A young Zimbabwean, Farai Munjoma, has set up a network of mentors to help Africa’s youth achieve their dreams.

This week we hear from Colombia, where a helpline with a difference recently opened. Its aim is to stop domestic violence, but instead of targeting victims, it targets the perpetrators.

The Sinai desert in Egypt is a dry, barren place where not much grows. But Ties van der Hoeven has come up with a scheme to turn it into a green and fertile land. It’s a plan on a huge scale which involves dredging a lake, restoring ecosystems, and even bringing back rain to the desert. He’s been inspired by a successful project to restore the Loess Plateau in China. But could it work in the Middle East?

Produced and presented by Richard Kenny.

Picture: Getty Images

Are stickers still saving lives? Was a coral reef repaired? Did the volcano erupt?

It has taken him 40 years, but Omar Tello has turned a patch of exhausted farmland in Ecuador back into rainforest. One of his biggest challenges was repairing the soil. His land was so degraded he had to make enough new soil - from unwanted wood shavings and chicken manure - to cover the entire plot. That alone took about 15 years.

Repeat - first published 31 March 2020.

There are thousands of oil and gas platforms in the world’s oceans and in the coming decades many will become obsolete. Some people think that instead of treating them as industrial waste, we should embrace the ecosystems they’ve created and leave them in the sea as artificial reefs. This approach has been adopted by some US states, and scientists are considering whether this could also work in the North Sea.

Scientists are checking up on the health of forests by analysing the sounds in them. They test their vital signs by measuring the croaks, tweets and hums of resident creatures. If they can hear a full range of animals they can be confident an ecosystem is doing well. However, if gaps start to appear, it’s a sign something is up.

Nick Holland hears more about how it works and how it’s being used to strike a balance between the needs of Papua New Guinea’s growing indigenous communities and the need to preserve the biodiversity of the forests they live off.

Marlo the labrador is learning how to sniff out Covid-19 in the UK. In Tanzania, Polish hound Thor is on the track of wildlife poachers. We explore how their extraordinary noses are tackling these issues and more around the globe.

This is the story of how one man is trying to transform lives through the power of the humble bicycle.

Image: unfoldstories.co.uk

Machines to shred, melt and mould waste plastic are popping up in workshops around the world - from the UK to Malaysia, Kenya to Mexico.