People Fixing the World

Premature babies often need a lot of expensive specialised care - but that isn’t always available. So, doctors in Colombia are teaching mothers to look after their babies in a similar way that kangaroos look after their own young.

It’s called "kangaroo mother care" and instead of being in an incubator, babies are wrapped tightly against their mother’s skin.

The technique was developed in Bogota in the late 1970s as a response to overcrowding in hospital maternity units. There weren't enough incubators and around 70% of premature babies didn’t survive.

Doctors started using this simple skin-to-skin method. They found it wasn't only saving babies but was also helping them to thrive. Now, kangaroo care has spread around the world.

Presenter: Myra Anubi Reporter: Zoe Gelber Series producer: Tom Colls Sound mix: Hal Haines Editor: Richard Vadon Email: peoplefixingtheworld@bbc.co.uk Image: A baby in the kangaroo position

The fashion industry is the third largest manufacturing industry in the world consuming huge amounts of the world’s resources and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. But some innovators are trying to make the industry more sustainable. We discover how old fire hoses in the UK have been diverted from landfill and turned into fashionable bags and accessories. Plus we visit Mongolia to find out about a new luxury material made from yak hair. It's an eco-friendly replacement for cashmere which comes from goats who are causing desertification. Presenter: Myra Anubi Producer/reporter: Claire Bowes Executive Producer: Richard Kenny Series Producer: Jon Bithrey Editor: Tom Bigwood Sound Mix: Andrew Mills

How do you pull subsistence farmers in Africa out of the cycle of poverty? All you have to do is help them produce more food than they need to survive. But to do that you need money and a new company in Nigeria has designed a smart way to provide it. Farmcrowdy connects farmers with online urban micro-investors. The investors finance the production of chickens, vegetables or grain and receive a guaranteed financial return – and the farmer makes enough to start to grow their business.

Producer: Shabnam Grewal Presenter: Dougal Shaw

Photo Caption: The Farmcrowdy app Photo Credit: BBC

A growing movement in the UK is devolving the power of catching speeding motorists from the police to the people. Police have been working with community volunteers, letting them use speed guns in a bid to protect their communities from fast traffic. But as more of these amateurs learn to wield the speed gun, it’s a solution that’s thrown up its own problems. Presenter: Harriet Noble Reporter: Dougal Shaw

Photo Caption: A volunteer wields a laser speed gun Photo Credit: BBC

When we think of peace talks we think of politicians from opposing camps meeting behind closed doors in wood-panelled rooms, hammering out the details of an agreement that both sides can accept. But that process hasn’t led to long term peace when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. So is it a mistake to think that only governments can negotiate peace? The Minds of Peace initiative brings together ordinary Israelis and Palestinians to negotiate their own peace agreement.

Producer & Reporter: Elizabeth Davies

Photo Credit: BBC

Could bilingual schools help bring peace to a seemingly intractable conflict? In Israel, the school you’ll go to is largely decided before you’re even born – by whether you come from a Jewish or Arab family. Communities learn separately and live separately and that, many argue, cements the hostility and misunderstanding of generations. So is the solution to bring them side-by-side? Hand in Hand is a network of integrated schools across Israel where Jewish and Arab students are taught together in Hebrew and Arabic. As part of the BBC’s Crossing Divides season, World Hacks visits one of the schools to see how well this model works and whether it really has a lasting impact. Producer: Harriet Noble

Picture Credit: BBC

People can’t resist a prize, especially when there’s money to go with a medal, and for hundreds of years that basic human urge has been used to push humanity forward. When you focus minds and money towards a simple target, incredible things can happen - from the clock that won the Longitude prize money in the 1700s to the spacecraft that won the XPRIZE in 2004. Are there any problems that a big enough prize cannot solve?

Producer & Reporter: William Kremer

Photo Caption: Pilot Mike Melvill standing on Space Ship One, which went on to win the Ansari XPRIZE Photo Credit: Getty Images This programme uses a sound effect created by Freesound user bone666138

Correction: Since our interview with Marcus Shingles was recorded, he has stepped down as CEO of XPrize

Loneliness and isolation can trigger a host of other problems, particularly for our health. But a town in Somerset, in the United Kingdom, appears to have taken a big step towards alleviating the problem. A team in Frome has implemented a handful of simple ideas – getting people to talk about the problems they face and finding ways for them to re-engage with family, friends or social clubs – and they believe it is having a dramatic effect. The cost of emergency admissions in Frome has fallen steeply, while it rises across most of the UK. We visit the town to meet the ‘connectors’ driving the project, and the people they have helped.

Presenter: Nick Holland

Photo caption: Susan Redding Photo credit: BBC

**This episode is a repeat from 23 January 2018**

Naomi is not your average teacher. For one thing, she is only six months old. But in many schools across Canada babies like Naomi are a regular feature at the front of class. It is because of an education programme called Roots of Empathy, which is designed to encourage kids to be kinder. The idea is that because a baby cannot explain and externalise how it is feeling, children learn to recognise and identify the baby’s emotions, and become more emotionally astute themselves. It has been proven to reduce bullying. People Fixing the World visits a school in Toronto to see how it works.

Reporter: Harriet Noble Presenter: Tom Colls

Photo Caption: Baby Naomi Photo Credit: BBC

Space is littered with junk – some pieces as small as a fleck of paint, and some as large as a London bus. So much of it is orbiting the Earth, in fact, that it poses a danger to future missions. But how can space be cleaned up? One way could be to catch the junk in a net, or to use a harpoon to grab it. A team in Surrey, in the UK, are launching a special spacecraft to find all of this out.

Reporter: Nick Holland Presenter: Dougal Shaw

Image: Stock illustration of space debris Credit: Getty Images

Being homeless is extremely bad for your health. Homeless people end up in hospital far more often, and when they get there their condition is often serious. We visit a London hospital to see how one innovative healthcare charity is rethinking caring for the homeless – and how a hospital visit can be an opportunity to do far more than just patch a patient up and send them on their way.

Presenter: Tallulah Berry Reporter: Tom Colls Producer: Ammar Ebrahim

Image: Gary Spall (BBC)

One of every five bird species could be extinct within the next century. Whether it’s down to the shiny glass office blocks materialising all over cities or the trawlers sailing ever-further out to sea to feed our growing population, our birds are seriously under threat. This episode looks at two particular successes when it comes to helping the world’s feathered friends: how Toronto has become a world leader in making cities bird-friendly, and how a group of enterprising conservationists has almost eliminated the deaths of albatrosses as a result of deep-sea fishing.

Presenter: Tom Collls Producer: Harriet Noble

Image: Pair of albatrosses Credit: Shutterstock

CORRECTION: In this programme we say that two buildings in Toronto where bird collisions were high lost court cases and had to be adapted. In fact they did not lose the court cases. The charges were dismissed but as a result of the trial bird-safe markers were applied to sections of the buildings.

