Cooperation and Chocolate: The Story of One Colombian Community's Quest for Peace
https://www.yesmagazine.org/economy/2021/01/14/harvesting-cacao-colombia-peace?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Agostino Petroni
Yes! Magazine
14 January 2021
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Plagued by an internal war, a group of villages in Colombia created a “Peace Community,” declaring themselves neutral in the conflict and focusing their efforts on cultivating the 150 hectares of cacao trees in collectively owned plots to sell to global markets. While villagers still experience violence, the earnings from their crops goes into a collective pot and the community decides together how to distribute the funds. “To them, this is actually a very profound act of transcending traditional capitalist society models and building something together,” says an anthropologist who has studied the community.
Bosnian Seniors Fight Loneliness Through Arts and Crafts
https://tol.org/client/article/bosnian-seniors-fight-loneliness-through-arts-and-crafts.html?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Lidija Pisker
Transitions Online
9 November 2020
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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.
How They Did It: Tracking Down a Rwandan Genocide Suspect
https://gijn.org/2020/10/27/how-they-did-it-tracking-down-a-rwandan-genocide-suspect?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Marthe Rubió
Global Investigative Journalism Network
27 October 2020
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Years after international authorities had stopped searching for a man suspected of being an architect of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, a freelance journalist spent eight months searching data and doing on the ground reporting to find the suspect in central France. A story on the find by journalist Théo Englebert led Rwanda to issue an arrest warrant and a French prosecutor to open a counterterrorism investigation. Englebert's sleuthing provides a tutorial on "finding someone who wants to disappear."
Online Art Keeps Bosnia's Isolated Seniors Connected in Pandemic
https://balkaninsight.com/2020/09/09/online-art-keeps-bosnias-isolated-seniors-connected-in-pandemic?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Lidija Pisker
Balkan Insight
9 September 2020
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Before the coronavirus pandemic, Our Bridge in Bosnia provided services to seniors to combat social isolation. Despite having to shut down in-person classes due to the pandemic, both groups now use online art and music classes to reach people who are isolated and at risk of depression. The group joined with the Serbian association, Art Aparat, to offer singing, art, and handicraft classes by video. In person connections are preferred and missed, but the group adapted to changing circumstances to provide even more isolated seniors with social connections, and the partnership allows for cultural exchanges.
How a contested region became a model for multilingual coexistence
https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2020/08/22/how-a-contested-region-became-a-model-for-multilingual-coexistence?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
The Economist
The Economist
22 August 2020
Text / Under 800 Words
The border between Denmark and Germany was highly politicized and when it was set, Germans found themselves in Denmark and Danes found themselves in Germany. Each country is required to offer regional schools taught in the other language and some Germans have decided to send their children to Danish schools and vice versa. Over the years this has led to cultural exchanges and better relationships between the groups. It can be hard to convince Germans to learn Danish because there are just about 5.5 million native speakers, and young Danes now prefer to learn English over German.
The day Bluetooth brought a cardiologist to every village in Cameroon
https://genevasolutions.news/explorations/11-african-solutions-for-the-future-world/the-day-bluetooth-brought-a-cardiologist-to-every-village-in-cameroon?utm_source=Solutions+Story+Tracker
Morgane le Cam
Geneva Solutions
19 August 2020
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A severe cardiologist shortage, especially in rural areas, led to the creation of the Cardiopad, an electrocardiogram device that allows local doctors to easily perform examinations and use Bluetooth to transfer them to cell phones to send to a cardiologist based in another hospital. The device is used in about 100 Cameroonian hospitals and 150 are used abroad in Comoros, Gabon, Guinea, Kenya, and Nepal, among other countries. Since 2016, 9,800 remote examinations have been carried out with the Cardiopad. The telemedicine capabilities fight medical deserts by bringing cardiologists to remote villages.