Great.com Talks With...

Parasitic worm infection in young children poses a great threat to 868 million at risk youth around the world! With a simple tablet, student attendance could increase by 25% at a cost of $0.50 per child per year. Evidence Action annually treats 280 million children across India, Pakistan, Kenya, Nigeria and Ethiopia. 

Want to support the Evidence Action? https://www.evidenceaction.org/

Do you want to stop newborn chicks from being ground up alive and discarded as trash; prevent pigs and cows from being trapped in cages so small they can’t turn around; spare chickens from having their bones broken before they are boiled alive during slaughter?

Join us in this interview with The Humane League to find out how.

Want to support The Humane League?https://thehumaneleague.org/

Following a debilitating horse accident in 1995, Christopher Reeve was diagnosed with a spinal cord injury. He and his wife Dana devoted the rest of their lives to medical research and improving the lives of over 5.6 million Americans with paralysis. Their dual mission is to find  cures for  spinal cord injury through the advancement of research and to improve the quality of life for those impacted by paralysis. 

Want to support the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation? https://www.christopherreeve.org

Companies often behave like a psychopath does. Here are 3 signs of a psychopath which many companies embody:

- Manipulating to win against others

- Don’t really care about what is right or wrong

- Show no or little empathy towards others wellbeing

Why do companies behave in this way? We spoke to Martin Pigeon of Corporate Europe Observatory who explains how they expose the power of corporate lobbying in the EU.

Want to support the Corporate Europe Observatory? http://www.corporateeurope.org

In 2015 the United Nations adopted 17 goals to create a world where “No one is left behind”. We spoke to Cindy-Lee Cloete and Sifundo Sibiya from WESSA, Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa, about their efforts in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Two of these goals, #4 Quality Education and #11 Sustainable Cities and Communities, are coming alive in the sustainable schools that Cindy and Sifundo work with.

Want to support the WESSA? https://wessa.org.za/

For the last 33 years, Rainforest Trust has held onto their same mission from day one - species, communities, planet. With 24.7 million acres of rainforest already protected, they hope to see 30% of the earth’s surface protected by 2030. 

We spoke to Leslie VanSant, chief philanthropy officer at Rainforest Trust, about how conservation efforts can save the rainforest and preserve the world’s rarest wildlife.

Want to support the Rainforest Trust? www.rainforesttrust.org

In the last 10 to 20 years, we’ve moved from preserving the environment from people to preserving it for people. Ecology Center in Berkeley, California, runs three farmers markets, an ecology center and a curbside recycling pickup service to minimize the plastic impact on the environment. We must remind ourselves that individual changes add up - if we all decide to change, we show others that it is possible and then it will become normal.

Want to support Ecology Center? https://ecologycenter.org/

According to BBC Science Focus magazine 1 human consumes around 740kg of oxygen every year. It takes around 7-8 trees to produce this amount of oxygen. The good news is that Earth has around 400 trees for every human. The bad news is that they’re disappearing at a record high speed.

We spoke with Karen Van der Westhuizen, the communications director at Forest Stewardship Council – FSC about the role of her organization and the importance of forests.

Want to support the FSC? https://fsc.org/en

Is it possible to end the global illegal wildlife trade in our lifetime? In our children’s lifetime? We recently spoke with Peter Knights, the co-founder and executive director of WildAid, and he believes it is possible. As the demand for rhino horns, ivory and shark fins drops, increased awareness can create a shift in the way new generations perceive illegal wildlife trade. 

Want to support WildAid? www.wildaid.org

With empowering local communities at the heart of their mission, Tzedek is a U.K.-based charity working to alleviate extreme global poverty while engaging the UK community in their own sense of social responsibility. Founded nearly 30 years ago, this organization sourced its namesake from Hebrew -Tzedek - meaning justice. We spoke with their CEO, Kira Blumer, and International Development and Education Manager, Leanne Baker, about their cause.

Want to support Tzedek? www.tzedek.org.uk