Our world is changing—in many ways for the better. Poverty and child mortality rates are declining, increasing numbers of primary age children attend school, and world leaders are taking collective action to counter climate change.

The media is uniquely placed to tell the individual stories behind trends like these. The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, or WAN IFRA, has also identified solutions journalism as a growing pillar for the media. In our challenging times, the public is eager to read news about hope and positive impact.

So are we, at Sparknews. That’s why we invited the world’s leading media to do something different: report on initiatives that are improving lives. When they first answered our call four years ago, inspired by Christian de Boisredon’s track record in the field of solutions journalism, Impact Journalism Day was born.

This year, 55 international print and digital media have come together to share stories of innovation and success.

You and 120 million other readers around the world will find that today’s news covers the same places and issues as usual, but in a different light. Meet those who have successfully brought answers in the fields of health, water, energy, finance, education, employment and more. Allow these stories to change your perspective on what citizens can accomplish. Be inspired.

Together, our 55 media partners believe that they can be part of the change they want to see in the world.

If you feel the same way, join the conversation. We want your feedback. That’s why we’ve developed new widgets, including one that many newspapers will incorporate at the bottom of articles in their web sections. Tell us if similar problems affect you, and if you want to see these solutions implemented in your country. Follow the change-makers featured in the articles. Write to us and to your newspapers and share your experiences.

To keep up with all the activity taking place during Impact Journalism Day, follow our hashtags and accounts on Facebook and Twitter (#ImpactJournalism, #StoryOfChange, @Sparknews, @KhaosodEnglish or write to us at [email protected]. To discover more inspiring stories, follow the AXA People Protectors Facebook page, where AXA, as founding partner of Impact Journalism Day since 2012, spreads innovative solutions to better protect people and the planet.

If you know entrepreneurs, companies or projects that deserve to be featured in IJD next year, suggest them at tellsparknews.com. Anyone can become part of the story.

Christian de Boisredon, Founder of Sparknews and Ashoka Fellow
Marie-Elie Aboul-Nasr, Media Alliance Development Manager at Sparknews,
Amy Serafin, Editor-in-Chief of Impact Journalism Day

By YU FUJINAMI
Staff Writer
Asahi Shimbun

KAMIKATSU, Japan — This small mountainous town on the island of Shikoku has proved so effective at recycling that the annual number of visitors seeking waste-reduction advice exceeds its population.

Residents and businesses in Kamikatsu have all joined the effort to achieve the town’s goal of “zero waste” by 2020. That goal was announced in 2003, following concerns of dioxin poisoning.

So far, the town of 1,700 has progressed steadily toward the target. In fiscal 2014, Kamikatsu achieved a recycling rate of 77.2 percent, nearly quadruple the national average of 20.6 percent.

Khaosod English is presenting this story as part of Impact Journalism Day

Around 2,500 annual visitors from within and outside Japan come to the town seeking tips on how to reduce garbage.

Kamikatsu’s recycling project centers on its only garbage collection site, known as “Gomi Station” (garbage station), operated by a town-commissioned nonprofit organization called Zero Waste Academy.

Residents take their household waste to the station, which is open from 7:30am to 2pm daily except for year-end holidays.

Plastic boxes at the facility come with signs showing the separation categories, such as aluminum cans, steel cans, plastic bottle caps and metal caps. The signs also indicate what the trash will be recycled into, as well as the selling price to dealers.

For example, disposable chopsticks will be recycled into materials for paper, and aluminum cans will be sold for JYP155 yen (USD$1.46) a kilogram.

The Kamikatsu government’s guidelines instruct households to separate litter into 34 categories. At the garbage station, there are about 60 categories.

With help from staff at the site, Toshihide Toge, 37, finished separating two months of waste he brought by truck in about 20 minutes.

“I am grateful because they help me when I am at a loss,” he said.

Burnable waste that cannot be recycled is handed over to dealers in Tokushima, the prefectural capital, for incineration.

Each household in Kamikatsu disposes of food scraps with a device bought with town government subsidies.

The catalyst for the Kamikatsu’s commitment to recycling came after it bought a small incinerator in 1998. The incinerator was shut down only two years later because the exhaust fumes did not clear the standards under the law controlling dioxin emissions.

Town officials urged residents to sort their rubbish for recycling to reduce the amount of waste for incineration or disposal.

In 1997, the town had nine waste-separation categories. The number jumped to 34 in 2002.

The following year, Mayor Kazuichi Kasamatsu proposed the zero-waste target, giving residents a numerical goal. The town assembly approved his proposal.

In fiscal 1998, the town produced 137 tons of waste for incineration. The year the zero-waste goal was announced, the amount was 62 tons. It has since remained around 60 tons annually.

It has been a widespread effort.

Rather than throw away unneeded daily items, residents look for new owners.

Kurukuru Shop, which stands adjacent to the garbage station, offers free second-hand furniture, clothes, tableware and other items that are brought in by locals.

People from out of town can also take home these goods.

About 10 tons of used articles were taken to the shop in fiscal 2014, and about 9.7 tons found new owners.

The town also tries to avoid using things that require later disposal.

