How Grassroots Sports Clubs are Tackling Mental Health

Fed up with living in the world's most polluted city, some residents are fighting back, on their rooftops and backyards. In 2010, India launched the Jawarharlal Nehru Solar Mission, a government program to deploy 20,000 megawatts of grid-connected solar power in the country, but much of this push for renewable energy has only been focused on rural areas, leading urban residents to take up local control of their energy supplies.

Daughter, water, trees: A simple strategy to address ecological and gender concerns. Since 2007, villagers in Piplantri have embraced Paliwal's the ethos by planting 111 saplings every time a girl is born.

With pressures of depression, anxiety, and suicide on the rise, teenagers in the United States are challenged to find the comfortable outlet and accessibility for emotional support. The Crisis Text Line offers a counseling service through mobile texting, which reduces the shame that can occur when approaching an in-person counselor, and expands access to professional mental health counseling nationwide.

Suicide rates are rising in the U.S. The Henry Ford Health System in Detroit reduced suicide rates within their insurance plan by 80 percent by actively seeking at risk patients. They screen every hospital patient on every visit and immediately treat those in need.

New York City black tar roofs cause a number of environmental problems, including air pollution, heat absorption that raises energy consumption, and storm water runoff in the sewer system. Efforts to turn these old roofs into green spaces cool the buildings, enable the containment of more rainfall, reduce sewer discharge, generate energy, and absorb carbon emissions. New York City has a pilot program offering financial help for green roofs.

Mental health research results motivated the U.S. government to fund integrated treatment programs for first-episode psychosis in clinics across the nation.

In war zones, people have a difficult time finding clean water and safe areas to inhabit. Social media, smart phones, and technology applications are aiding in people’s survival. In Aleppo, Syria, the International Committee of the Red Cross posted a map on Facebook to show alternative sources of clean drinking water that reached approximately 140,000 people.

In India, 620 million people openly defecate outdoors, causing harm to hygiene, sanitation, food, and water resources. The president of India funded an initiative to build public toilets for the people in his country, but the people did not use them because of traditions and behaviors. The Total Sanitation Campaign is starting to change villagers’ minds by having local leadership persuade those who resist the toilets by holding community activities and creating special committees to maintain the sanitation.

More than 800,000 people worldwide, including about 40,000 Americans, die by suicide each year. Colorado is pushing to prevent suicides by promoting awareness and changing laws to help those at risk.

Billions of people around the world lack access to safe sanitation, causing disease and deaths. In Ecuador a foundation developed a cheap, dry, composting toilet for poor rural families.