More than $20bn is spent on chewing gum around the world each year. A lot of that gum will end up stuck to the streets. That's why gum is the second most common kind of street litter after cigarette materials. In the UK councils spend around £50m each year cleaning up the mess. But British designer Anna Bullus had an idea - what if the sticky stuff could actually be recycled and turned into useful objects? Presenter: Harriet Noble Reporter: Dougal Shaw

Photo caption: Shoe sole made of chewing gum Photo credit: BBC

Social media and messaging apps play a role in the extremist “radicalisation” of individuals. Tech companies have tried to get better at identifying extremist content and taking it down, but some specialists advocate an alternative approach – to use these platforms to engage with extremists one-to-one, to confront them and talk them round.

Last year, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue in London organised hundreds of conversations on Facebook messenger between activists and those expressing extreme Islamist and far-right sympathies. World Hacks has been given exclusive access to their report.

This experiment raises many moral and practical questions. Do those posting extreme views online still have a right to privacy? At what point do we judge someone as suitable for this kind of intervention? And what exactly is the best way to start a conversation with an extremist?

Presenter: Elizabeth Davies Producer: William Kremer

Photo credit: Colin Bidwell (BBC)

CORRECTION: In this programme, we say that counter-conversations were part of Facebook’s Online Civil Courage Initiative (OCCI). It was in fact a separate project, also funded by Facebook.

An app in Greece is helping people donate their leftover drugs to people who can't afford to buy them. So far the system has helped to recover and redistribute 13,000 boxes of medicine. Donors use the software to scan a unique code on the side of their boxes of unwanted drugs. The app automatically uploads details of the medication to a central database. They're then taken in by the country's network of social pharmacies where they're then given out to unemployed and homeless people.

Reporter: Nick Holland Presenter: Harriet Noble

You’re standing on a stage, blinded by a spotlight trained on your face, knees weak, hands sweaty. Someone from the audience calls out a random word and you have to immediately react and come up with an amusing sketch or skit. This is improv, the unscripted theatre form that seems like it would cause rather than cure anxiety. But across North America people with the mental health condition are signing up for special “Improv for Anxiety” courses where the techniques and practices of the stage art are used to boost confidence.

Producer: Harriet Noble Presenter: Tom Colls Photo Credit: BBC

Providing food for seven billion people is fraught with difficulty. Fertilising vast tracts of land and flying fresh vegetables across the globe comes at a huge environmental cost. But more and more people are turning to hydroponics - growing plants in water, without any soil. The idea itself is hundreds of years old, but new twists on the old technique are now shaping the future of food. We investigate some of the most innovative hydroponics projects, from the refugees growing barley for their goats in the Algerian desert to the underground farm built in an abandoned London bomb shelter. But how efficient can the process become? Can hydroponics begin to offer a serious alternative to conventional farming?

Presenter: Harriet Noble Photo credit: Shutterstock

By its very nature, volunteering means you don’t get paid. But what if there was a way to compensate volunteers that also helped the local economy? The northern English city of Hull is trying an experiment with a new, local cryptocurrency called HullCoin - the first of its kind in the world. It’s a sort of community loyalty scheme, that can only be earned by doing ‘good deeds’ and can only be redeemed in local businesses. But can it really improve the economic resilience of struggling industrial cities? World Hacks has been to Hull to find out.

Presenter: Dougal Shaw Reporter: Elizabeth Davies Photo Credit: BBC

Naomi is not your average teacher. For one thing, she is only six months old. But in many schools across Canada babies like Naomi are a regular feature at the front of class. It is because of an education programme called Roots of Empathy, which is designed to encourage kids to be kinder. The idea is that because a baby cannot explain and externalise how it is feeling, children learn to recognise and identify the baby’s emotions, and become more emotionally astute themselves. It has been proven to reduce bullying. World Hacks visits a school in Toronto to see how it works.

Reporter: Harriet Noble Producer: Elizabeth Davies

(Photo: Naomi)

An English woman has championed a way to bring back community spirit to city streets and keep children fit. She creates pop-up playgrounds by regularly closing the roads to cars. Alice Ferguson began her project in Bristol and the idea is spreading around the UK. It is part of a much larger, global movement that thinks it can give children a better deal.

Up to 90% of the world’s coral could be dead by 2050, according to some estimates, unless we take radical action.

Tackling climate change remains the central battle, but around the world scientists are working on projects that may give coral a greater chance of survival, or at least buy it some time.

The World Hacks team investigates ‘super coral’ in Hawaii, an innovative insurance policy in Cancun, Mexico and a highly controversial plan to geo-engineer clouds above the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

Can any of these schemes transform the fortune of this endangered ecosystem?

Presenter: Sofia Bettiza

World Hacks follows up on some of our stories from last year – going back to innovators around to world to see how their projects have developed. We hear updates on the app that lets volunteers donate their vision to blind people, the man making roads out of plastic and the compost toilets in Haiti that are turning human waste into soil.

Presenters: Harriet Noble and Dougal Shaw Reporters: Amelia Martyn-Hemphill and Nick Holland

Image: People Fixing the World illustration / Credit: BBC

This week we hear about three small solutions trying to make a dent on some big problems. We hear about an outdoor gym made from melted-down knives. We talk to the scout leaders in Madagascar trying to break taboos around periods. And in London we visit the community fridge, where locals can donate and take whatever they want.

Reporters: Amelia Martyn-Hemphill, Clare Spencer and Harriet Noble Presenter: Tom Colls

Image: The Steel Warrior gym / Credit: BBC

In Southern Africa, over seven thousand women are infected with HIV each week. Many can't persuade their partners to wear a condom, so a new form of protection being tested in Malawi could be a real game-changer. It's a small silicon ring which encircles the cervix and releases antiretroviral drugs, lowering the women’s risk of contracting HIV. Their partners can’t feel it, and don’t even need to know it’s there. World Hacks meets the women pioneering this approach and taking control of their own protection.

Presenter: India Rakusen Reporter: Ruth Evans

Image: A community health nurse in Malawi holds up the dapivirine ring / Credit: BBC

If you are a wheelchair user, travelling by aeroplane can be very difficult. Buses, trains and some cars are designed for people to roll into without getting out of their chair, but planes are not, which means an often painful process of moving between the chair and the airline seat – if this is even possible. This can potentially lead to injuries and can stop disabled people travelling by air.

Now, a small group of amateur campaigners is trying to change this – designing and testing their own systems that would let their loved-ones travel the world in safety and comfort.

Presenter: Harriet Noble Reporter: William Kremer

Image: Wheelchair crash testing / Credit: Michele Erwin

Most Malawians live in rural areas and if they get sick, it can be incredibly difficult to get testing kits or medicines in time. Malawi's government has now opened up part of its sky to companies and charities who want to use drones to solve this problem, creating what’s being called the world’s first humanitarian drone testing corridor. World Hacks travels to rural Malawi to assess the opportunities and dangers from this new technology, and to see how much Malawians could benefit.

Image: Villagers in rural Malawi look on as a drone carrying medical supplies is unloaded / Credit: BBC

Your chances of surviving a cardiac arrest while out on the high street are slim. It's estimated survival rates decrease by ten percent for every minute you don't get medical help. The nearest ambulance may be on its way but could take several minutes to arrive. But what if an off-duty paramedic was just around the corner and could help out? BBC World Hacks looks at a new alert system that informs people with first aid training when they're in the vicinity of a medical emergency. Nick Holland investigates whether it works work and what difference it could make to survival rates?