Cafe Polestar, for example, does not provide paper napkins on its tables. Receipts are only provided to customers who request them. And restaurant employees use their own shopping bags when they buy ingredient for dishes served at Cafe Polestar.

“We were initially reluctant to deviate from services that are taken for granted at other establishments,” said Takuya Matsumoto, 31, manager of the restaurant. “But we would like our customers to know that is also part of our appeal.”

Akira Sakano, director of the Zero Waste Academy, is ready to move to the next stage because she believes residents’ endeavors so far have reached a limit.

“We don’t want to just separate garbage in a large number of categories, but we also want to reduce the amount produced in the first place,” said Sakano, 27.

One way to achieve this, she said, is working with businesses to change conventional methods of packaging on products.

She said waste from agricultural supplies can be curbed if recyclable substances replace the commonly used materials of vinyl chloride and rubber.

Sakano noted that some outside officials attribute Kamikatsu’s success to its small population, enabling the easy spread of efforts to save the environment.

She recommends that residents swap unwanted goods among themselves and set up waste stations at several sites to match the size of their communities.

“All communities can devise their own zero-waste projects by taking into account their circumstances,” Sakano said. “We are ready to share our knowledge as well as the ways and means.”

By Manos Charalampakis
Ta Nea, Greece

ATHENS — For several days now, the homeless of Athens have been able to keep their clothes clean even though they don’t have a home. A mobile laundrette has made its appearance on the streets of the capital where the homeless can get their clothes washed and dried and feel nice – albeit briefly – giving them the opportunity to pursue a brighter future on better terms.

Behind this innovative idea to help the homeless improve their self-esteem and increase their dignity, there is a team of young scientists, led by Athens graduates Thanos Spiliopoulos and Fanis Tsonas. The laundrette is in a van in which two washing machines and two dryers have been installed. The team named the mobile laundrette the “Ithaca Laundry” since, as they note, through their action they want to help the homeless rediscover their ‘Ithaca’; that feeling of discovery and fulfilment. “Cleanliness leads to dignity and this, in turn, to new opportunities” is the motto of the non-profit civil partnership Spiliopoulos and Tsonas created to realize their project.

Khaosod English is presenting this story as part of Impact Journalism Day

“When a homeless person can wash their clothes and be clean, they automatically feel better. First of all, you make their daily life better,” explains Thanos Spiliotopoulos, a 23-year-old graduate of the Department of Management Science and Technology of the Athens University of Economics and Business. Spiliotopoulos was the initiator of the “Ithaca Laundry” and the person responsible for organizational issues. “By providing the homeless the opportunity to have clean clothes we give them a psychological boost to enter society” adds co-founder Fanis Chonas, a 23-year-old graduate chemical engineer of the National Technical University of Athens and responsible for the technical aspects of the mobile laundrette.

I met the two 23-year-olds a few days after the first “outing” of the mobile laundrette in Athens and their enthusiasm was evident. “We had been waiting eagerly for this day,” Fanis tells me. Thanos is satisfied and restrained at the same time when I ask him about the first reactions of the homeless to the appearance of the “Ithaca Laundry”; he says that the team offers the homeless something humane: “Okay, it’s not that we are providing them with a home but it is definitely nice to give them the opportunity to wash their clothes and at the same time offer them a cup of coffee.”

While the two men are explaining their idea to me, they simultaneously perform a last check to the washing machines and the van’s equipment since they had planned another outing of the “Ithaca Laundry” for that night. This time they were going to station their van opposite the Varvakeio Market in the area where the government community building project, “Syn Athina”, of the municipality of Athens operates.

In terms of how they came up with the idea of creating a mobile laundrette for the homeless, Thanos says that he had seen mobile laundrettes for the homeless that were in operation in San Francisco and Australia in old media reports. “At the same time I could see that in Greece there was a big problem with the homeless. So the idea to create a similar mobile laundrette in Athens was born.”

Scholarships and the Beginning 

The cleanliness and smiles that the mobile laundrette has been offering to the homeless for a little time now did not happen instantly. As Thanos Spiliotopoulos and Fanis Chonas explain, a lot of work and perseverance was needed, while scholarships and grants provided them with considerable impetus. At the end of 2014 they received an “Ithaca Laundry” team consists of five people.

The foundation of a non-profit partnership followed and the van was bought in the summer of 2015. “It was a used van. It took hard work to modify it to its present form,” says Thanos Spiliotopoulos. The familiar procedure of getting the licence and number plates soon followed.

Significant support for the mobile laundrette project – as highlighted by the group – was provided by a grant from Impact Hub Athens network, while the electrical equipment was provided by the company LG.

In the autumn of 2015, the team began to look for suitable places in Athens frequented by homeless or where homeless passed by, where they could station the mobile laundrette. They also contacted the Municipality of Athens for suggestions. The goal of the “Ithaca Laundry” is to regularly operate on specific days of the week and for a number of days to gradually increase the laundrette’s visibility. The activity will also be carried out with the assistance of a group of volunteers: “7–8 people have already been mobilized, while we have received around 40 applications from people who want to help voluntarily,” the group state. Volunteers will help in the collection of the clothes, transferring them from the washing machines to the dryers, returning them to the homeless and generally in the organization of the process.

