in their homes to stranded college students who had to vacate their dorms, neighbors are collaborating and connecting online to offer support.

San Pedro La Laguna, a town in Guatemala, has banned single use plastics including plastic bags and straws after realizing that plastic pollution was ruining the ecosystem of Lake Atitlan and that a new waste facility would be unable to handle the amount of garbage created in the village. To ensure that people follow the new regulation, there are heavy fees - but the town also bought traditionally made biodegradable replacements; the change is being framed as a way to return to traditional, indigenous ways for the communities.

The expansion of intellectual property laws to cover ancestral knowledge can help protect indigenous people from economic exploitation. Indigenous women in Guatemala are working to pass a law similar to one used in Australia and South Africa to protect the use of textile designs.

Development work is evolving beyond short-term mission trips and one-off donations into a more comprehensive, in-depth model that addresses long-term sustainability of a solution paired with empowerment of those being served. MicroConsignment is a unique branch of micro-enterprise being implemented by non-profit SolCom in Guatemala that provides individuals in rural villages the skills and resources needed to start sustainable businesses.

A small school in rural Guatemala is challenging the way that Guatemalan children are educated (if they even have the opportunity at all) by focusing on health, education, food, and art. However, although the school's holistic approach has garnered international praise and its diplomas are recognized by the Guatemalan government , the school must rely on donors for funding.

MIT's D-Lab is supporting individuals in impoverished, rural areas invent low-cost technologies to address the needs of their communities. In 2009, the D-Lab paired with SolCom, a Guatemalan community organizing enterprise, and an international development fund to bring this model to the isolated area of Nebaj, assisting locals in creating a Makerspace for microentrepreneurs. The collaboration has fostered an environment for sustainable grassroots change, in which the social and intellectual capital needed to create the needed innovations and inventions originates in the community itself.

The MAIA Impact School, inspired by New York City's well-known KIPP charter schools, gives scholarships to ambitious indigenous girls in Guatemala with the aim of "propel[ing] them from poverty and isolation into the most elite spheres of Guatemalan society." School administrators are gradually learning how to adapt the model to a new setting with new expectations and teachers.

Voluntourism, or the practice of western volunteers paying to do service in developing countries, seems like a moral, do-good activity. However, the practice has been proven to have consequences, including reducing the need for local labor and stunting development of children in orphanages. There has recently been progress in discouraging volunteers from working in orphanages - the volunteer efforts in institutions never benefit the children - but true progress might involve staying at home.

Two columns on microconsignment, a new variation on microcredit that helps poor people living in developing countries - particularly women in rural villages - start small social businesses without taking on debt or requiring previous business skills. The organization, Soluciones Comunitarias, partners with a non-profit and a university student program to manage the supply chain and other components of the business necessary to support the social entrepreneurs in successful micro-ventures.

What started as one high school student delivering groceries to her grandmother has turned into a full-fledged organization called Zoomers to Boomers. Another similar group called Shopping Helpers LA has also popped up in the area with 300 high school volunteers delivering 100 grocery requests per day.

A kindness station was set up in Sorsogon, Philippines, to provide relief for those experiencing food insecurity. Donations have provided funding for rice, instant noodles, canned goods, some produce, and even PPE for frontline workers in the area.

Community members in North Carolina are crowdfunding campaigns to help provide meals to healthcare workers who are on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic. Working with the hospital, the campaign organizers make sure to deliver enough meals for the number of staff working each day, while also rotating units "to reach as many people as possible."