Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • A Clever Strategy to Distribute Covid Aid—With Satellite Data

    To quickly distribute money to poverty-stricken areas in Togo during the coronavirus pandemic, the country's government turned to mobile cash payments. Working with a nonprofit and UC Berkeley’s Center for Effective Global Action, Togo established a system of mobile payments to reach 30,000 of Togo’s poorest people who were identified via satellite imagery and image analysis algorithms.

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  • The Radical Idea of Making Sure Everybody Has Enough Money to Live On

    The results of a universal basic income (UBI) program in Kenya show the positive ripple effect of giving everyone money on a consistent basis over the course of several years. Recipients have been able to lift themselves out of poverty, start businesses, and invest in communal projects such as plumbing and better housing. Improved mental and physical health was also a major outcome of the initiative.

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  • How College Students Are Helping Each Other Survive

    Students across the country are dealing with food and housing insecurity, and financial loss, conditions that have been exacerbated because since the pandemic. In response, students in some colleges and universities created mutual-aid networks, raising and distribution thousands of dollars to their peers. “Students continue to lead the fight to address their basic needs.”

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  • Colorado's new family leave law could transform fatherhood

    Icelandic parents each get three months leave, paid at 80% of their salary, to be used within 18 months of a child’s birth. Parents also get an additional three months leave that they can split up as they choose. The “use it or lose it” leave is used by about 80% of fathers. Shared caregiving responsibilities deepen fathers’ bonds with their children and, along with other generous family benefits, has helped Iceland achieve the world’s smallest gender gap by enabling mothers to remain and advance in the workforce. It also shapes children’s experience of gender norms. Colorado recently passed a similar law.

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  • It Took a Group of Black Farmers to Start Fixing Land Ownership Problems in Detroit

    Two urban farmers launched a GoFundMe and raised $55,000 to help provide land security to Black farmers in Detroit. Through the Detroit Black Farmer Land Fund, they will select applicants to grow crops for five years and provide technical assistance to growers who want to purchase their own land. The amount raised is not enough to help everyone who needs it, but organizers hope city programs make land more accessible to neighborhood residents.

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  • How effective are China's attempts to reduce the risk of wildlife spreading disease to humans?

    In order to get a handle on the spread of COVID-19, and to prevent future zoonotic disease outbreaks, China introduced temporary regulations banning commercial breeding of wildlife for meat consumption. These have hit farmers hard, with at least 20,000 farming operations shutting down by the end of February. With the bans on their way to fully becoming a law, local governments are trying to provide training and loans to help farmers transition to new products, but some claim the process is slow and doesn’t go far enough to prevent the breeding of the banned creatures for fur farming and traditional medicine.

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  • This Addiction Treatment Works. Why Is It So Underused?

    A substance abuse program known as contingency management offers incentives to those who to stay in treatment and remain abstinent from the use of drugs. Although not all agree with the merits of the program and question the underlying morals of the concept, anecdotal accounts from participants and studies have shown that it can be "highly effective" in helping to treat substance abuse.

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  • Cold Hard Cash for Your Greenhouse Gas

    Refrigerants being used in old air conditioners or grocery story cooling systems leak into the atmosphere contributing to global warming. Tradewater, a company in Illinois, picks up these containers, destroys the refrigerants, gives them cash, and then sells them as carbon offset credits. They collect up to 250,000 pounds of refrigerants per year, but there is still more out there. Supermarkets in the United States could switch to more natural refrigerants, but barely 1 percent are known to have done that. Getting rid of these refrigerants can be an important solution to combating climate change.

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  • Everywhere basic income has been tried, in one map

    Countries spanning several continents have experimented with basic income in often successful attempts to curb poverty, transition into the era of automation, reduce crime, and boost health and happiness outcomes. The idea has received pushback from political parties that are concerned with the costs of the policy as well as the possible disincentivization of work. Countries on the map have experimented with the policy in varying degrees.

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  • Billions in COVID Relief Has Gone to Farmers. Just Not Black or Family-Owned Farms in Appalachia.

    Several organizations — including the Kentucky Black Farmer Fund, Community Farm Alliance, and Black Soil: Our Better Nature — are working together to provide disaster relief funds during the COVID-19 pandemic to Black farmers. They’ve been able to award 43 small farms with a one-time payment of up to $750, which was used to purchase equipment or personal protective equipment. That amount can only help them so much, but it’s a step in helping Black farmers receive federal aid, which they historically have been left out of.

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