How it Works

The functioning of the mobile laundrette is simple: First, the team and the volunteers establish contact with the homeless and collect the clothes from them. The clothes are then automatically washed in the washing machines, dried and returned to the individual. The whole process takes about two hours. Water is supplied from nearby parks or other points in the Municipality where the van is stationed. The mobile laundrette operates at specific, well-known and distinguishable parts of the city; at different places every day.

By Stephan Dörner
Die Welt

BERLIN — An advertising billboard stands in Times Square showing New Yorkers what they can get for 50 cents (about 40 cents EUR): 90 seconds of a sightseeing tour, for example, or 1.8 seconds with the street performer “Naked Cowboy,” who can often be seen at New York’s most famous street crossing.

Or they could provide a malnourished child with meals for a day.

The Times Square advertisement introduces New Yorkers to “ShareTheMeal,” a smartphone app from a Berlin start-up that is an initiative of the United Nations World Food Programme. The video itself was donated by the World Food Programme – there is no money for marketing – but even without a huge advertising budget, the app, for iPhone and Android, has spread over all social networks in a very short time and the aid provided has fed tens of thousands of schoolchildren and pregnant women.

“ShareTheMeal” founder, Sebastian Stricker, who was already working for the UN World Food Programme, asked himself a simple question: in a world where there are more smartphones than hungry people, why not fight hunger with a click on an app? Whenever a smartphone user is having his breakfast, lunch or dinner, he has the opportunity to share 40 Euro cents with someone in need – thus the name “ShareTheMeal.” The 40 cents donation covers the whole cost: from payment processing up to the logistics of food distribution.

Since the app was launched, initially in Germany in June 2015 and then internationally in November the same year, the user numbers have mushroomed: “5.4 million meals were distributed by about 500,000 donors up to the end of April,” says the “ShareTheMeal” founder. “That means we are feeding between 10,000 and 15,000 children every day.” The “ShareTheMeal” app has already won many prizes – including the Interactive Innovation Award of the technology festival “South by Southwest”, two prizes from Google and a renowned Webby Award.

Stricker is currently in Lebanon, managing the distribution of food via “ShareTheMeal”. “Lebanon has taken in over one million refugees, within a total population of 4.4 million,” he remarks. “Some have to live on rooftops, where tools are normally stored.” The schools are staying open in the afternoons as well, so the Syrian refugee children can go to school. “Poverty is immense – and yet there is still an unbelievable spirit and optimism. They treat the refugees well, with dignity.”

Khaosod English is presenting this story as part of Impact Journalism Day

“ShareTheMeal” first began its fight against world hunger by providing food for schoolchildren in Lesotho. The distribution of school meals has a twofold effect: in the short term hunger is stemmed, but in the long run the economic development of the country is furthered. Meals mean children can attend school more often, instead of being sent out to work.

In the Syrian city of Homs, young mothers were the beneficiaries – another very efficient form of aid according to experts. “If you don’t get enough food as an infant or pregnant woman, or if you get the wrong nutrients, the child won’t develop properly – and mental development is impaired as well,” says Stricker. The ramifications for an individual’s entire lifetime are “impossible to make up. These are the so-called first Thousand Days, from pregnancy to the second year. If you don’t give support then, it can’t be made up for later.”

The fight against global hunger may seem like battling an invisible enemy – but it is showing progress, step by step, country by country. In Lesotho, after about a third of malnourished children were provided for via “ShareTheMeal” for a year, private initiatives stepped in and carried on the aid work. The money collected via the app was then allocated to care for refugee children in Jordan, and then pregnant women and mothers with small children in the Syrian city of Homs. Now “ShareTheMeal” aims to provide for all Syrian refugee children in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. The underlying idea is to prove that the aid put in place thanks to donations from the app is working, so that other initiatives can then take over.

The 40 cents per meal that “ShareTheMeal” advertises is a global average for provision through the United Nations World Food Programme. “In some countries and situations it is a lot more expensive, in others clearly cheaper,” says Stricker.

Some foreign aid critics argue that the countries concerned might become dependent on it in the long run. Stricker, however, disagrees: “A certain minimum level of health, nutrition and education must be in place,” he says. “If you constantly remain below this minimum, you will remain ill, will have few opportunities and will pass this on to your children as well.”

For the future, Stricker dreams of establishing smartphones as a direct link between helpers and those in need of help. “If you ask me what the top two future topics in this area are, I would answer: virtual reality and peer-to-peer help.” The term “peer-to-peer” is used in the IT field to describe a direct connection between two computers in a network.

In the future, smartphone users might even be able to see who they have shared their meal with. Stricker is currently carrying out initial experiments with virtual reality in Lebanon. “This is really touching,” he says. “The children are holding up their food to the camera with big smiles.” Stricker describes how milk, apples and muffins were handed out to the children. “They liked the apples best of all,” says Stricker with a smile. “In Germany, children must be forced to eat fruit – and here they love apples more than anything.”