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Tackling a notorious waste problem in Africa's largest informal community

Shi En Kim

July 16, 2020 |

Ensia |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Kenya, Nairobi

Kibra Green, a grassroots organization in Kenya, mobilizes the young people in the community to clean up their neighborhood. At times, the group has as many as 500 participants for a community-wide clean up. Yet, a lack of steady funding and socioeconomic barriers for volunteers to regularly contribute to the group has made it difficult to scale the organization.

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How to Get Contact Tracing Right

Ellie Vance

July 14, 2020 |

Washington Monthly |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New York

During the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, early efforts at contact tracing by different states in the U.S. proved successful when they relied on people instead of applications or software, which showed high rates of failure since people didn't seem to want to participate or download the applications. New York state relied on human contact tracers, specifically those who lived in the neighborhoods they track. "The city’s initiative has shown early success: As of June 16, it had reached 94% of all new positive cases."

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Beach Cleanups Prove Popular And Purposeful During Pandemic

Claire Caulfield

July 06, 2020 |

Honolulu Civil Beat |

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Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Hawaii

Since single-use plastic usage has increased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations in Hawaii are planning beach cleanup events to pick up the plastic waste. Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii’s first beach cleanup event since the start of the pandemic drew 150 registrations in less than a day. 808 Cleanups is growing its adopt-a-site program where households identify a beach, waterway, or trail they’d like to regularly clean up. Coordinating a large number of volunteers while maintaining social distancing guidelines has been difficult to navigate.

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The remote British village that built one of the fastest internet networks in the UK

Kira Allmann

July 02, 2020 |

The Conversation |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United Kingdom, Clapham

A village in the UK didn't have access to internet, so the community joined together to build the infrastructure for broadband in their area. Although "building resilient, fibre-fed networks in rural areas" wasn't easy or cheap, it has made a difference, especially during the pandemic, in helping the community feel less isolated.

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SF contact tracing team asks those who have been exposed to COVID-19 to quarantine for 14 days

Michael Toren

July 01, 2020 |

Mission Local |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

San Francisco public health officials added to their staff of 25 experienced investigators to form a team of more than 100 contact tracers to try to identify and isolate new cases of COVID-19. In the second two weeks of June 2020, the expanded team reached 82% of COVID cases and 85% of those people's contacts, not far off from the 90% goals set at the start. City lawyers, librarians, and others were drafted to the cause, with 276 people receiving contact-tracer training. One gap in the agency's work is not being able to monitor and enforce compliance with quarantine orders once contacts are found.

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Keeping safe while serving, church groups tackle pandemic and protests

Joshua Eaton

June 30, 2020 |

Religion News Service |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Florissant, Missouri

After receiving a call from the local hospital saying they needed help in containing the spread of coronavirus, members of Christ the King United Church of Christ in Florissant, Missouri began sewing masks for those in low-income and minority neighborhoods. The church is now part of a larger movement known as Masks for the People that helps distribute masks to "incarcerated people, essential workers and minority communities, all of whom are more likely to be hospitalized with coronavirus, according to the CDC."

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Bridging the gender gap through groundwater monitoring in a Rajasthan village

Sahana Ghosh

June 29, 2020 |

Mongabay |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: India, Hinta, Rajasthan

A group of farmers in India have been trained to monitor their village’s groundwater levels to help its residents make more informed decisions about irrigation based on water availability. The farmers-turned-researchers are known as “Bhujal Jaankars” and they monitor rainfall, dam water levels, and water quality to notify residents so they can plant crops that don’t require a lot of water. While there is a lack of gender diversity in the group, they are working on developing training to include more functional literacy skills to encourage participation from others.

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Malian women creating alternatives to charcoal and firewood

Soumaïla Diarra

June 28, 2020 |

Inkline |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Mali, Bamako

As Mali’s population increases and urban centers grow, women in the West African country are coming up with different solutions to reduce their consumption of charcoal and wood and reverse the worsening effects of climate change and deforestation. For example, some women use a wire roll for cooking that allows them to slow the amount of charcoal burned. While making the roll isn’t as environmentally-friendly, the wire rollers allow people to avoid buying a lot of charcoal. Other solutions include creating affordable solar cookers and thermos baskets.

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How to Defund the Police

Alexis Okeowo

June 26, 2020 |

The New Yorker |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

On the front lines of the defund-police movement, groups like Elite Learners and Save Our Streets Bed-Stuy mediate conflicts in ways that have lowered violence without the involvement of police, thus reducing arrests and incarceration at the same time. CMS workers often use the Cure Violence approach of "violence interruption," a form of outreach by community members to offer needed social services while preventing violence. The city, which credits these programs with a 15% decline in shootings in 17 precincts in a three-year span, is expanding the budget for this to nearly $50 million per year.

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Canada's largest school district ended its police program. Now Toronto may be an example for U.S. districts considering the same.

Kalyn Belsha

June 19, 2020 |

Chalkbeat |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Canada, Toronto, Ontario

Prompted by Black Lives Matter protesters and informed by a controversial survey of high school students on their feelings about having police stationed in their schools, Toronto pulled police from its schools in 2017 and since then has refuted warnings of a spike in misbehavior and crime. While arrest numbers and data on students’ current feelings about safety are unknown, Canada’s largest school system at least proved that it could address unhappiness with a police presence without decreasing safety.

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