How 3D printing can save lives

Equal Voice Network looked at low voter turnout rates in El Paso and decided that just registering voters wasn’t enough. The coalition developed a creative way to increase education and engagement in local issues: a game. Votería is a play off of Lotería, a traditional Mexican pastime similar to bingo, with updated images and text explaining key current issues and political figures.

On July 7, 122 United Nations member countries approved a new treaty prohibiting and eliminating nuclear weapons. The legally binding agreement emphasizes humanitarian concerns, including the disproportionate impact of weapons testing and deployment on indigenous people as well as on women, young children, and reproductive systems. All nine states holding nuclear weapons boycotted negotiations.

Amidst a backdrop of growing conversation around gun control and reform, especially as it pertains to school shooting incidents, President Trump suggests the solution is arming teachers. Some schools, however, have already done this to varying degrees of success and acceptance.

Since July 2019, New Zealand has held gun buybacks across the country and collected over 10,000 firearms. After a mass shooting at Christchurch mosque, the government rushed through legislation to ban semi-automatic and automatic firearms, offering owners of such weapons cash and a no-questions-asked policy. Such legislation has been implemented in other countries as well, including Australia, who in 1996 collected over 600,000 weapons.

With support from Accountability Lab and Transparency International, seven countries have held “Integrity Idol” contests to recognize their most honest and helpful public servants. Winners have become people others want to emulate. The contests help fight corruption and inspire civic participation.

A fun app called “Bella Mossa” has incentivized people to ditch their cars in Bologna. The anti-pollution effort gives users credits for biking, walking, and using public transport. Users can then swap their credits for rewards from local shopkeepers, such as free beer and ice cream.

Hashtags and chat apps can notify users when items of vital necessity become available during times of severe shortage. Despite the Zimbabwean government’s pushback against social media, Zimbabweans are turning to platforms like Twitter and WhatsApp to share information about gas availability amid a severe nationwide shortage. Automated chat bots and hashtags used on Facebook and Twitter deliver real-time information to people across the country about fuel deliveries and queue lengths, helping to circumvent group size restriction in chat apps.

In countries like Cambodia, Angola, and Mozambique, rats are saving lives by detecting untriggered land mines. An international nonprofit, Apopo, provides funding a training and works with local organizations to operate at the local level. The rats are light enough that they don’t trigger the explosives and can cover up to 2,000 square feet in just 20 minutes – something that would take a human up to four days to complete.

What began as informal online gaming sessions grew into a group of hundreds of LGBTQ gamers, calling themselves Charlotte Gaymers Network, that fostered community and a safe place to gather during the pandemic. Though most of the network's events had to be held virtually, that ended up meeting a need, as more traditional in-person meeting spaces for Charlotte's LBGTQ community had shut down. The group promotes inclusivity in gaming designs and uses events like a tournament to build its following.

A group of volunteers in Ukraine created the Brave to Rebuild initiative to clear debris and make necessary repairs to homes that were destroyed in the war so their inhabitants can spend the winter in them.