Positive News
When we open newspapers or watch the news on television it is easy to feel overwhelmed and discouraged by the amount of negative news that is the media’s focus.
And yet, throughout the world, there are many “points of light” – people and organizations who labour hard and tirelessly to make this world one that is brighter, more equitable, and responsive to the needs of the most vulnerable among us. These are the types of inspiring stories this new section will include – they can’t help but bless!
Growing a Flourishing Future
Food has the power to transform. Consumed, it can turn sickness into health. Given as a gift, it can turn worry into hope. And when the knowledge and ability to grow food are passed to an individual, it has perhaps the most power: to transform multiple lives and...
Transforming Old Cement Bags into Solar-Charging Backpacks to Help Children Read at Night!
A local entrepreneur in Tanzania is clearing two hurdles in one leap by transforming old cement bags into backpacks that include a small solar panel to power a reading light. By clearing municipal waste and helping rural children study after dark, the bags won the...
Historic Edinburgh Airport Runway Site to Become Vibrant Community With 3,000 Homes
For 102 years, an airport runway in Scotland witnessed the likes of The Beatles, Marlene Dietrich, and a slew of British Supermarine Spitfires touching down on its tarmac. But the airstrip, which began as just a humble line of grass, retired in 2018, and the plot of...
Bees, a solution to the conflict between elephants and humans
Elephants regularly trample crops and pastures on their migration routes. In Kenya, a nine-year study has shown that fences fitted with beehives are a very effective way of keeping the pachyderms at bay; they also enable honey to be harvested, providing an additional...
A look at the Rise of Nature Prescriptions
"It was a naturopathic doctor (ND) who handed me my first PaRx—a park prescription, sometimes called a ParkRx or NatureRx. I had exhausted all the treatment options with my family doctor and had turned to alternative medicine for answers. In addition to several...
The Growing Movement to Embrace Aging
May I drop the hectic and impossible challenge of keeping up with the Jones’, the latest news, the latest book “I just must read,” and the latest fashion of this or that. May they just fall by their own weight, and may I stand, in the simple elegance of one who has...
The Angel of Nanjing
Mr. Chen Si, known as the Angel of Nanjing, has volunteered to patrol the Yangtze Bridge every day, and over a 21-year career, he has saved 469 people from committing suicide. One of the most famous bridges in the country, it is also the world’s most popular location...
Charity creates 50 community orchards in city
Louise Brierley, BBC Midlands Today Community orchards are returning to Birmingham, with the aim of teaching people how to grow their own food and be part of the solution to climate change. They are being set up by the Fruit and Nut Village charity which started in...
Why Boston’s Wealthy Back Bay Said Yes, In Our Backyard
In a compelling tale of unity, Boston's Back Bay neighborhood turns the tables on the NIMBY ("Not In My Back Yard") phenomenon, welcoming a unique housing solution that offers much more than a roof over heads. The 140 Clarendon project, a retrofitted structure in one...
Five Grenoble (France) students to build a recycling center at the foot of Mount Everest in Nepal
Students at engineering or architecture schools, they are completing the plans for a project called "Tri-Haut pour l'Everest". The aim: to build a recycling center at the foot of Mount Everest and help local populations combat the pollution caused by tourist waste....
He Left Company Ownership to its 700 Employees
Image - George Fox Evangelical Seminary from Portland, OR, USANearly half a century ago, Bob Moore founded a natural foods brand that now boasts over 200 products in more than 70 countries. On February 10, at the age of 94, he passed away peacefully in his home in...
A glimmer of hope for education in Israel
In one of his blessings, Pierre writes “All over the world, there are millions of people who serve in silence, who do good around them, who sow seeds of love and compassion, unheralded and infinitely modest about their achievements. However, they are the glue that...
Come for the Free Meals, Stay for the Company
Brandon, Jackie and Julie meet for dinner every Thursday, sitting at their regular table. As they leave, there’s no check to pay for this generous meal. The pop-up cafe at a church hall in Chelmsford, England is one of 80 held across the country throughout the week....
Growth Potential
The word “internship” typically conjures images of copy machines and coffee runs, with professional instruction almost an afterthought. In 2021, the National Geographic Society and The Nature Conservancy launched a new conservation externship program designed to give...
In Italy, a school teaches reconciliation over revenge.
What if you had to be roommates with your enemy? That’s the idea behind a unique school in Italy. When students find calm away from conflict and ancient hatreds, the school has found, there is space to find peace. As conflicts rage around the world, there is a place...
How you can change the world
"Don’t worry if you feel you can only do one tiny good thing in one small corner of the cosmos. Just be a Buddha body in that one place." ~Thich Nhat Hanh Happiness, health, prosperity and peace, a better world for our children – all of us want these same things in...
Centuries-old Jerusalem soup kitchen serves up ‘food with dignity’
Taylor Luck - Special correspondentDown an almost-hidden passageway in Jerusalem’s labyrinthine Old City is Tikiya Khaski al-Sultan, a soup kitchen that dates to the height of the Ottoman Empire. It is a lifeline for modern-day Jerusalemites facing rising costs and...
A pop-up restaurant in Kabul is run by women for women. The Taliban are watching
By the side of a busy road in Northwestern Kabul, the savory smell of bolani, traditional vegetable-stuffed flatbread, wafts out of a cloth-walled, temporary building. Inside, a woman in a hijab and a white apron is starting to clean up the balloons, ribbons and empty...
Finding Happiness
A beautiful woman in an expensive dress came to her psychiatrist, saying that she was depressed, and her life was meaningless. 'I'm going to ask Mary here to tell you how she found happiness. All I want you to do is listen to her.' The psychiatrist called the old lady...
Albania declared the Vjosa River a national park, preserving one of Europe’s last “wild” rivers
Along its 169 miles, from Greece through Albania to the Adriatic Sea, the Vjosa runs through forests, valleys, and canyons, free from artificial barriers. About 119 miles of the river and its tributaries in Albania will now remain so – crucial for the health of some...
The values that led humanity forward this year
In an excellent article on December 22, 2022, The Christian Science Monitor highlighted some of the values that guided actions in the world during the year – ingenuity, responsibility, dignity, equality, cooperation. You can read the entire article here. We highlight...