Image: The app that shows people with first aid training the location of a cardiac arrest / Credit: BBC

A retired police detective and a former neo-Nazi leader may seem like an unlikely partnership. But Dr Bernd Wagner and Ingo Hasselbach have taken their past differences and used them as the basis for making a real change. When Hasselbach quit neo-Nazism over two decades ago he and Wagner, who had once arrested him, realised they had a shared dream: to help far right extremists change their ways.

Presenter: Tallulah Berry Reporter: Harriet Noble

Image: Ingo Hasselbach / Credit: BBC

In 1998, 42% of Iceland’s 15 and 16 year-olds reported that they had got drunk in the past 30 days. By 2016, though, this figure had fallen to just 5% and drug use and smoking had also sharply declined. The action plan that led to this dramatic success is sometimes called “the Icelandic Model” – and strikingly, it does not focus on tighter policing or awareness campaigns to warn children off bad habits. Instead, top researchers collaborate closely with communities on initiatives like parental pledges and night-time patrols after dark, while the government invests in recreational facilities. But is being a teenager in Iceland still fun?

Presenter: Harriet Noble Reporter: William Kremer

Image: Icelandic teenagers / Credit: BBC

Thousands of places in the world don't officially exist on a map. If you're not on a map, it can have implications for how people find you - in times of disaster for example. But a project called Missing Maps is solving that, by using the power of volunteers to make 'invisible people, visible'. At a mapathon in London, volunteers are sitting around their laptops plotting the world. And then in Malawi, mapping experts are putting in essential details to the map. World Hacks travels there to see the finished maps and what impact they could have on communities living there.

Reporter: Charlotte Pritchard Presenter: Dougal Shaw Producer: Nick Holland

Image: People looking at a map / Credit: BBC

to stop people getting caught short. What do you do if you're out and about and can't find a public toilet? Do you sneak into a cafe and hope no one notices, buy something you don't want just for the privilege of using the facilities, or hold it in until you can get home? The number of public toilets around the world is decreasing, making this an increasingly common dilemma. But not in many parts of Germany thanks to a scheme called "Die Nette Toilette", or the nice toilet. Local authorities pay businesses a monthly fee to let anyone wonder in and go to the loo for free. Not only does this dramatically increase the number of available toilets, it leads to big savings for the public purse.

Written and produced by Harriet Noble Presented by Dougal Shaw

Image: Interior of a German public toilet / Credit: BBC

Around 75% of the world's population, approximately 4 billion people, don't have an address. Take a country like Mongolia, with a largely nomadic population, where street names and postcodes can be few and far between. But that could all be changing thanks to just three words. Mongolia's Postal Service was the first in the world to sign up to What3Words, an idea from a British former music executive fed up of bands and equipment constantly getting lost. He's divided the entire world into 3m squares and given each one a different three word phrase, and it could mean that everyone in the world will soon have an address.

Presenter: Tom Colls Reporter / Producer: Harriet Noble

Image: How What Three Words divides up the world / Credit: Google Maps

Although Iceland is thought to be the best country in the world for gender equality, it lags behind in one metric: the gender pay gap. So a decade ago the country's unions and business community came together to try something new. They devised a management standard to help organisations implement equal pay. Now the government has gone a step further and introduced a law that from January will force companies to adopt the standard or face fines. So is this small island nation set to be the first in the world to equalise pay?

Presenter: India Rakusen Reporter: William Kremer

Image: Illustration of two Icelandic people / Credit: BBC

It looks like the set of Game of Thrones. Once a year Wolin in Poland hosts a huge Viking festival - with a twist. Enthusiasts come from around the world not just to re-enact battles, but to win them, fighting competitively. One organiser of these battles has found that this Viking scene can offer positive benefits to men who have been defined by violence in their past, and are now looking for a way to escape. Presenter: Sofia Bettiza Reporter: Dougal Shaw

Image: A modern Viking gets ready for a battle / Credit: BBC

It’s not usually a good idea to take selfies of your private parts, but what if those photos could save your life? A new, tiny medical device is being used across Africa to detect cervical cancer from a mobile phone photograph. In Gambia, doctors are often in short supply, but nurses, midwives and smartphones are widely available, allowing patients to be diagnosed and treated remotely. In sub Saharan Africa, cervical cancer is the number one cause of cancer deaths in women, but it takes years to develop and can be treated for under $30 if caught early. Can cervical selfies get women talking about a silent, unseen killer?

Presenter: India Rakusen Reporter: Amelia Martyn-Hemphill.

Image: Nurse using the EVA system in Gambia / Credit: BBC

Humanity’s hunger for meat is not good for the planet. Every cow, pig and fish that farmers rear has an environmental cost – particularly in the land and water resources it takes to grow the food the animals eat. But one entrepreneur is developing a solution – create animal feed from methane gas. Using methane-eating bacteria, they have developed animal feed that uses a fraction of the land and water of plant-based animal feed. Reporter: Charlotte Pritchard Presenter: Sahar Zand Series Producer: Tom Colls

Image: Sushi being picked up with chopsticks / Credit: 4kodiak / Getty Images

Local currencies – money you can only spend at small local businesses – aim to keep money in their neighbourhood and out of the hands of big corporations and their shareholders. Now they are going digital, with local currencies that live only on smartphone money apps. Could it make them a financial force to be reckoned with? Presenter: India Rakusen Reporter: Dougal Shaw

Image: A local digital currency working on a smartphone / Credit: BBC

Each year around 100,000 women die due to heavy bleeding after giving birth. But help is at hand from an unexpected source: condoms. World Hacks goes to a maternity hospital in Kenya to speak to the medical staff using this super-cheap kit that is saving lives.

Also on the programme, the US start-up that is asking volunteers to donate their voices, then transforming them into personalised, digital voices for people with degenerative diseases.

Reporters: Harriet Noble and Amelia Martyn-Hemphill Presenter: India Rakusen

Image: Midwife Anne Mulinge / Credit: BBC

Antibiotic resistant superbugs are a huge problem both in humans and in animals. Many animals reared for food are routinely fed antibiotics to prevent infections. Farmers across the world do it to protect their livestock and to safeguard their incomes. But some bugs are becoming resistant to these drugs because of their overuse – fuelling the rise of animal “superbugs” like MRSA that could potentially spread to humans. This means that animals and people can die from common infections because the antibiotics no longer work. In the Netherlands, the story of one sick little girl caused pig farmers to wake up to a huge pig MRSA infection that was spreading to humans. Recognising the problem, a couple of pig farmers started a movement that has resulted in the country cutting their antibiotics use in animals by 65% - and, crucially, without affecting their profits. World Hacks investigates how a group of pig farmers solved a massive problem in The Netherlands and whether other countries should urgently follow suit.

Presenter: Tallulah Berry Reporter/ Producer: Shoku Amirani

Image: Pig on a farm in The Netherlands / Credit: BBC

The availability of blood for transfusions saves lives after difficult births and operations. But in much of the developing world, hospitals have a blood shortage. One entrepreneur in Nigeria is working on a solution. She has developed an app that connects blood banks to hospitals, and has built a network of moped drivers to ferry blood around Lagos, the largest city in the country. World Hacks investigates whether her solution can save lives.

