People Fixing the World

When you get your hair cut, you probably don't think much about what happens to the bits that get chopped off.But it turns out that rather than being dumped in the rubbish, hair can be put to all kinds of uses that can help clean up the planet and feed the people who live on it.We meet a hairdresser who weaves the clippings into mats that get used to soak up oil spills.Plus the young entrepreneur in Tanzania who's worked out how to turn human hair into a powerful crop fertiliser.Presenter: Myra Anubi Reporter: Daniel GordonImage: A man getting his hair cut

From an industrial-scale fly factory in London to farming bugs in the Madagascan rainforest, insects are being put to work all around the world. These biological wonders are turning stuff we don’t want – like food waste and even faeces – into useful protein. This is creating a greener alternative to animal feed and creating food products for humans too. We meet the people using bugs to help the planet. Presenter: Myra Anubi Producer/reporter: Craig Langran Executive producer: Tom Colls Editor: Penny Murphy Image: Black soldier fly larvae (Getty Images)

The Prison Voicemail app connects inmates and their families, helping them stay in touch throughout a sentence. We hear a mum and daughter using the messages to rebuild their relationship, and find out how it helps children who are separated from their dad. Producer/ reporter Ruth Evans Repeat - first published 4 Aug 2020

Police in Iceland treat domestic violence differently.Leaving an abusive relationship is hard, and many victims stay with physically or mentally hurtful partners, even after police get involved.In Iceland, they focus their efforts on the first 24 hours after a domestic attack is reported.This is the “window” in which survivors are most likely to give unfiltered evidence against their abusers and accept help leaving them.Specialist police, social workers and child protection officers are swiftly sent into violent homes, and suspected offenders can be immediately removed. It’s a more hands-on approach than in most places, based on the view that domestic abuse is a public rather than a private problem.Maddy Savage investigates how much the initiative has impacted prosecution rates and the wellbeing of families affected by this type of violence.Image: Iceland’s top police officer Sigríður Björk Guðjónsdóttir

How do you get officers to step in to prevent other officers from harming the public? “Loyalty isn't saying: ‘Well, you've done something wrong, I'm going to protect you.’ Loyalty is me saying: ‘You're about to do something wrong, and I'm going to stop you.’” New Orleans Police Department says this is the basis of a radical training programme devised to reduce incidents of police brutality. We first reported on the training system back in October 2020, five months after the killing of George Floyd. Since then, the idea has spread, and the system is now being taught right across the United States and beyond. Daniel Gordon catches up with the project to hear what progress is being made. Picture credit: Getty Images

Malaria kills more than half a million people per year. We meet the innovators who are using buildings, lights, genes and vaccines to fight the mosquito-borne disease. In Ghana, a young woman has turned her school project into a business, selling lights that electrocute mosquitos and help kids study. In Tanzania, researchers have designed a house with porous walls that diffuse human breath and keep the people inside hidden from mosquitos. In London, scientists are using genetic engineering to reduce female mosquito fertility, aiming one day to make a dent in the wild population. And in Kenya and Malawi, a new malaria vaccine is being tested, offering hope to millions of people. Presenter: Jo Mathys Reporter: Rumella Dasgupta Image: A Star Home (Credit: Star Homes Project)

Virtual Reality is being used by researchers around the world to change people’s lives – helping them confront their own fears and change how they treat other people.In the UK, a company is using VR to help people with a fear of heights. The automated therapy system puts participants in a virtual multi-story building to help them combat their fear.A team in Israel is experimenting with using VR to change how people on both sides of the conflict feel about the other.And in Spain, a virtual reality simulation is being used in prisons. They’re trying to make people convicted of domestic violence aware of what it feels like to be in the position of their victims.Presenter: Jo Mathys Producer/Reporter: Serena Tarling Image: Someone using a VR headset (Getty Images)

Could a video game where you pretend to spread Covid misinformation actually make you less susceptible to real-life fake news? Fake news, conspiracy theories and misinformation about health can stop people getting vaccinated, which in turn could cause diseases to spread and ultimately result in people dying. In Sierra Leone, an NGO is educating people about typhoid and malaria by creating audio dramas, and sharing them over WhatsApp. Meanwhile, a team based at Cambridge University in the UK wants to ‘inoculate’ people, to prevent them from believing fake stories if and when they see them in the future. Presenter: Jo Mathys Reporter/Producer: Mark Sedgwick Image: The Go Viral game

A Ugandan chemist has found a way to use old cattle bones and food waste to make clean water.Timothy Kayondo turns the rubbish into activated carbon, which he uses to produce water purifiers. They’re being used in schools and hospitals.It is estimated that one in 10 people on the planet do not have a basic level of access to clean water.In this programme we find out about Timothy’s work and discover more ways people around the world are getting access to safe drinking water.Presenter: Jo Mathys Reporters: Mercy Juma, Celestina Olulode and Tom Colls Producers: Daniel Gordon and Tom Colls Image: Timothy Kayondo

How are Covid sniffer dogs, a sturdy bicycle scheme and balloons beaming down the internet getting on? We catch up with a few of the projects featured on our programme to see if they are making progress. In the UK we catch up with the sniffer dogs being trained to detect Covid 19. After promising results from a large trial, they’re onto the next stage of training. Meanwhile Wyson in Zambia has extended his bicycle purchase scheme for rural women and even had a bit of help from a BBC World Service audience member. We find out what happened after US company Loon launched giant balloons designed to beam down the internet to rural Kenya. And we hear from Dhruv Boruah, who has turned his attention from running plastic hackathons to a rather unusual underwater project. Produced and presented by Claire Bates Reporters: Richard Kenny and Tom Colls Image: Dhruv Boruah