People Fixing the World

Many African countries face huge challenges in education. Millions of children completing primary school still struggle to read and teachers that should be in classrooms are routinely absent. Two US entrepreneurs think they have a solution: a network of profit-driven low-cost private schools, called Bridge Academies, that can be created and staffed at lightning speed. Lessons are scripted by ‘master educators’, and teachers read them aloud, word for word, from e-readers. Along with awards, the model has attracted a tidal wave of criticism from teaching unions, NGOs and governments too. World Hacks visits a Bridge Academy in Kenya to ask whether the controversial idea can work.Presenter: Kat Hawkins Reporter: Sam JudahPhoto Credit: BBC

World Hacks visits a long, narrow street in the heart of the Dutch city of Eindhoven. A quarter of a mile long and lined with pubs and bars, Stratumseind is a drinking destination for the country’s young people and football fans. Unfortunately, the good times are frequently marred with violence. On any given Saturday night, police make about 20 arrests or detentions, many involving alcohol-related aggression.Now the city authorities are using sophisticated technology to monitor the activities of the street, including cameras that can count people and microphones that can tell the difference between someone squealing with laughter and screaming in fright.Stratumseind’s drinkers are also unwitting participants in a series of experiments to monitor whether subtle changes in their environment have an impact on their behaviour – whether that’s changing the colour of the street lights to calm people down or introducing a scent to help de-escalate tensions.Producer: William KremerPhoto Credit: City of Eindhoven, Living Lab Stratumseind

The idea behind “Buddy Benches”, also known as “friendship benches”, is simple. If a child feels lonely at playtime at school, they can go to the bench as a signal that they need someone to play with. Another child will see them, go and talk to them and include them in their games. However, a social enterprise in Ireland wants to do something more with them. Buddy Bench Ireland builds a day of workshops around the introduction of the benches, led by a team of child psychiatrists. Pupils are taught about empathy, how to look after their emotions and spot when others need support. The benches are seen as an early intervention to remove the stigma around mental health in Irish society.Presenter: Tom Colls Reporter: Dougal ShawPhoto Caption: Buddy Bench Photo Credit: BBC

What’s being done to clean up the shipping industry and make it less polluting? Nick Holland looks at innovative ideas to make ships burn less fuel. The industry plays a critical role in the global economy. But it’s under pressure to decarbonise. Could giant rotating cylinders and millions of tiny bubbles be the answer?Presenter: Kat Hawkins Producer: Nick HollandPhoto Credit: Getty Images

Around the world, thousands of people are using a special kind of bank. Instead of using it to save and spend money, they’re using it to save and spend time. Based on the idea that everyone’s time is worth the same, time bankers exchange lawn mowing for childcare, and dog walking for graphic design. World Hacks reporter Tom Colls enters the time economy and looks at the projects trying to upgrade time banking for the digital age.Presenter: Nick Holland Reporter: Tom CollsPhoto Caption: Clock and piggy bank. Photo Credit: Getty Images

More than a quarter of Japan’s population is over 65 and the country has the highest rate of centenarians in the world. It’s a ticking demographic time bomb as the cost of caring for the elderly rises. But can the solution to this growing problem be found in Kashiwa City near Tokyo? A project there has been looking at how to redesign towns and cities to adapt to their residents as they reach old age. World Hacks asks whether the answers they have found could help ageing populations across the world. Producer: Harriet Noble (for BBC World Service)

Just over a year ago, Kenya introduced the world’s most draconian rules on single-use plastic bags. People can be fined up to $40,000 or even thrown in jail for producing, selling or using them.World Hacks travels to Nairobi to find out what impact the ban has had, and asks why Kenya has taken such a seemingly progressive stance on plastic. We also speak to experts in the UK to find out why many governments prefer to ‘nudge’ their citizens into cutting back on plastic bags, instead of banning them.Presenter: Amelia Martyn-HemphillPhoto Credit: Getty Images

Child abduction by strangers is extremely rare, but the danger looms large in the minds of many parents. One reason is that for the past 50 years or so, governments have created public information campaigns around the message of “Stranger Danger”. In the UK, the US, Canada and many other countries too, these videos were played in the media and in schools. The videos portrayed in stark terms the risk of talking to adults you did not know who appeared to be friendly. But a new generation of childcare experts believe this is not the most effective message to protect children. Most abductions are by people children already know. And there is a worry that a general fear of strangers is not good for a child’s social development - or for society in general. World Hacks meets the charity Action Against Abduction as they teach a new message: Clever Never Goes. Presenter: Harriet Noble Reporter and Producer: Dougal Shaw Photo Caption: Stranger Danger Photo Credit: BBC

Our brains are the control centre of the human body. They allow us to think, to learn and to dream - but if you know how the brain works, it can also be fooled. Two start-up companies are making a business from these brain hacks, using wearable technology to trick the brain to improve people’s lives.The first is a wristband that uses a fake heartbeat to trick users’ brains into feeling calmer in stressful situations. The Doppel device also allows users to increase the rate of the fake heartbeat to make them feel more focused.The second wearable device allows people to fit lasers to their shoes. They are designed to help Parkinson’s patients who suffer from freezing episodes. These episodes affect up to 70% of Parkinson’s patients and come on suddenly, halting a sufferer mid-stride as they walk. The laser shoes provide visual cues to trick the brain into moving again.Presenter: Sofia Bettiza Reporter: Ammar Ebrahim Photo Credit: Getty Images

In Japan, to become a 'hikikomori' means to withdraw from the world and social life. Many of those who suffer from the condition shut themselves in their bedrooms for years on end, refusing to work, study or interact with anyone around them. More than half a million people are thought to be hikikomori, most of them young men. One organisation, New Start, has come up with an unusual solution: rental sisters. The sisters-for-hire visit regularly, helping to coax the hikikomori out of their bedrooms and back into society. That could mean just talking through the door, going out for lunch or even moving into a hikikomori boarding house and starting some part time work. Reporter Amelia Martyn-Hemphill finds out about the increasingly popular rental sister phenomenon for BBC World Hacks in Tokyo.Presenter: Harriet Noble Reporter: Amelia Martyn-HemphillPhoto Caption: A Former Hikikomori Photo Credit: BBC