Also on the programme, the designers of a new “city tree” – large structures filled with moss that attempt to absorb pollution from the air.

Presenter: Mukul Devichand Reporters: Stephanie Hegarty and Dougal Shaw

Image: Moped driver in Lagos / Credit: BBC

How do you help female doctors get back to work when they've given up medicine to look after their families? It's a particular problem in Pakistan where the majority of medical graduates are women who stop working after they get married. Now a scheme has been set up employing them to hold video clinics with patients over the internet, enabling them to work flexibly from home. What's more they're aiming to improve access to health care in Pakistan by targeting their 'computer screen clinics' at people living in deprived parts of the country, where the shortage of female doctors is most acute.

Produced by Nick Holland Presented by Tallulah Berry

Image credit: BBC

Is a new urban cable car in Mexico more than just a means of public transport? As well as ferrying thousands of people a day, it's been strategically located to link up the poorest neighbourhoods to more affluent parts of the city. It's hoped it will bring growth to a forgotten district, reduce crime and become a means of bridging the social divide. World Hacks travels to Mexico City to see if it can achieve those goals and understand why cities are opting for this usual form of transport.

Presenter: Sahar Zand Producers: Elizabeth Cassin and Nick Holland

Image: Cable cars above Mexico City / Credit: BBC

Around the world, governments and researchers are experimenting with the introduction of universal basic income. From Finland and Spain to India, the idea of giving every citizen – whether working or not – a set amount of money per month is gaining momentum. It’s claimed to be a fairer and more efficient way of running a welfare system, but we’re only just starting to understand what actually happens when you introduce a basic income for everyone. We look at the evidence and try to establish whether it is an idea whose time has come.

Presenter: Mukul Devichand Producer: Jo Mathys

Image: An Indian man counts currency / Credit: Sajjad Hussain / AFP / Getty Images

Darius has been shot three separate occasions, but the third time was the last. He was met at his bedside by a stranger, who changed his life forever.

Victims of violence are, far more likely to be shot, stabbed or violently assaulted a second or third time - as the perpetrators of violence try to silence the victim.

In San Francisco, where Darius lived, specially trained case managers visit victims of violence at their bedsides in hospital and work with them to break that cycle of violence, offering practical advice and specialist services to the patients.

They claim that speaking with victims of violence immediately after an attack, when they are experiencing a 'teachable moment' they have a far greater chance of changing the patient's life forever.

Reporter Sam Judah meets Darius at the site of his third and final shooting, tracing his journey to the hospital, and his meeting with the youth worker who helped him turn his life around.

Image: Darius / Credit: BBC

How do you get children who're victims of emotional abuse or physical harm to open up about what's happened to them? In Mexico a psychologist, Julia Borbolla, encourages them to have a one-to-one chat with a cartoon alien that appears on a video screen in a room near her office. What the children don't realise is Julia hears every word of their conversation with the animated creature because she's secretly controlling it from the room next door.

She says children are more likely to reveal sensitive information to the cartoon alien than if they were face-to-face with a real person. World Hacks travels to Mexico City to assess whether the tool works and to meet people who're now operating it in public hospitals, women's shelters and within the country's judicial system.

(Photo: Psychologist Julia Borbolla Credit: BBC)

Methane emissions from the burps and farts of livestock accounts for around 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions. But the trick to reducing this could lie with some of Kenya’s smallholder farmers. By using very simple techniques to transform the way they manage their soil and animals, dairy farmers are helping their cows emit less methane per litre of milk they produce. And it’s all being paid for by big polluters, in what could become a major form of carbon offsetting. Is this a new frontier in the fight against climate change? World Hacks has been to rural Kenya to find out.

Presenter: Vincent Ni Reporter: Harriet Noble

World Hacks goes to Thailand to meet an army of volunteers on the front line in the fight against dangerous diseases, like Ebola and bird flu.

Nearly 100 years ago Spanish Flu infected a third of the world’s population and killed about 50 million people. With increased international travel, growing populations and environmental damage, experts warn that viruses now have the potential to spread faster, and we could be on course for another pandemic, with devastating consequences. Pandemics often originate in places where animals and people live in close contact, making it easy for animal diseases to spill over into humans, and where health systems may not be able to pick up on threats and respond quickly. In rural Thailand, 75% of people keep animals in their back gardens, making it hard to keep track of new outbreaks. In 2004, a strain of bird flu swept through the country, as well as Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia, infecting more than 125 people and killing about half of them. Vets at Chiang Mai University have started a project called PODD – the full name in Thai means “Look closely and you will see”. They’ve trained up 3,000 volunteers to take photos of dead animals and report any signs of sickness in their communities, helping spot dangerous outbreaks and contain them before they spread.

Presenter : Vincent Ni Reporter: Ruth Evans Producer: Charlotte Pritchard

Image: Vets from the PODD team test chickens during a suspected outbreak / Credit: BBC

A new school in San Francisco thinks it can massively accelerate the speed at which children can learn, using clever technology and smart algorithms to offer each child a bespoke education. AltSchool believes it can achieve results that were only previously possible by giving individual children their own personal tutor. The firm currently runs eight small ‘lab schools’ dotted around the country, all run from their California headquarters. But they have huge plans for expansion, and hope to sell their software to every school in the country. Sam Judah meets the pupils at one of the schools, and the CEO at AltSchool’s nerve centre, to find out what’s behind the company’s big idea.

Presenter: Mai Noman Producer: Sam Judah

Image: A pupil at AltSchool / Credit: BBC

Lurking in the sewers beneath the streets there are giant blobs of congealed cooking fat known as “fatbergs”. Now one company has come up with a clever way of making money out of them. Their efforts may one day change perceptions of fatbergs – turning the lumps of putrid waste into a valuable commodity.

Presenter: Tom Colls Reporter: Nick Holland

(Image: A fatberg, Credit: Thames Water)

Thailand in the 1960s was on the verge of a population disaster. Thai women were having seven children on average, and the government was struggling to raise living conditions. Mechai Viravaidya, a young economist who moonlighted as a soap actor, newspaper columnist and teacher, made it his mission to get family planning into every village in Thailand - he wanted to make condoms as easily accessible as vegetables.

Mechai realised he could use humour to break down Thai reservations about contraception, launching condom blowing competitions and condom beauty pageants. His efforts were so successful, condoms became known as “Mechais” in Thai, and he was nicknamed “The Condom King” or “Mr Condom”. When the HIV/Aids crisis threatened to engulf Thailand in early 1990s, Mechai, now a government minister, launched a mass media campaign promoting condom use and made condoms available everywhere, from massage parlours to bus stops. It is estimated these preventative measures saved 7.7 million lives. We find out what lessons we can learn from his 45 years of campaigning. Presented by Mai Noman.

Presenter: Mai Noman Reporter: Ruth Evans Producer: Charlotte Pritchard

There are more than 200,000 women in US prisons and jails and it is estimated that 6% to 10% are pregnant. One project in Minnesota is trying to use these pregnancies to change the lives of the women, and their children, for the better. We go to jail with the Minnesota Prison Doula Project to see how it works.

