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!
Angola
Flag of Angola Angola remains one of the most heavily mined countries in the world, with over 73 million square meters of land contaminated and over 1,100 known and suspected minefields. Millions of landmines and other unexploded bombs are still scattered throughout...
Shine some light!
Our positive news this month is an Excerpt from an article by Elizabeth Gilbert, an American author best known for her memoir Eat, Pray, Love. Some years ago, I was stuck on a crosstown bus in New York City during rush hour. Traffic was barely moving. The bus was...
Medical bills cancelled
Soon after giving birth to a daughter two months premature, Terri Logan received a bill from the hospital. She recoiled from the string of numbers separated by commas. Her daughter is now 13. Then a few months ago … Logan received some bright yellow envelopes in the...
Helping the Rich Let Go
By Chuck Collins (excerpts from the original article. Read the full article here. Over the next 20 years, a minimum of $35 trillion, and up to $70 trillion, in wealth will transfer from the post-World War II generation to the next younger generation. Most of that...
How a radical humanitarianism slayed a soulless corporate giant
The following is an excerpt from Marianne Williamson’s Transform article and interview. It’s an inspiring story of how one person can make a difference in building a world that works for all! In April of 2022, a young man named Christian Smalls led a...
Jackpot winner of lottery donates most of winnings to a foundation to protect the environment
A lucky Frenchman has decided to dedicate most of his record-breaking $217 million lottery jackpot to a nature foundation he created, he told Le Parisien in an exclusive interview published Wednesday. The winner, nicknamed "Guy" by French lottery group Françaises des...
Amid war and disease, World Happiness Report shows bright spot
In this troubled time of war and pandemic, the World Happiness Report 2022 shows a bright light in dark times. According to the team of international researchers, including McGill University Professor Christopher Barrington-Leigh, the pandemic brought not...
Gleaning: the ancient right that is making a comeback in Cornwall
An idea dating to biblical times that could be replicated elsewhere! The Cornwall Gleaning network was started in early 2020 after its founder, Holly Whitelaw watched a Simon Reeve documentary about Cornwall, its hidden poverty and challenges being faced by its...
Smile!
A smile costs nothing but gives much. It enriches those who receive it, without making poorer those who give. It takes but a moment, but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever. None is so rich or mighty that he can get along without it, and none is too poor that he...
Amazon of Europe
UNESCO has designated a 4,876-square-mile area around the Mura, Drava, and Danube rivers the first biosphere reserve to span five countries. Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, and Slovenia have been campaigning for recognition of a biosphere reserve – dubbed the...
Choose Love Movement
On December 14, 2012, 20-year-old Adam Lanza entered the Sandy Hook Elementary School in the town of Newton, Connecticut and shot and killed 26 people, including 20 children between six and seven years old, and six adult staff members. The incident is the...
Compassion Through Song at Life’s Thresholds
There's no time Kate Munger can remember that her mother wasn't singing. Every night, Kate and her four siblings would be graced with lullabies at their bedsides. The physical proximity of the vibrations of her mother’s body would activate the cells in Kate. Now, Kate...
Madrid building a huge urban forest in a bid to combat climate change
By Jaime Velázquez • Updated: 19/07/2021 To combat climate change and pollution, Madrid is building a green wall around the city. A 75-kilometre urban forest with nearly half a million new trees. “What we want to do is to improve the air quality in the whole city,”...
About honeybees and other pollinators!
Beehive deliveries keep New Yorkers buzzing on rooftops, backyards Bustling New York City may not seem a bee-friendly place, but its high-rise rooftops and tiny gardens are buzzing with honeymakers threatened by pesticides in rural areas. About 2.4 million Italian...
Arab And Jewish Hospital Medics Worked In Solidarity Near Gaza during the May hostilities
Amid rocket fire and Arab-Jewish violence on the streets, doctors and nurses at Assuta Hospital in Ashdod, Israel, have treated 111 people affected by the violence. Due to the hospital's 15-mile proximity to the Gaza border, medics of both Arab and Jewish faiths staff...
Progress Report
Governments from Australia to Rwanda, from Sweden to Brazil, and from Kenya to Belarus have devised policy solutions to bolster the health, well-being, and basic functioning of their societies, sometimes at the urging of grassroots organizers. And while no country is...
Behind prison walls, cats and inmates rehabilitate each other through animal care program
October 19, 2020, Indianapolis Star (A leading newspaper of Indianapolis)https://www.indystar.com/story/news/local/indianapolis/2020/10/19/cats-inmates-rehabilitate... Cats are unable to distinguish between street clothes and prison uniforms – and that’s...
On repurposing cell phones in Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru
A surveillance system made from repurposed cellphones is helping deter illegal logging in the Amazon. From 2001 to 2018, Brazil lost more than 100 million acres of tree cover. Instead of relying on park rangers to wander the forest and pick out sounds of logging...
Two encouraging stories
More and more countries are realizing that measures must be taken to combat pollution and climate change. Here are two examples - Mexico City’s ban on most single-use plastics came into effect in January after more than a year of preparation. In 2020, Mexico...
This City Makes Sure No One Goes Hungry—Even During COVID
A waiter serves soda to a man at the open-air restaurant installed at Praça da Estação. About 3,000 meals are being distributed every Friday, in addition to food, fruit, and water. Nestled on a wide plateau surrounded by the Espinhaço Mountains in southeastern Brazil...
Reforestation project
Researchers say the world’s largest reforestation project – the 2011 Bonn Challenge – has beaten its 2020 target. Launched nearly a decade ago by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Germany, the challenge aimed to have 371 million acres of degraded...