Global Us: What connects us all

The Sateré-Mawé people grow the Guaraná plant using traditional methods in the Amazon basin. They are hoping others will follow their example and prevent further damage to the rainforest.

17-year-old Mutoni Favour lives with her two younger sisters and their uncle and aunt. Her father works as a driver, her mother died while she was still young. She loves to read novels and listen to music.

People with mental health issues have little hope of finding a job, but social entrepreneur Irad Eichler believes in their potential. He's set up a training center to prepare them for working life - overcoming their isolation at the same time.

Soffía Theodórsdóttir lives in a typical Icelandic home in the south of the country. She campaigns against water in plastic bottles, and in her spare time she likes to play on her old Blüthner piano.

Corn, banana leaves, vegetables and meat - the older women of the village of Cárdenas in the Mexican state of Chiapas still cook the way their grandmothers did. How can these traditional recipes be preserved?

Huge amounts of rice straw are left over after the harvest in Thailand. Farmers often burn it, which is terrible for the environment. A young entrepreneur has found a new use for the material. Turned into paper, it can replace plastic food packaging.

More than a fourth of Nepal's population has no access to electricity. Many villages use hydropower plants to generate energy. NGOs and the government support the projects. The goal is to provide remote areas with sustainable energy.

Abdoulaye Coulibaly is mayor of Fana in Mali and a climate change expert. He hopes to prepare his community for global warming. It's also a question of war and peace in the crisis-plagued country.

Chile gets plenty of sunshine. More and more businesses are using it as a cheap source of power. They are getting support from the German-Chilean Chamber of Commerce, which offers training in the efficient use of renewable energies.

In our Global Teen series we present 14-year-old Iván Emmanuel Santana Vega from the state of Jalisco in Mexico. He loves sports, especially the martial art taekwondo, and he’s really good at it.