Presenter: Mukul Devichand Reporter: Sahar Zand Producer: William Kremer

Globally, only around 20% of clothes are re-used or recycled. The majority go to landfill or are incinerated. In the USA alone, the amount of clothes being thrown away has doubled in the last two decades. In World Hacks this week we meet the Scandinavian entrepreneurs trying to change this. Could a solution to this waste be to give people the option of renting clothes, so they don’t hoard things they rarely wear? Or how about clothes you can throw away guilt free, because they are fully compostable?

Presenter: Mukul Devichand Reporter: Dougal Shaw

Image: Man wearing boxer shorts / Credit: Houdini

Road accidents are the single largest cause of death amongst young people around the world. But a project in Kenya is making impressive progress in tackling the issue. It has deployed a small and very simple weapon, which has been proven to cut bus accidents by at least a quarter – a sticker.

Also on the programme, how they’re making recreation space in Chile, but without knocking down any buildings.

Presenter: Tom Colls Producer: Harriet Noble

[Image: Mutatu buses in Kenya. Copyright: Getty Images]

Picking up money - that’s what Haitian’s nicknamed a movement seeking to solve Haiti’s plastic waste problem and reduce poverty at the same time. It was started by a man who saw a glimmer of hope in the devastation wrought by the 2010 earthquake: plastic bottles were clogging the beaches and filling the oceans with rubbish. But what if you could clear up the trash, give Haitians employment, and reduce the reliance on “virgin” plastic, all at the same time? It’s a bold idea that aims to solve two of the World’s big problems – poverty and plastic in the ocean. And it all hinges on attaching social value to recycled plastic. So why aren’t more companies doing it?

Presenter: Sahar Zand Reporter: Gemma Newby

(Image: Plastic rubbish on beach in Haiti, Credit: BBC)

Fariel Salahuddin is not the type of person you’d expect to see wandering around rural Pakistan, especially with a herd of goats. She’s a successful energy consultant who has worked around the world. But when she returned to where she grew up, Pakistan, Fariel decided she wanted to work on smaller projects to try to make an immediate impact and provide solar energy to poor, rural communities. This was all very well, until she realised these places didn’t have water, let alone power. What they did have was goats. Fariel developed an innovative scheme to trade what the villagers have in plentiful supply for something they desperately needed: goats for water. But what was Fariel going to do with all her newly acquired goats?

Presenter: Mukul Devichand Reporters: Secunder Kermani and Dougal Shaw Producer: Charlotte Pritchard

Image: Goats in rural Pakistan / Credit: BBC

What do you do in a medical emergency when the equivalent of 999 or 911 simply doesn’t exist? After spending time in countries that lack public ambulance services, US paramedic Jason Friesen realised the problem wasn’t a lack of sophisticated ambulances, or the hi-tech medical equipment inside them, but the communication system necessary to get an injured person from A to B in time to save their life.

In the Dominican Republic there are no public ambulances but now, in two rural areas, first responders respond to a medical emergency as fast as any ambulance service in the developed world. And all it takes is one smartphone, a handful of willing volunteers, and an Uber-like text system that crowdsources help when disaster strikes.

And Dougal Shaw meets the man who is pioneering a way to use recycled plastic to make stronger, longer lasting roads.

Presenter: Sahar Zand Reporters: Gemma Newby, Dougal Shaw.

Image: First responders in the back of an ambulance / Credit: BBC

This is a story about what happens to your body after you die. In many countries, the current options are burial and cremation, but, both methods come with significant environmental impacts. We’re running out of space for burial in many places, and cremation carries the risk of toxins and greenhouse gases being released. For World Hacks, Sahar Zand travels to the US, where they’re using a new process to deal with the dead. It’s been called “green cremation,” “water cremation” or “resomation” and uses alkaline hydrolysis to mimic and accelerate the breakdown of tissue that would occur in burial. Those who invented the process say it’s an environmentally friendly way to address this fundamental moment in the human life-cycle, but does the evidence stack up?

Reporter: Sahar Zand Presenter Mukul Devichand

Image: A resomation machine / Caption: BBC

How do you fulfil your sexual needs if you have a disability? How do you masturbate if you have limited use of your hands? These are problems that most able-bodied people have probably never considered. But if you’re in this position it’s something you probably think about a lot. And it’s a problem which Vincent, the founder of a small NGO called Hand Angels, is trying to help with. His group matches volunteers with disabled people to provide a sexual service. Mukul Devichand and Alvaro Alvarez go to Taiwan to hear the remarkably frank stories of the volunteers and the receivers at the service. They open up a world of deep disappointment of those people who haven’t experienced sex or intimacy and an organisation that thinks it has the solution. But can any service ever fill this gap or is it just a shallow fix.

Presenter: Mukul Devichand

Image: Vincent – the founder of ‘Hand Angels’ / Credit: BBC

The Data Donators

Meet Becky. She suffers from arthritis and is in constant pain. Like lots of people – patients and doctors alike – she has a hunch that bad weather could be exacerbating the problem.

It’s a question that has been asked for at least 2000 years, but we have never had the tools or resources to answer it. That is, perhaps, until now. Dr Will Dixon has set up a mass participation study that takes advantage of smartphone technology. More than 13,000 people have downloaded an app that has provided his team with a massive set of data, and by combing through it he hopes to answer the question once and for all. It’s not the only project of its kind, either. Around the world more and more people are launching similar projects – asking thousands of volunteers to donate their data for the greater good.

Presenter: Mukul Devichand Reporter: Nick Holland

Image: Overlay of highlighted bones of woman at physiotherapist / Credit: Shutterstock

On the island of Jersey, postal workers don’t just deliver the mail. They also check up on elderly people during their routes. In a five minute chat, they check they’ve taken their medication and if there’s anything else they need. It’s popular with older people and their relatives, and the project has caught the attention of post offices - and health professionals - around the world. Could a chat on the doorstep help solve the social care crisis? We travel to Jersey to meet the man behind the idea, and join a postman on his round.

Presenter: Tom Colls Producer: Elizabeth Cassin

Image: Jersey postman Ricky Le Quesne / Credit: BBC

Parents struggling with childcare costs in London are banding together to care for each other’s kids. They run a super-cheap nursery where mums and dads take on half of the childcare. It’s a throwback to the childcare movement of the 1970s but can it work in the modern age?

Presented by Sahar Zand. Produced by William Kremer.

Image: Drawing of a family / Credit: BBC

There are no sewers in Haiti. 26% of Haitians have access to a toilet, so a lot of the sewage ends up in the water supply. Currently, Haiti is battling the biggest cholera epidemic in recent history and thousands are dying. We travel there to meet a team of women who are trying to solve this massive problem. They have set up an NGO called Soil which delivers dry, compost toilets to peoples’ homes. Alternatives to water guzzling flushing toilets - which need infrastructure such as sewers - are drastically needed in many parts of the world. And there’s a bonus to this scheme too.

Also on the programme, a radical suggestion for airports: build circular runways. Are the current straight ones really the best way to take off and land?

