Global Us: What connects us all

In December 2012, six men attacked and viciously raped a 23-year-old female university student in New Delhi in a bus and then threw her from the vehicle. In 2015, six men raped a 70-year-old nun. An estimated almost 2 million women are murdered every year in India.

Violence against women is part of everyday life in India. In response the state is trying to do more to protect women. An organization in the city of Pune is taking a different approach. It’s targeting young men, educating them in workshops about misogynist attitudes and forms of behavior. Leaders of the initiative are trying to win over young men for gender equality. And it's working.

Sarus cranes can be found across wide areas of South-East Asia. They depend on wetlands and marsh areas for their natural habit. But those areas are diminishing owing to climate change. Dwindling fish stocks and pesticide use in the surrounding rice fields are further endangering these now rare birds.

The government has designated protected areas in the Lower Mekong to prevent this beautiful species from dying out in Cambodia.

King Coal is abdicating - at least that was the tenor of many business reports in the context of the 2015 Paris climate conference. It's a swelling chorus of voices that even Allianz, Germany's largest insurer, recently joined. An astonishing change of change of heart is becoming apparent. But where does it come from?

The worldwide movement 350.org has been demanding for years that investment assets be withdrawn from coal and oil, and diverted to climate-friendly energy sources. $3 billion have to date been divested from fossil fuels by 500 institutions, investment funds and insurance companies.

Europe is contending with many problems: the tide of refugees, national debt and youth unemployment. For that reason some people have long considered the European Union to be a failed project. How can Europe reinvent itself? What values and what visions can fuel the kind of enthusiasm that will again link all Europeans?

A millennia-old migratory route lies between Tanzania and Amboseli National Park in Kenya. The elephants are searching for food. Conflicts are inevitable, often with fatal consequences for the animals. It's hoped that new land leasing agreements, schools and jobs for the Maasai, and sustainable tourism will solve the problem.

Several years ago some Maasai tribes were resettled outside Amboseli National Park due to insufficient room in Kenya for their nomadic way of life. In this way, many villages and small farms were created around the park over time. The 1,400 elephants living in the park compete with the Maasai's large animal herds for food and watering places. On their migrations they destroy fields and endanger farmers' livelihoods. The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) has now helped to create a safe corridor, through which the elephants can get to the border. To make it, the IFAW has leased land from the Maasai, thus giving them an additional source of income.

Climatic conditions off the eastern coast of Africa are perfect for growing high-quality spices on Zanzibar. But the times when they were shipped all over the world seemed to be long past, until a few farmers discovered a new market niche.

Patrick Manganga and 30 other spice farmers founded a cooperative. Now they cultivate cloves, among other spices, on a large scale, selling them under an organic label. That way they can earn more money. The spices are exported mainly to Europe.

The refugee crisis is dividing the EU as the debt crisis surrounding Greece did before it. More and more parties critical of Europe are straining its internal cohesion. Eric Kacou sees the EU as being in a serious leadership crisis.

He’s one of the Young Global Leaders chosen by the World Economic Forum.

Guatemala shares the Selva Maya, the largest tropical rainforest in the Americas north of the Amazon, with Mexico and Belize. The forest’s history also makes it unique. A thousand years ago, up to 100,000 people lived the ancient Mayan city of Tikal alone. Their descendants now have a hard time of it, often lacking work and prospects.

The GIZ, the German Society for International Cooperation, together with local partner organizations, is committed to helping residents work in harmony with nature while fighting exploitation and deforestation.

Layne Quintero Gonzales from Salento, Colombia, has three brothers and loves learning English. In her free time she surfs the Internet and at the weekend she goes out with her friends.

She’d like to study medicine one day and qualify as a neurosurgeon.

The natives of the high Andean regions are already feeling the effects of climate change, such as water shortages and drought. But solutions for combating these problems are on Hand.

Traditional forms of water management used by the Incas could help. These methods are hardly known today, even amongst the indigenous people of the Andes. The Mountain Institute is dedicated to ensuring this traditional expertise is circulated again.