People Fixing the World

How the numbers of stray dogs - and feral pigeons - can be kept down kindly in urban areas. From street dogs to feral pigeons, many towns and cities are having to deal with exploding bird and animal populations which can pose risks to health and safety. This week we take a look at ways we can control numbers in an effective and humane way. We visit a special pigeon loft in Germany, where pigeon eggs are swapped with dummy eggs to h...

Being in hospital can be frightening and lonely for children — but playful ideas are helping make the experience a little easier. In Scotland, professionally trained clowns are visiting paediatric wards to bring joy and distraction, while in the US, immersive video games are helping young patients come to terms with illness and long stays. We meet the people using creative ways to brighten up a stay in hospital for children and tee...

Barcelona in Spain is famous for its beautiful streets, lined with tall apartment buildings. But the architecture is a problem for many people who have lived for years in upstairs apartments but who now find the stairs unmanageable.

In 2008, a survey found that in one district there were 300 people who could not leave their homes alone. A group of volunteers decided to do something about this and got hold of a special wheelchair wit...

Shipping containers are a staple of global trade, helping in the transport of all sorts of goods by sea across the world. But their relatively cheap cost and sturdy structure lends them to many other purposes. In this episode we look at a start-up business in the UK that uses shipping containers to store carbon captured from the air in the production of building materials. And we visit a school for poorer children created out of sh...

What do you do with your waste if you live somewhere that doesn’t have the infrastructure to deal with it? Turns out there are some really simple solutions. Presenter Myra Anubi is in Malawi where she meets the cafe owner in the capital Lilongwe who has set up a recycling hub as well as the women making valuable compost from food scraps and animal dung. Plus Myra visits the Kibébé workshop in the Dzaleka refugee camp where refugees...

Mindfulness meditation, which involves becoming aware of the breath in the present moment, has been a core part of Eastern contemplative practices for thousands of years. Over recent decades however, it’s ‘exploded’ throughout the West as scientists have sought to prove the physical and mental benefits of regular practice - like feeling calmer, less stressed and feeling better able to manage emotions.

This week we look at some of t...

During the 1970s and 80s, thousands of Chilean babies were illegally kidnapped, trafficked and adopted. The practice was widespread during the rule of General Augusto Pinochet.

Today many of Chile’s ‘stolen children’ are trying to trace their birth families - and their mothers are also looking for them. Hundreds of them have been successfully reunited with the help of a small Santiago-based NGO called Nos Buscamos. Using DNA testing...

From Malawi, Myra Anubi takes a look at ways that technology is improving children’s education. Malawi has free primary schools - but almost 90% of 10 year olds are unable to read properly. So the government is distributing tablets to schools up and down the country. They use software that helps kids to learn maths and reading at their own speed and in their own language. Tests have shown that literacy and numeracy are improving an...

Bias in the way medical research is carried out means that new medicines for diseases such as cancer – as well as the tools used to diagnose patients with some conditions – are disproportionally tested on people of European heritage. This can lead to those not represented in the data being misdiagnosed as well as some treatments not working as well as they should.

From the Ghanaian scientist helping to develop cancer treatments whic...

Myra Anubi is joined by BBC Access All presenter Emma Tracey to look at new technology that could help blind people in their everyday lives. Glide is a new mobility aid – it’s a device with wheels and cameras that aims to provide blind people with an alternative to white canes and guide dogs, while using AI to give them more information about their surroundings. Emma tries the gadget out in Los Angeles. She also looks at a device t...

This week we look at two projects that show how sport can be a powerful tool for social inclusion.

We go rowing with some refugees in Seville, Spain, and discover how being part of a crew has helped both adults and kids feel part of their new community.

And we join a special scheme in southern England that uses football coaching to break down barriers between police officers and local young people. The project is run by Brighton and ...

There are more people alive and living for longer - but with that comes more people experiencing failing health. While some of this is inevitable, some can be reversible through rehabilitation.

The WHO says 2.6 billion people could benefit from rehabilitation services but in low and middle income countries fewer than half receive these services. We’ve found three projects which help promote independence and a better quality of life.

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The global rhino population has fallen by 95% since 1900, mainly due to poaching. Now an atomic approach is being used to stop the poachers in South Africa by placing radioactive material into the horns of rhinos. We journey to the South African bush to meet the scientists - as well as the rhinos being protected.

People Fixing The World from the BBC is about brilliant solutions to the world's problems. We'd love you to let us know w...

How do you stop people chopping down precious rainforest? In the Indonesian part of Borneo, researchers for a conservation charity discovered that local people were chopping down the rainforest around them for an incredibly understandable reason – they needed to pay for medical treatment for themselves and their children.

So they started a project that would hopefully protect the forest and help the local communities at the same tim...

In the red light districts of Kolkata, India, there exists an extraordinary youth club. DIKSHA, as it’s known, looks after the children of sex workers when their mothers are working. While they’re at the youth club, girls and boys learn about their rights and are empowered to take control of their futures. Since the club started in 2001 it has worked to prevent girls from joining the sex trade, and helped reduce the stigma facing c...

Around the world, rubbish is collecting in our gutters and waterways, with millions of tonnes being washed out to sea every year. As the soup of ocean debris kills and injures millions of marine animals, we look at two projects trying to make a dent in the problem. We discover a Greek project which has enlisted thousands of fishermen around the Mediterranean to collect rubbish from their nets, rather than throw it back. They then s...

Globally, energy production and use is responsible for around 75% of the world’s carbon emissions, with around a third of that on electricity and heat alone. To tackle climate change, we need to get more energy from renewable sources, so this week we’re taking a look at some of the more surprising ways people have come up with to harness clean energy from the world around us.

In the United States, we see what happened when a group o...

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that one in every 100 people in Gaza have a life-changing injury because of the conflict. It’s currently impossible for most to leave the strip and get medical treatment but a team of Jordanian medics has been able to enter Gaza and fit war victims with cutting-edge prosthetics which clip on quickly and easily. The BBC’s Yolande Knell in Jerusalem has been hearing from innovators, docto...

Sex is one of the few things in life that is available to everyone and is free. But achieving enjoyable sex is not possible for many. Some people are held back by fear, ignorance or culture - others don’t know or understand their rights around sex. For years public health campaigns focused on warning people about the downsides of sex - danger, disease and death - but increasingly the work is focused on the reasons people have sex. ...