Tag: positive news

Choices, choices …

Pierre Pradervand in his book, 365 Blessings to Heal Myself and the World, says he starts his day by saying “Yes, thank you” at least seven or eight times as he gets out of bed. The idea–whatever comes his way that day he will not only be appreciative of, but he will also be flexible…

The world’s first “sand battery”

capable of storing green power for months at a time, is up and running in Finland.  One obstacle to year-round renewable power is the difficulty of capturing and storing energy when intermittent sources like wind or solar energy are unavailable. Finnish engineers at Polar Night Energy have employed a solution in a simple material: low-grade…

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 the country – the legacy of over 40 years of conflict.  MAG has been working in…

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 filled with cold, tired people who…

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 powerful unionization drive at the Amazon warehouse in Staten Island, New York. An…

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 inhabitants.After some shocking conversations with desperate individuals on the front line of the food…

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 “Amazon of Europe” – for years. Europe has degraded up to 90% of its flood plains,…

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,” says Mariano Fuentes, Madrid’s councillor for the environment and urban development. “To…

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 honeybees waited in a white van to be taken to their new homes on a…

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 a utopia, even nations with long histories of inequality and violence carry lessons for…

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 among the natural clamor, the nonprofit Rainforest Connection is using old…

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 forest under restoration by the end of 2020. According to a recent…

A positive vision for 2021

In a world immersed in urgency, with alarm bells ringing left and right and dire predictions for our future, how dare I come up with a banner marked, “Yes, so many good things are happening”? Simply because how we look upon the world is a purely subjective vision emanating from our view of existence, our…

Fighting stigma with ice cream at Sikia Cafe

Jinja, Uganda By Caleb Okereke Contributor to the CS Monitor Shadia and Imran Nakueira rented the space for a restaurant in the dreamy, lakeside town of Jinja, Uganda, before they knew exactly what they were going to do with it.  They knew one thing though: They wanted to work alongside people with disabilities.  When customers first enter…

A spiritual purpose behind everything that happens

Chicago Sun-Times Editor’s note: A supposed “open letter from Bill Gates,” the tech billionaire and philanthropist, has been bouncing all over the internet since at least March 23. The letter — titled “What is the Corona/Covid-19 virus really teaching us?” — is a fake. Gates did not write it. But there’s a reason it has…

Saving whales helps save the planet

By Chloé Gurdjian, February 18th, 2020, Shared from https://www.7sky.life/ Would whales be much more efficient than trees at absorbing CO2? The result of this study may come as a surprise, and yet it is all the more serious. Whales would be powerful allies in the fight against global warming. As the fight against global warming…

Landfill Harmonic: Paraguay’s Recycled Orchestra

A music teacher helps children living by a Paraguay landfill site to reach stardom with instruments made from rubbish. “To have nothing is not an excuse for doing nothing,” says Favio Chavez. On the edges of the Cateura landfill near Paraguay’s capital, he teaches a group of children to play violins, cellos, saxophones, flutes and…

The soft power of mothers: Fighting extremism begins at home

What if you could actually train mothers to turn their compassion and connection into the first line of defense against terrorism? In Germany and 15 other countries, it’s happening. Their sons were dropping out of school, joining radical mosques, and breaking off contact. Hundreds of mothers had told Edit Schlaffer such stories when the Austrian…

Canada has officially banned dolphin and whale captivity

Elias Marat Canada will no longer allow whales, dolphins and porpoises to be bred and held in captivity for the purpose of entertainment. In a big win for animal rights advocates, Canada will no longer allow whales, dolphins and porpoises to be bred and held in captivity for the purpose of entertainment. The Ending the…

‘Feels like home’: Israeli school for migrant kids wins by bridging worlds

Bialik-Rogozin school

Israeli government plans last year for a mass deportation of African asylum-seekers created a public outcry and remain on hold. But migrant families and their children live in a painful state of uncertainty. Yet in an impoverished neighborhood in Tel Aviv is a school dedicated to helping migrant children thrive educationally and emotionally, teaching students…

In Morocco, women find a recipe for success and gainful employment

recipe for success

Nora Belahcen Fitzgerald born In Morocco of American parents, founded the Amal for the Culinary Arts association in Marrakesh, Morocco, in 2012 as an NGO for give unemployed women hands-on experience at the association’s own restaurant, before finding them a job through its network of partners. Today, Amal (Arabic for “hope”) is so successful it doesn’t have…

Flowers that bring a smile

Flowers that bring a smile

Floral Angels, a charity re-purposing flower bouquets is helping to spread joy to others It was only when she read the letter from the women’s refuge that Frances Hunter fully realised the difference she and Floral Angels were making. “We had made up some posies and taken them to the refuge,” she remembers. “The letter…

Tangible Hope for Ethiopian Girls

Tangible Hope

“If you educate a man, you educate an individual. But if you educate a woman, you educate a nation.” African proverb After Lily Yoseph returned to Kofele, her Ethiopian hometown, she was struck by the poverty in the village, as well as the fact that often girls don’t have the opportunity to attend school. So…

“Every Acacia Tree for a Hive” …

… producing honey, protecting trees AND providing income to small farmers!A win-win project wherever acacia trees grow! I bless us in our ability to develop a relationship of deep caring, unconditional love and authentic reverence towards our sisters the bees and all creation. Pierre Pradervand, from his forthcoming book ‘365 Blessings to Heal Myself and…

A Preschool inside a Nursing Home? A Win-Win for All!

“Compassion… the capacity for feeling what it’s like to live inside somebody else’s skin. It is the knowledge that there never can really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too.” ~ Frederick Buechner Who would have ever thought that pairing preschoolers with elderly nursing home…