People Fixing the World

How do you help older people, and particularly those with dementia, to remain independent for longer? In Singapore, where dementia affects roughly 1 in 10 people over 60, the government are betting that the re-designing neighbourhoods with an aging population might just be the answer. Reporter Craig Langran visits the Singaporean suburb of Nee Soon – an area of public housing which has been overha...

Many of the world’s most violent conflicts happen in the midst of some of its most valuable natural wildernesses. But protecting these areas’ biodiversity cannot happen until the fighting stops. We look at how nature itself can be used to help build that peace, with a project in Colombia training former guerrilla fighters to create their own ecotourism initiatives. They are protecting nature while...

The menopause is something half the world’s population goes through. But despite this, it’s still not much talked about - and in some places, remains taboo. Which means many women hit this stage of life not understanding what’s happening to them. We join a menopause cafe where people share experiences face-to-face, try out an app giving Indian women practical advice, and hear about workshops in Ar...

Paraguay, like much of the world, has a problem with corruption. But a project in the country is trying to change that, by starting with the next generation. Founded by David Riveros - who started his fight against corruption as a teenager - reAccion Paraguay works by providing schools with all the information they need to track the funds owed to them. They then show teachers, parents and pupils h...

Many people associate bacteria with dirt and disease. But a lot of bacteria are good for us. And scientists around the world are using them to help us do all sorts of useful things like recycle, clean up waste and produce food. We find out how bacteria are salvaging metal from electronic waste. We taste the protein-rich food additive that is made from bacteria. Plus, we explore how bacteria are he...

La Casa de Carlota isn’t like most workplaces. The design studio, based in Barcelona, Spain, employs creatives who have intellectual disabilities, autism and schizophrenia. Working together with non-disabled colleagues, they produce striking graphics for campaigns and packaging, as well as original works of art. This isn’t a government-backed scheme to help out a disadvantaged group, but a winning...

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...

Football in Germany had a big problem with violent, racist, far-right supporters. But a social innovation, organised and run by fans, has been credited with helping to change the dynamic in the stands. “Fan projects” attract young fans with the promise of youth clubs and cheap transport to games. We go to a game with a fan project in Dresden to see how it works. And from the US, we hear how one wo...

A good childcare system is essential in most modern economies. Yet in many countries, childcare is only available to the wealthy, and the burden of care falls disproportionately on women - effectively barring them from the workforce. People often point to Scandinavian countries as the gold standard in childcare, but in other corners of the world people are working with women and communities to set...

Harassment and violence on public transport is a global issue. We look at initiatives aiming to make commuting safer. In Indonesia, we take a ride on the Pink Bus which serves only female passengers. The city has one the most dangerous transportations systems in the world for women, with high levels of harassment. The scheme hopes to provide them with a safer journey. And in Germany, we look at a...

Reporter Rosie Blunt spent years getting help for her endometriosis - a condition which has symptoms including debilitating pain and infertility. She's on a quest to find new ways of treating the disease and bringing down diagnosis time. That mission takes her to Hungary to test out a medical centre that doubles as a thermal spa and meet Adrienn Salamon, who has created an app that's helping women...

Across the African continent, people with disabilities are often stigmatised. The discrimination they face can impact their ability to go to school, find a job and even to feel safe. We look at the projects trying to change people’s attitudes and help people with disabilities flourish. We speak to Lilian Dibo Eyong, who is trying to change attitudes to people with disabilities in Cameroon. In Ugan...

More than 100 million people have been forcibly displaced from their home around the world – fleeing conflict, natural disasters or persecution. Millions end up in refugee camps, living in tents. Around the world, designers and architects are trying to improve the lives of these displaced people, by improving the temporary homes they’re living in. From prefabricated shelters made using Swedish fla...

Meet the oceans’ unsung hero. Human activity is having a huge impact on the world’s oceans - global warming, pollution from fish farms and damage from the fishing industry are all threatening some of the oceans most important ecosystems. But one creature might be able to help. The humble sea cucumber – an animal in the same family as starfish that looks like a lumpy sausage and lives on the ocean...

Thousands of women are infected with HIV every week in Africa. Many can't persuade their partners to wear a condom, so it was hoped that a new form of protection 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 aren't supposed to feel it, and so shouldn't even need to k...

Food waste from hotels and the heat from computers are being used to provide new sources of energy. In the fight against climate change, it is of vital importance to find new ways of making our energy go further. We visit Goa in India, to hear how food waste digesters - that turn waste into gas for cooking – are springing up everywhere. And in server centres around the world, we explore how the he...

Meet the people using the healing power of forests to help improve physical and mental health. In forest therapy, people are taken into the woods and taught to use what they see, hear and smell to calm their minds. This kind of therapy has its roots in the Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku or “forest bathing”, which was developed in the 1980s. Myra is joined by Gary Evans, founder of the Forest Ba...

Clearing up pollution can be a messy and expensive task, but around the world people are harnessing the power of plants to do the job for them. We hear how water hyacinths are going from hated weed to providing communities with a greener water filtration solution; how plants in the Niger Delta are helping rejuvenate land drenched in oil and devastated by fire and ask whether plants could be the fu...

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 docume...

Chile is in the midst of a “megadrought” – year after year of low rainfall which has turned farmland to desert and left communities struggling to survive. But in the midst of the crisis, people in Chile have found ingenious ways of collecting, saving and cleaning water. We visit the hillside fog nets, AI powered irrigation system and a high-tech desalination plant that are helping people survive a...

A charity in the UK is building temporary wooden homes with just three small rooms. The idea is to give people who’ve been sleeping rough or living in hostels a step on to the housing ladder. We visit some of these ‘micro-homes’ in England and hear about a community of ‘tiny homes’ in Los Angeles. Plus, we visit a project in Belgium that’s trying to persuade young people to drink alcohol in modera...

In many communities grandmothers have a great influence on their families and communities. In Senegal we visit a project using grandmothers to give vital health information to adolescent girls and is also empowering them to influence men to stop practices like female genital mutilation. We also tell the story of the Granny Cloud, a team of volunteer grandmothers from all over the world, who used t...

Can playing board games help us fix real-world problems? All around the world, people play board games for fun. But in recent years, a new generation of designers have been creating games with a social purpose - to enable understanding about complex problems like climate change, inequality and deforestation, and collaboratively design strategies to solve them. We look at how a group of researchers...

The amount of sleep you get makes a huge difference to your life – don’t get enough and it can harm your health, productivity and decision making. But research also suggests that people on lower incomes sleep less, because of things like shift work, overcrowded housing and stress. So how do you improve the sleep of those most in need? We visit a project in the north of England which is recycling o...

In 2021 a video clip showing a seemingly magical bodysuit when viral on the internet. The clip showed a man who suffered constant convulsions quelling them after activating electrical pads on the suit. Many suggested the video was a hoax, but the Molli suit is real, and it is helping people with a range of conditions from cerebral palsy to multiple sclerosis. William Kremer finds out more. Meanwhi...