Howdunnit

Fresh Start Farms is a program by the New Hampshire Organization for Refugee and Immigrant Success that invites refugees in the state to apply their farming skills here in America to earn an income. Many of the refugees in New Hampshire are from Somalia and witnesses to the Civil War there—and they carry that trauma with them. Having this outlet, where you can do what you know how to do alongside people who have similar experiences as you, is therapeutic. The program is now moving forward with opening up a storefront despite the COVID-19 restrictions.

Scientists from Uganda and Australia have worked together to come up with a device that produces oxygen without the use of electricity. Although this solution was originally intended to help address the high rate of children suffering from pneumonia, it is now also relevant for those suffering from respiratory issues due to COVID-19, especially in rural areas.

Supply chains have been disrupted with the restrictions imposed by the Coronavirus pandemic, and farmers are suffering from a lack of buying customers. Meanwhile, food banks are in dire straits as more and more people seek support after losing jobs to the pandemic. What's needed? A middle man. This article looks at a range of solutions across the United States in which organizations and community groups are stepping up to fill the gap between the two needs. They largely do this by purchasing, packaging, and distributing surplus product to local food banks who need more donations for the community.

Small-scale livestock producers and farmers are facing dire economic consequences from the coronavirus pandemic, so many are turning to a collective approach to help one another out. From home-delivery services to pivoting to online sales, farmers across the nation are testing out different models to survive the economic downturn.

California state government is pivoting to a tactic that will allow for state employees to be reassigned and retrained to help efforts towards implementing contact tracing. Only one-third of the state's local health departments are performing contact tracing in some capacity, but the new training – designed in partnership between the government and two universities – will help the state reach the necessary increase required to assess the pandemic.

Major populated cities such as New York and London were once regarded as "death traps," but a series of deadly outbreaks led to structural changes that worked to improve the public health outcomes for those living there. From sewer systems to therapeutic gardens, the health of those living in cities has improved in a variety of ways, however, that has not stopped densely populated areas from turning into hotspots for coronavirus. To address this, local governments are experimenting with even more structural changes such as turning city streets into walking and biking paths.

A solution in Pakistan to the economic distress caused by the coronavirus pandemic is also tackling another crisis at the same time: climate change. A program called 10 Billion Tree Tsunami employs workers who lost their job due to the quarantine by having them plant saplings all over the country. Wages aren't high, but it does offer workers an opportunity to feed their family until the crisis passes. The jobs created are focused in rural areas for women and other young people. The program is one of the few continuing through the pandemic, and already they have planted 30 million trees.

Researchers and public health experts across the world are turning to "wastewater-based-epidemiology" as a practice that could help trace and track the spread of COVID-19. This methodology has already proved successful in helping mitigate diseases such as polio in Israel and track the usage of illicit drugs in Australia. Most recently, in both France and the Netherlands, early sewage samples have revealed useful data about the coronavirus outbreak.

Did you know that the main ingredient in most chewing gum is a synthetic rubber, which resembles a close relationship to plastic? "It's called polyisobutylene," explains Anna Bullus, a British designer, "the same stuff you find in the inner tube of bicycle wheels." After realizing this, Anna decided to embark on a mission to recycle used chewing gum as a means of cleaning up the streets. What resulted was a way to create everyday products that include at least 20% gum, while simultaneously saving institutions money on what otherwise would have gone toward cleanup efforts.

As U.S. hospitals face a shortage of personal protective equipment during the worldwide coronavirus outbreak, creatives and engineers across the nation have begun a DIY movement to help create back up surgical masks. Using communication tools such as Slack and utilizing individual's backgrounds and skill sets, the groups have successfully designed a supply chain for distributing their alternative face shields but also caution that they're not replacements for N95 respirators.