BBC
25 March 2020
Video / 5-15 Minutes
Netherlands
VR Church, an online, fully virtual place of worship, offers a religious community outlet for people who are not able to attend physical churches, for reasons of disability, autism, or any number of things that keep people from attending. Though there might be a learning curve at first to master the VR headset technology, VR Church has seen a growth in popularity during the global lockdown due to COVID-19.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/08/northern-ireland-conflict-tools-150804100349392.html
Molly McCluskey
Al Jazeera
6 August 2015
Text / 800-1500 Words
Every so often tensions between the Catholic "nationalists" and the Protestant "loyalists" increase and the police try to diffuse the situations. Social media is affecting these flare ups by providing police with information and citizens with an opportunity to hear the other side's perspective.
https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2019/may/border-runs-through-el-paso-youth-ministry.html
Bekah McNeel
Christianity Today
22 April 2019
Text / 1500-3000 Words
For undocumented youth who commute between El Paso, Texas and Juárez, Mexico for school, finding a community to connect with and feel safe in is especially challenging. The Christian youth organization Young Life is there to fill that gap in immigrant students' lives by offering emotional and spiritual guidance as well as a support system that deals with any and all issues that arise, whether citizenship-related or not. The group has mentored hundreds of high school students whose lives straddle the border over the years, and many of those credit the group with helping them make sense of their "messy" lives.
https://progressive.org/magazine/fix-it-and-they-will-come-mazur
Laurie Mazur
The Progressive
1 December 2019
Text / Over 3000 Words
Around the United States, small-town institutions are shuttering and communal ties are weakening, all less than positive signs for the fate of democracy. But in Orange, New Jersey, Mindy Fullilove and other congregants at the First Unitarian Universalist Church used a crowdfunding platform called ioby and asset-based community development to keep the doors of their church open and their community flourishing.
https://www.areweeurope.com/stories/islam-finds-home-in-germany-isabelle-de-pommereau
Isabelle de Pommereau
Are We Europe
18 March 2020
Text / 1500-3000 Words
Germany is unusual amongst countries in its attitude towards religion—it considers faith to be "sociologically and psychologically important and part of both individuals and society." In these advances, it has begun to teach the religion of Islam in its German-speaking public schools, within state-supervised curriculum that also covers Catholicism and Protestantism. This helps the German people to get to know their large Muslim population better and helps weed out radicalism with education. This is part of a larger strategy to better integrate their Muslim residents, which has a lot of public support.
https://www.euractiv.com/section/coronavirus/news/commitment-transparency-pay-off-as-south-korea-limits-covid-19-spread
Andrés Sánchez Braun
EURACTIV
16 March 2020
Text / Under 800 Words
Weeks before the coronavirus outbreak was declared to be a pandemic, Seoul, and other parts of South Korea set into motion a combination of "prevention and mitigation programs" that are now being touted as lessons for other countries struggling to contain the virus. Using technological advancements such as a national mobile phone alert system and mobile phone applications along with increased transparency around data collected, new reports of cases have slowed allowing the country to prepare for a potential surge later on.
https://thebristolcable.org/2020/03/self-organising-coronavirus-fight-back
Adam Cantwell-Corn
The Bristol Cable
18 March 2020
Text / 800-1500 Words
As a grass-roots response to assist vulnerable populations amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, communities around the world are using social media to distribute supplies, services, and advice. One such group on Facebook, the Bristol Community Care - Covid-19 Mutual Aid, has gone viral with thousands of members seeking to help or receive help.
https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/can-volunteer-run-online-platforms-to-support-neighbors-in-need-meet-demand
Julia Hotz
Next City
19 March 2020
Text / 800-1500 Words
As social distancing becomes increasingly important as cities and states work to control the coronavirus outbreak, people in New York are finding creative ways to communicate in order to help one another. In New York City, community members are utilizing a website where volunteers are matched with their vulnerable neighbors' requests for errands, while in Brooklyn, community organizers are using a spreadsheet to connect and find support.
https://www.fastcompany.com/90477956/want-to-do-something-good-during-your-coronavirus-quarantine-do-mutual-aid
Adele Peters
FastCompany
17 March 2020
Text / Under 800 Words
Those over the age of 65 have been instructed to stay at home as much as possible during the coronavirus pandemic, so younger adults are coming together across the nation to help deliver this population essentials. Between Facebook, Nextdoor, and basic spreadsheets, communities are finding ways to provide mutual aid by connecting lower-risk neighbors with their more at-risk neighbors.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/06/health/coronavirus-misinformation-social-media.html
Matt Richtel
The New York Times
6 February 2020
Text / 1500-3000 Words
As word of the coronavirus outbreak spread, so did misinformation, so the World Health Organization began working with big tech companies to put a stop to it. Collaborating with the likes of Pinterest, Google, Twitter, and Facebook, W.H.O. has posted content that disputes the incorrect information across platforms and sites in order to make "falsehoods harder to find in searches or on news streams."
https://www.wired.com/story/a-disease-tracker-backed-by-gates-and-zuckerberg-tackles-covid-19
Megan Molteni
Wired
10 March 2020
Text / 1500-3000 Words
Identifying the metagenomic sequencing for new outbreaks of viruses can help to better assess how the virus is spreading, which in turn helps health officials figure out how to slow down the contagion. In the midst of a coronavirus outbreak, a tool that was first used to during the SARS outbreak is now being used to track Covid-19 in under-resourced places such as Cambodia.
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