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  • In rural India, MIT grads aim to improve access to sanitary pads for women

    February 23, 2017 |

    NBC News |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: India, Dumandih, Jharkhand

    For women in rural parts of India, it is common to not be taught about the role menstruation plays due to the stigma that surrounds the topic. To bring both a better understanding and better hygienic practices to these areas, a startup has started using "locally-sourced banana fiber to create biodegradable sanitary napkins, which degrade faster if buried and don’t have to be burned" with the goal of increasing access.

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  • Can the Humble Menstrual Cup Free Women from the Tyranny of Big Tampon?

    February 22, 2017 |

    Bright Magazine |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States

    While the menstrual cup is one of the most efficient, cost-effective and environmentally-friendly ways women can cope with their periods, it is rarely used due to the stigma surrounding the cup. Leaders at Sustainable Cycles, a nonprofit, are working to de-stigmatize the menstrual cup and promote both personal and global health.

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  • Can Magic Mushrooms Cure Addiction?

    February 18, 2017 |

    The Atlantic |

    Video |

    5-15 Minutes

    Response Location: United States, Baltimore, Maryland

    A mixture of intense therapy and the use of psilocybin—‘magic mushrooms’—has been successful with helping people break nicotine addictions. While many therapies only treat surface symptoms, psilocybin—administered in a controlled environment—seems to have beneficial impacts on brain functioning that eliminate the drivers of addiction.

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  • The Sun Water Solution

    February 12, 2017 |

    BBC |

    Radio |

    Over 15 Minutes

    Response Location: Uganda, Makindye, Kampala

    Professor Kevin McGuigan in Dublin has proven that simply leaving contaminated water in a plastic bottle out in the sun for several hours is effective in killing off harmful bacteria like e-coli and provide a simple solution for clean water. But his efforts to bring this simple method of solar disinfection to rural communities in Africa - where disease and death from waterborne bacteria is especially prevalent - have hit a number of sociological and cultural roadblocks.

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  • Take Three Zucchinis and Call Me in the Morning: The Power of Produce Prescriptions

    February 02, 2017 |

    Smithsonian |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Los Angeles, California

    A program called FVRx (Fruits and Vegetables Rx) enlists physicians, grocery stores, and the government SNAP program to help make underserved communities healthier. When physicians write prescriptions for fruits and vegetables, families are allotted more money through SNAP to be spent only on fresh produce.

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  • Can a cleaner cookstove save lives?

    February 01, 2017 |

    PBS NewsHour |

    Broadcast TV News |

    5-15 Minutes

    Response Location: Ghana, Kintampo

    Cooking over a wood or charcoal stove can cause serious health complications including pneumonia and cardiac disease, yet women in developing countries often have no other options. In Ghana, clean cook stoves are being distributed to women in collaboration with a study about the effect that the new stoves have on the health of these women and their children. So far, the women are enjoying spending the time that they used to spend collecting wood for cooking with their children or in school. This study is ongoing but early results indicate an overall improvement in health in clean cook stove households.

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  • Sometimes, It Does Hurt To Ask

    January 31, 2017 |

    Digg |

    Multi-Media |

    Over 3000 Words

    Response Location: United States

    Transgender people are using crowdfunding sites to raise money to pay for gender confirmation surgeries. “"It was such a surreal feeling. I was looking at the number in my PayPal," Moog says. It didn't quite sink in that the surgery was now entirely possible.” Foundations like the Jim Collins Foundation also help cover the costs of surgery. In 2017 the Jim Collins Foundation awarded 13 grants for gender confirmation surgery.

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  • Urban forests increasingly central to planning in poor and rich countries alike

    January 30, 2017 |

    Citiscope |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Canada, Vancouver

    Implementing and maintaining healthy urban forests is becoming more popular throughout communities internationally. Results from cities that have moved in this direction not only include an improvement to community and environmental health but also come with an economic valuation in the form of pollution removal, carbon sequestration and stormwater alleviation.

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  • Almost all girls were cut in her Ethiopian village. Not anymore, thanks to her.

    January 26, 2017 |

    The Christian Science Monitor |

    Multi-Media |

    Over 3000 Words

    Response Location: Ethiopia, Addis Ababa

    When Bogaletch Gebre was a girl she underwent a dangerous procedure, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). The practice requires the removal of all, or part of the clitoris. It can lead to scarring, bleeding, and sometimes even death. When she grew up and learned the harmful effects of the procedure, she and her sister decided to create a non profit to end the practice. “Today, KMG is credited with virtually eliminating FGM in Kembata, a region of 680,000.” What’s worked so well for the non profit? Community conversations. “Community conversations can work anywhere where human beings live together,” Gebre says. “

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  • Injecting Drugs, Under a Watchful Eye

    January 18, 2017 |

    The New York Times |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Tacoma, Washington

    America is facing an epidemic of overdose deaths from opioids. Giving users a supervised place and clean needles increases use of treatment and saves lives, though it is a controversial response.

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