Presenter: Sahar Zand Reporters: Gemma Newby & Dougal Shaw Producer: Charlotte Pritchard

Image: The women of Haiti who work for the NGO Soil / Credit: BBC

Could we build cities using solar panels instead of walls? That’s the dream that Huang Ming, a wealthy entrepreneur in China’s Shandong province, has had since the 1980s. He’s become known as the ‘Sun King’ after building a vast solar park, including a showcase hotel, to prove a new kind of solar architecture is possible. So why hasn’t it caught on? We check into a room in the solar hotel and examine the vision and sometimes unfulfilled dreams of solar architecture in China. Plus, why do bins in Copenhagen have shelves built into them? Clue: it helps the city’s poorest people.

Presenter: Mukul Devichand Reporters: Emma Wilson and Harriet Noble

(Image: Huang Ming and his solar hotel, Credit: BBC)

An innovative housing project in Amsterdam is attempting a new way of integrating refugees into the local population. In prefab flats, refugees from the Syrian war live next door to young people in need of cheap rent. They eat together, learn language together, and develop the networks that researchers say are critical to successful integration.

Presenter: Charlotte Pritchard Reporter: Jo Mathys

Image: Young people living in the Startblok / Credit: BBC

Air pollution is a huge problem for China, but did you know it’s actually getting better? The Air Quality Index in several cities is improving, because of a variety of experimental projects that are being rolled out. In this special edition of World Hacks as part of the #SoICanBreathe season, we are in Beijing to gather together some of the thinkers and entrepreneurs leading China’s efforts to clean its air. We work through their ideas with an audience of students and entrepreneurs, as well as hearing reports about clever pollution solutions from around the country.

Presented by Mukul Devichand and Vincent Ni. Additional reporting by Emma Wilson and Ruhua Xianyu.

Image: A woman wearing a face mask in central Beijing / Image credit: BBC

Voter turnout is a problem around the world, particularly in local elections. But a small group of academics and activists in the US are experimenting with a new way of getting people to turn up and put their cross in a box – a lottery. Every voter is entered and one lucky winner gets a big cash prize. World Hacks investigates whether it works.

Presenter: Kathleen Hawkins Reporter: Gemma Newby Producer: Tom Colls

Image caption: Lottery balls about to be drawn, Image credit: Thomas Samson / Stringer / Getty Images

Food waste is a massive global problem: the EU alone throws away 88 million tonnes a year. Much of this ends up in landfill and produces dangerous greenhouse gasses which contribute to climate change. In Europe 53% of food waste comes from households, and one woman has made it her mission to stop Danes throwing away food. We travel to Copenhagen to meet Selina Juul, a key part of Denmark’s food waste revolution.

This is a story about how the most amazing ideas do not always work how you would like in practise. In theory it is so simple. You put disease-ridden water into a two litre plastic bottle, screw on the lid and leave it in the sun. After six hours on a cloudless day, almost all the bacteria and bugs that cause diseases like cholera and diarrhoea are killed or inactivated by the UV light and gentle warming. Professor Kevin McGuigan has proven this in the lab, but for the last 20 years he has been trying to get it working in rural African communities. It has not been anywhere near as easy as you might think.

(Photo: Godfrey putting his water bottle out to disinfect in the sunshine)

A new app is helping blind people solve everyday problems by combining smartphones video technology and an army of armchair volunteers. World Hacks investigates how it works and explores whether micro-volunteering projects like this have the potential to solve all kinds of problems in the future.

Presented by Mukul Devichand.

Image caption: Vicky, who is blind, using an app to help her sew / Image credit: BBC

The internet is awash with made-up news stories. It’s not a new problem, but the highly charged US election campaign forced people to pay attention. This week on World Hacks we’re speaking to some of those fighting back against what they see as a threat to democracy: the fake news epidemic. We hear from guests including Le Monde’s Samuel Laurent, Democratic State Senator Bill Dodd of California, and Claire Wardle from journalism non-profit First Draft.

Presented by Sahar Zand.

Produced by Harriet Noble.

Image caption: Close up of a computer screen showing a web address, Image credit: Lionel Bonaventure/AFP/Getty Images

In Barcelona, they’re experimenting with a new way of designing the city. Superblocks are vast low-traffic zones, but they’re also deeply controversial. The aim is cut pollution and reclaim public space from the car, but does it work? World Hacks investigates.

Presented by Sahar Zand.

Image: A superblock from above / Image credit: Google Maps

In one of the most expensive cities in the world, students are moving in with older people who have spare rooms as part of a “homeshare” scheme.

The young people in Paris get cheap accommodation and the older people get companionship and support in return.

World Hacks reports on the generation-spanning friendships that are blossoming as a result.

Presented by Sahar Zand.

Photo: Monique and Mikyoung, who are part of the homeshare scheme / Credit: BBC

Most refugees do not have the right to work. In Jordan they’re running an experiment to find out what happens when they’re given that right.

They’re handing out work permits to thousands of Syrian refugees in the hope of improving their lives and the health of the economy.

Academics say it’s better for everyone, but in the local area – where unemployment is nearly 20% - they’re not convinced. World Hacks reports.

Presented by Sahar Zand.

Image caption: Syrian refugees make their way in the Zaatari refugee camp / Image credit: Khalil Mazraawi, Getty Images.

Some £600bn is sent home every year by overseas migrant workers, almost four times more than all the countries of the world combined spend on foreign aid.

But far from home, many workers fear their families are not spending their money in the right way.

World Hacks looks at a two possible solutions for giving them more control over how their hard-earned cash is being used.

Presented by Sahar Zand.

Image caption: 1000 peso bills in the Philippines / Image credit: Joel Nito, Getty Images.

One in three children in Peru was growing up too short for their age, stunted by a lack of the right foods in their diet.

Then in 2005, the government put in place an innovative new system. They gave cash hand-outs to poor mothers but only on the condition that they had regular health check-ups and their children went to school.

By 2014 the number of children growing up too small had halved.

World Hacks tells the story.

Presented by Sahar Zand.

Image caption: Mother and child part of the malnutrition programme / Image credit: BBC

Giving children lessons in how to think and learn for themselves can lead to dramatic improvements in results, according to education researchers.

World Hacks meets children learning these “meta-cognition” techniques through philosophy lessons and juggling and looks at the difficulties in implementing the system.

Presented by Sahar Zand.

Image caption: Child with hand up in class / Image credit: AP

Nearly 1,000 people were shot and killed by the US police in 2015, sparking protests and huge controversy. But a new solution promises to reduce the death toll, by focusing in on the key moment of stress in which guns are discharged. Studies have looked at police officers' reactions in these situations - including their stress levels and their implicit biases.

Now, a new training system has been developed which uses heart rate monitors and breathing exercises to minimise the stress reaction. World Hacks investigates whether the system works, and whether it will help save lives. Presented by Sahar Zand.

(Photo: Police stand guard near Trump Tower on Election Day. Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

What can you do if you don’t have access to running water? No pipes, no wells, no rainfall?

The solution may be to catch water from fog.

We meet Abel Cruz, the Peruvian man behind a huge fog net project which is providing water to a community in the slums of Lima.

Could fog catching be a solution to wider water crises facing the world?

Produced by Tom Colls.

