Uplifting news around the globe: ‘Yes’ to housing, and teaching as a second career

Activists and legislators – from the left and the right – are collaborating to alleviate housing woes

Despite a recent study finding that half of U.S. renters spend more than 30% of their income on housing, both blue and red communities struggle to overcome not-in-my-backyard sentiment decrying housing reforms. But increasingly, a previously left-of-center alliance that styles itself as YIMBY – meaning “yes in my backyard” – is finding it also has much in common with conservatives.

This year’s YIMBYtown, an annual meeting of pro-housing advocates, was held in Austin, Texas, and included conservative lawmakers and think tanks like the American Enterprise Institute.

Last year, the Republican-dominated Montana Legislature passed bills that all but eliminated single-family zoning. A bipartisan group of Arizona lawmakers passed similar changes in March. Calling these policy concerns pro-business and pro-property rights, Texas Rep. Cody Vasut said, “Some issues become a horseshoe. We have different views of government but sometimes we arrive at the same conclusion.”

Though such bipartisanship allows both sides to claim political wins and can break the stagnation on housing policy, some are wary of the contradictions of working with opponents in today’s political climate. But “the more we can find areas of agreement,” said YIMBYtown organizer Liz McGehee, “the more we can adjust to each other with less fear, and maybe that will help drive down the polarization.”
Sources: The New York Times, Bloomberg

A prison recycling program in Panama, designed by an inmate, is lowering recidivism

La Joyita, located just outside the capital, is one of Panama’s largest prisons – infamous for being overcrowded, filled with trash, and a hotbed of gang violence. Franklin Ayón, a soil scientist who was imprisoned at La Joyita in 2012 on drug trafficking charges, created a recycling system that authorities and gang leaders agreed to try, giving incarcerated people a second chance.

Through EcoSólidos, 80% to 90% of the prison’s waste is collected, separated, recycled, and sold. The group also composts food waste, using it to grow fruits and vegetables in the prison’s garden. Recidivism has declined from 65% to 45% since 2019.

Four other prisons in Panama have re-created the program, and authorities in Honduras, Paraguay, El Salvador, Peru, Colombia, and Nicaragua have shown interest. In 2016, Mr. Ayón received a presidential pardon for his work at La Joyita. His nonprofit, GeoAzul, employs previously incarcerated people who compost more than 10 metric tons of waste each day in Panama City.
Sources: The Guardian, International Committee of The Red Cross

A nonprofit that encourages teaching as a second career is drawing more interest

Every year, the British group Now Teach is helping to expand diversity and fill shortages. Teacher vacancies in England have increased 93% since 2019, and many teachers quit due to stress, low pay, and increasing workloads. In 2017, Lucy Kellaway expanded on her own journey from journalist to teacher and founded the Now Teach charity to help others changing careers.

Now Teach recruits and supports participants; 850 people working in 100 secondary schools have become teachers by being part of the network. The nonprofit is also helping to build a more diverse teaching force: About 32% of its trainees are people of color, compared with the national rate of 21%. And compared with 30% of trainees nationally, 44% of Now Teach trainees are men.

While second-career teachers often accept a significant pay cut, they say being able to use their experience to make an impact on students makes it worth it. “I have had students write to me that I have helped them realize their potential and what path to take in the future,” said Deepak Swaroop. “That is more valuable to me than money.”
Sources: Reasons to be Cheerful, The Guardian

A startup in Madagascar is enlisting large corporations to finance coral farms

Koraï was designed to appeal to companies with corporate social responsibility programs, whose reporting requirements European Union firms must fulfill to demonstrate environmental sustainability practices. When Jeimila Donty took over the family business in 2020, the company was exporting coral to aquarists. But she found a way to honor her late father’s wish of running his business more sustainably by shifting to a model of green entrepreneurship.

Though the country remains rich in biodiversity, Madagascar’s 927 square miles of coral reefs have been subject to coral bleaching, overfishing, and sedimentation from deforestation since the 1980s.

Koraï planted 1,500 coral cuttings about 17 miles from Nosy Be island last year, with a mortality rate of less than 5%, according to Ms. Donty.

Madagascan researcher Gildas Georges Boleslas Todinanahary said that the government could better support marine conservation and the people who rely on fishing the reefs for a living. But he also said that for-profits have the potential to achieve a higher impact when it comes to restoration than charities.

“I’m part of a different generation than the ones before me,” said Ms. Donty, who earned a business degree in France. “I want to use what I know to incorporate the environment into my business model.”
Source: Mongabay

An all-women crew is fighting fires in Borneo

In West Kalimantan province, the Power of Mama group is protecting villages and expanding ideas about women’s roles and influence. Many of Borneo’s peatlands have been drained of water to make way for plantations, making them highly susceptible to wildfires and rendering slash-and-burn agriculture more dangerous. Peatlands hold twice as much carbon as all of the world’s forests – and it is released when they burn.

The Power of Mama has 92 members from six villages in West Kalimantan, which neighbors a rainforest with a large orangutan population. They patrol on motorbike and by boat to spot fires early, and emphasize prevention. The group was established in 2022 by the Indonesian Nature Rehabilitation Initiation Foundation. Power of Mama also visits farmers to encourage the use of compost fertilizer and to make their land more productive. Children are also taught about land management.

Though male residents mocked the women when they began, Power of Mama is now routinely invited to village meetings. “It’s constant love and so much fun,” founder Karmele Llano Sanchez said of the women’s teamwork. “They are so eager to be seen, and to know people, and to do stuff that is not just cooking for their families.”
Sources: Mongabay, BBC