Ice Cream Gives Rwanda Hope

The Blue Marble ice cream shop of Brooklyn, NY looks to create a nonprofit store, or eventually a chain, that would provide jobs and support Rwandan dairy farmers in addition to peddling cones and sundaes. The organization, called Blue Marble Dreams, has raised about $35,000 toward its $150,000 goal since it was founded in October. Read More.

Turning Garbage into Dinner

Planning Systems Services has invented the communal cooker, which turns rubbish into fuel to feed residents of one of Africa's biggest slums, Kibera, on the outskirts of Nairobi. Garbage is brought to the community cooker by volunteers who shovel it into one end of a giant concrete oven. At the other end are hotplates where the community cooks and boils water. This unique invention finds an alternative to dirty coal, as well as the disposal of waste. Says a member of the community: “It might smell a bit but it doesn’t make our food taste any different”.
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More Children Sleep under Malaria Nets

The percentage of African children sleeping under insecticide-treated bed nets has increased dramatically from 2% to 19% between 2000 and 2007, according to a study published in The Lancet.