Image caption: Fog nets in Peru / Image credit: BBC

Syrian refugees in Lebanon are being handed cash cards instead of blankets and food. Aid agencies say money transfers are a better way to deliver essential supplies to some of the 1.5 million Syrians who live in the country – they buy what they need themselves. But does it work? We meet Moussa Junaid, who fled Raqqa with his family when IS moved in, and now buys food aid for himself from the local supermarket.

Produced by Tom Colls.

Image caption: Syrian refugee with cash card.

Learning to read empowers people, reduces poverty and increases their job chances. Yet more than 700 miliion adults are illiterate, the majority of them women. We look at innovations to help adults learn how to read from flatpack classrooms in flood-prone regions of Bangladesh, to an app teaching tens of thousands in Somaliland. Plus how adults in the UK are improving their reading skills thanks to an army of volunteer teachers using a method developed in prison.

Presenter: Myra Anubi Reporter/producer: Claire Bates Series producer: Jon Bithrey Editor: Tom Bigwood Sound mix: Andrew Mills

(Image: Jahura Begum, Shabnur Akhter, Rashida Begum at Friendship class in Bangladesh, Friendship)

We all know about the power of music to change our mood or to make us move. But an increasing body of evidence is showing that music has an amazing ability to help us heal. In this programme we are going to meet people working at the cutting edge of music therapy. We find out about the innovative system that uses music to help people with dementia live at home for longer. We will see how using songs and rhythms is helping people with Parkinson’s move more freely. And in a refugee camp in Uganda we meet the teachers using music to bring people together and overcome trauma.

Presenter: Myra Anubi Producer/Reporter: Richard Kenny Series Producer: Jon Bithrey Editor: Richard Vadon Sound Mix: Frank McWeeny

(Image: Salam Music Program in Bidibidi, Uganda)

Transforming the global food system is vital in the fight against climate change. Currently, food production accounts for a third of all greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, the food system also fails to properly nourish billions of people worldwide.

In this edition of People Fixing The World we’re looking at high and low tech solutions to transform the ways we produce and consume food to make it greener and more equitable.

In London, we visit a startup company making cheese from genetically modified microbes rather than cattle, in a bid to make dairy production better for the planet.

And in Philadelphia we look at how planting fruit and nut trees in ‘food forests’ is tackling hunger by providing access to healthy, nutritious food for low-income communities across the city.

Presenter: Myra Anubi Reporter/producer: Zoe Gelber Series producer: Jon Bithrey Editor: Tom Bigwood Sound mix: Frank McWeeny

Could psychedelic drugs help in the treatment of mental health conditions? We look at pioneering research into psilocybin, the active ingredient in so-called magic mushrooms. We visit a clinic in Oregon, the only state in America where the use of psilocybin in therapeutic sessions is legal and hear from one patient who says it's the only treatment she's ever had that makes a difference to her depression. And we hear about some of the widespread concerns that widening access to such drugs could have.

Presenter: Myra Anubi Reporter: Ben Wyatt Series Producer: Jon Bithrey Editor: Sam Bonham Sound Mix: Annie Gardiner

Whistleblowers - they're the good guys right? The ones who speak truth to power and have films made about the heroic stands they took? Sometimes. Often the people who speak up in the workplace are ignored or shut down. Worse still they're often bullied or harassed or end up losing their jobs. They're the ones you never hear about.

This week we hear about two projects that are encouraging people to speak up about wrongdoing at work and how they're improving people’s work environment, saving time, money and even saving lives.

Presenter: Myra Anubi Reporter/producer: Claire Bowes Series Producer: Jon Bithrey Editor: Penny Murphy Sound Mix: Annie Gardiner

Schools across Senegal have discovered a clever way for children to surf the web even when there isn't any signal.

They're using a special WIFI hotspot which works without an actual internet connection, so students and teachers can access all the relevant bits of the web, offline.

Around the world, innovators are coming up with solutions like this - all designed to get children learning. We also hear from an entrepreneur revolutionising how science is taught in Ghana and a night school in Pakistan for children not in formal education.

Presenter: Myra Anubi Producer: Craig Langran Reporters: Borso Tall, Tooba Masood Series Producer: Jon Bithrey Editor: Penny Murphy Sound Mix: Annie Gardiner

(Image: Students using science kit, Dex Technology)

Australia used to be one of the most linguistically diverse places, with over 200 languages. Today, many of Australia’s indigenous languages are considered “highly endangered”. Inspired by his native language, Hebrew, Ghil’ad Zuckermann is a linguistics professor who is on a mission to revive Australia’s dead and endangered languages, painstakingly piecing them back together from historical documents. We speak to Ghil’ad and Shania Richards from the Barngarla community, whose language is being brought back from the brink.

Presenter: Myra Anubi Reporter/producer: Josephine Casserly Producers: Claire Bates & Craig Langran Series producer: Tom Colls Sound mix: Annie Gardiner Editor: Penny Murphy

Email: peoplefixingtheworld@bbc.co.uk

Image: Shania Richards, in the uniform of the Youth Governor of South Australia

Barcelona in Spain is famous for its beautiful streets, lined with tall apartment buildings. But the architecture is a problem for many people who have lived for years in upstairs apartments but who now find the stairs unmanageable.

In 2008, a survey found that in one district there were 300 people who could not leave their homes alone. A group of volunteers decided to do something about this and got hold of a special wheelchair with caterpillar tracks, so it can be used to take people up and down stairs. After an initial pilot scheme they launched a local service called “Let's Go Down to the Street”, to help elderly residents go shopping or meet up with friends. Sixteen years on, the service is offered across the city.

Plus, we visit a home for senior citizens in an unlikely location: a university campus. The Mirabella complex at Arizona State University in the US offers its residents the chance to sample the college lifestyle – from lectures to shows and sports fixtures.

Presenter: Myra Anubi Producer: William Kremer Reporters: Esperanza Escribano, Anthony Wallace Series Producer: Jon Bithrey Editor: Penny Murphy Sound mix: Gareth Jones

On this edition of People Fixing The World we meet people who’ve helped overcome long-standing cultural biases to create better outcomes for everyone. In India we hear about the social media campaigns which have helped city dwellers in Bengaluru see those who pick waste from rubbish dumps not as dangerous and dirty but as invaluable recyclers. In Nigeria we meet a traditional healer and a health worker who are collaborating to help improve the treatment of psychosis and break down some of the unhelpful attitudes towards severe mental health problems.

Presenter: Myra Anubi Reporter/producer: Makuochi Okafor, Claire Bowes Series producer: Jon Bithrey Editor: Penny Murphy Sound Mix: Andrew Mills

(Image: Chief Mukaila Yusuf, BBC)

From beavers in the UK to bison in Romania and jaguars in Argentina, ecologists around the world are reintroducing animals that once flourished in particular areas. The theory is, if done correctly, they can boost biodiversity and restore ecosystems with benefits ranging from reducing forest fires to tackling invasive species. But the strategy is controversial. Opponents say some species are no longer suited to certain areas and cause conflict with farmers, adding there is little evidence it works. Proponents admit some well-meaning projects haven’t worked in the past, but insist properly planned rewilding, which has involved all the stakeholders from the start, can be very successful. We take a close look.

