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The power of play
Play is essential to children’s development – kids learn about themselves and the world around them by having fun and taking risks. In some countries scientists have linked a decline in free play with a rise in children’s mental health problems. In this programme we visit a playground called “the land” where no parents are allowed in! This highly-regarded project in Wales now supports adults too, an approach dubbed “play-based community development”. Plus we visit a “soft play” centre in Los Angeles, USA, one of a chain of play spaces that have been created specifically for autistic children and their families.Presenter: Myra Anubi Reporters: William Kremer, Emma Tracey Producer: William Kremer Editor: Jon Bithrey Sound mix: Hal Haines(Image: Children at The Land adventure playground in North Wales, BBC)
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Digging deep to help farmers
A new farming method is having a dramatic effect on maize crops in Malawi. And assistance is coming from a solar-powered tractor. In the last of her visits to Malawi, Myra goes to a village where they are using a new method called Deep Bed Farming. It’s more than doubled the yield of some of the farmers and improved their standards of living. The method involves digging deep into the hard earth. This can be tough work but a new solar-powered tractor designed in the UK called Aftrak is helping the farmers. Malawi has been hit hard by the changing climate and often struggles to feed its population. So making it more food secure could improve the lives of millions.People Fixing The World from the BBC is about brilliant solutions to the world's problems. We release a new edition every Tuesday. We'd love you to let us know what you think and to hear about your own solutions. You can contact us on WhatsApp by messaging +44 8000 321721 or email [email protected]. And please leave us a review on your chosen podcast provider.Presenter: Myra Anubi Producer: Richard Kenny Malawi Producer: Marie Segula Editor: Jon Bithrey Senior News Editor: Lisa Baxter Sound Mix: Hal Haines(Image: Malawian farmers with the Aftrak solar powered tractor, BBC)
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Flower Power
In India, how can gorgeous flowers offered in a temple or gathered to decorate a wedding be an environmental problem? Chhavi Sachdev discovers that the practice of disposing of the spent flowers, thousands of tonnes of the them daily, into rivers and lakes causes major pollution and literally suffocates waterborne life. The problem is made worse by the fact that the flowers are sprayed with pesticides in the field so are yet more toxic when discarded. But there ARE solutions - both to recycle the waste into treated compost and, in an innovative scheme, to dry the flowers for their colour and fragrance and make incense sticks - many millions of which are sold in India every year. Presenter/Producer : Chhavi Sachdev UK Producer: Tom Woolfenden A Just Radio Production Image: Piles of orange, yellow and red flower heads at market. Credit: Chhavi Sachdev
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Front Yard Floods
Frequent floods blight the poorest neighbourhoods of New Orleans but the residents are fighting back, one yard at a time. Physicist Helen Czerski joins the team behind the Front Yard Initiative as they strive to keep the Big Easy safe and dry, 20 years after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.When Katrina hit New Orleans in August 2005, the levees broke, 800,000 residents were forced out and 1800 people died. $14bn was spent on concrete and steel to rebuild the defences but the city still floods regularly. This water isn't coming from the Mississippi River sealed behind the new defences, it's coming from the skies. Sudden, violent rainstorms are becoming more frequent and the city's low income districts have notoriously inefficient drainage systems. The water lands on concrete and asphalt and quickly overwhelms the drains.The team behind the Front Yard Initiative is working, block by block, to help residents beat the floods by turning broken concrete into rainwater gardens. Native flowers and cheap, simple engineering are helping to transform neighbourhoods and attract new residents to the battered but beautiful home of jazz, gumbo and Mardi Gras.Image: An example of a front yard made into a rainwater garden, pictured with the owner and team behind front yard initiative. Credit: Alasdair Cross
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A Washing Machine Solution
British Sikh engineer, Navjot Sawhney gave up his lucrative career to go and work in India, to use his skills to help solve problems for rural communities. While there, he became fascinated with the problems his neighbour, Divya, was facing while handwashing clothes, sometimes for up to three hours a day.Broadcaster and journalist Nkem Ifejika finds out how Nav promised to design a hand crank, off-grid washing machine for his neighbour, to help her avoid the sore joints, aching limbs, and irritated skin she got from her daily wash. Within two years of coming up with the idea, Nav had set up his own company, The Washing Machine Project, and trialled his first machine in a refugee camp in Iraq. From that first trip, over five years ago, the project has now provided nearly a thousand machines, free to the users in poorer communities and refugee camps, in eleven countries around the world. Nkem hears how seven years on, Nav fulfilled his promise to return to India with a machine for his neighbour, Divya. The Washing Machine Project is now partnered with the Whirlpool Foundation, the social corporate responsibility arm of the company that designed the first electric domestic machine over a hundred years ago, and together they hope to impact 150,000 people.Nkem asks if a project like this can really make a difference, given that roughly five billion people still wash their clothes by hand.Producer: Alex Strangwayes-Booth A CTVC productionImage: Navjot Sawhney sitting between two hand crank, off grid washing machines. Credit: The Washing Machine Project
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