Presenter: Myra Anubi Reporter/producer: Claire Bates Series producer: Jon Bithrey Editor: Penny Murphy Sound mix: Gareth Jones

The Amazon is the largest forest in the world, spread across nine countries in South America and home to 47 million people. It’s crucial for the planet’s biodiversity and in the fight against climate change. But vast numbers of trees have been cut down for logging, construction, mining and farming. On this edition of People Fixing The World we meet those who are making a living from the Amazon while keeping the trees standing - through rubber tapping and fruit picking - as well as big companies looking to make more of the fruits, nuts and other natural products.

Presenter: Myra Anubi Reporter: Julia Carneiro Series Producer: Jon Bithrey Editor: Bridget Harney Sound mix: Andrew Mills

(Image: Brazilian entrepreneur Francisco Samonek, BBC/Julia Carneiro)

This week we have a host of great ideas inspired by solutions we've told you about in 2023.

We find out how scientists are using fake birds to help populations of seabirds to recover. By putting out model birds in restored habitats they trick the real ones into nesting there.

Then we have the heartwarming tale of Theo – a man in his seventies - and Bickel the dog. We look at how dog sharing can deal with loneliness and bring improved health and happiness.

And we uncover an innovative way of dealing with the scourge of Japanese knotweed - by turning it into paper.

Presenter: Myra Anubi Producers: Richard Kenny, Zoe Gelber, Claire Bates Series Producer: Jon Bithrey Editor: Bridget Harney Sound mix: Hal Haines

email: peoplefixingtheworld@bbc.co.uk

(Image: Jessica Vagg with a tern decoy, BBC/Richard Kenny)

Landfill sites are an icon of our wasteful society and the harm we cause to Planet Earth.

But around the world, people are trying to make these filthy places a little bit better.

We visit the human-built island in Singapore made of burned waste that has become a thriving ecosystem.

And in France, we hear how gas leaking from landfill sites is being collected as a source of energy.

Presenter: Myra Anubi Reporter/producer: Claire Bowes Singapore reporter:Tessa Wong Series Producer: Jon Bithrey Editor: Bridget Harney Sound mix: Annie Gardiner

email: peoplefixingtheworld@bbc.co.uk

(Image: Semakau island, Singapore National Environment Agency)

Loneliness affects millions of people around the world and can have a significant impact on our mental and physical health.

In the Netherlands, they are taking the problem seriously, with a national coalition of organisations all trying to bring people together and build connections.

We visit a youth club teaching teenagers how to overcome shyness and social anxiety. Plus, we drop in on a soup-making session that's bringing the generations together, and breaking down stereotypes.

Presenter: Myra Anubi Reporter/producer: Claire Bates Series Producer: Jon Bithrey Editor: Bridget Harney Sound mix: Gareth Jones

email: peoplefixingtheworld@bbc.co.uk

(Image:Queen Maxima of the Netherlands at Oma's Soup)

How do you stop people chopping down precious rainforest? In the Indonesian part of Borneo, researchers for a conservation charity discovered that local people were chopping down the rainforest around them for an incredibly understandable reason – they needed to pay for medical treatment for themselves and their children.

So they started a project that would hopefully protect the forest and help the local communities at the same time. They built a health centre and gave people a big discount on medical care if they stopped chopping down the trees. Ten years on, we visit the forest to see what happened next.

Presenter: Myra Anubi Reporter: Ade Mardiyati Producer: Craig Langran Series Producer: Jon Bithrey Editor: Bridget Harney Sound mix: Hal Haines

email: peoplefixingtheworld@bbc.co.uk

Image: Baby orangutan in Borneo forest

Every year the world produces 400 million tonnes of plastic – the same weight as all the humans on earth.

Only a small proportion of this is recycled, and this isn’t proper recycling but “downcycling” – the new plastic is of a lower quality, meaning that almost all plastic eventually goes to waste.

But now French company Carbios is using enzymes to break plastic down into its chemical building blocks – which can then be used to make high quality plastic again.

So is plastic on the brink of becoming a resource like glass or aluminium, that you can keep on moulding and recycling again and again?

Presenter: Myra Anubi Reporter/producer: William Kremer Series producer: Jon Bithrey Sound mix: Gareth Jones Editor: Penny Murphy

email: peoplefixingtheworld@bbc.co.uk

Millions of women around the world lack access to safe and hygienic menstrual products. But there are people trying to change that.

We meet the British student who learned to sew in lockdown and started making reusable sanitary pads for refugees. She’s helped distribute tens of thousands of pads and is now training refugee women in Lebanon how to make money by sewing the pads themselves.

We hear about a design project inspired by tea cups which has created an efficient way of washing reusable pads.

And in India we meet the woman who is challenging the stigma around periods with a comic book that’s being read in thousands of schools around the country.

Presenter: Myra Anubi Reporter: Lorna Acquah Producer: Lizzy McNeill Series producer: Tom Colls Sound mix: Annie Gardiner Editor: Richard Vadon

email: peoplefixingtheworld@bbc.co.uk

Image: Reya, a student in Beirut who is sewing period pads

In the farming community of Los Negros in rural Bolivia, the river is their life and livelihood. So when that river started to dry up, it made life very hard. They blamed the villages upstream for not looking after their precious water.

This conflict could have turned ugly. But with the support of a local charity, what came out of it instead was a ground-breaking agreement. After years of negotiations, the town at the bottom of the river agreed to support the communities upstream to protect their forests and keep the river healthy.

The idea is now the blueprint for water sharing agreements between communities across the continent.

Presenter: Myra Anubi Reporter: Jane Chambers Producer: Bob Howard Series producer: Tom Colls Sound mix: Hal Haines Editor: Penny Murphy

Email: peoplefixingtheworld@bbc.co.uk

Image: Senor Rogelio Valverde sits by his water source

Heroin users in Scotland are being trained to spot when someone is about to overdose and to step in and help.

The training – which includes lessons on how to use the antidote naloxone - is often led by people who have themselves been addicts.

Taxi drivers and police officers are also being trained, and naloxone being widely distributed, as part of a push to save as many lives as possible.

Reporter Craig Langran investigates whether the approach is working.

Presenter: Myra Anubi Producer: Craig Langran Series producer: Tom Colls Sound mix: Annie Gardiner and Hal Haines Editor: Penny Murphy

Email: peoplefixingtheworld@bbc.co.uk

Image: Wez, who trains heroin users how to administer naloxone

In the midst of a crisis, sometimes the solution you need isn’t obvious. Today we meet the inventors who found fascinating fixes amid the chaos and destruction of disasters.

We visit the hospital that was painstakingly constructed inside a train, to treat Ukrainian civilians in a war zone.

We follow a team in Fiji who have created a mobile workshop, designed to travel to remote villages after natural disasters and repair and make items on the spot.

Finally we look at a medical robot that could soon treat injured people in places it’s too dangerous for human rescuers to enter.

Presenter: Myra Anubi Reporter/Producer: Claire Bates Series producer: Tom Colls Sound mix: Gareth Jones Editor: Penny Murphy Picture: University of Sheffield AMRC