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Five good things · Three minutes
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MEDICINE • Good News Network
A region of 2 billion people just beat blinding trachomaIt took a decade of knocking on doors. They found nothing.
The World Health Organization has certified Timor-Leste as having eliminated trachoma as a public health problem, clearing the last remaining case in a region of more than 2 billion people. The certification means WHO's entire Southeast Asian region is now free of trachoma, the leading infectious cause of blindness. The disease, caused by repeated Chlamydia trachomatis infections, can scar the inner eyelid until the lashes turn inward and eventually blind a person. It thrives on poverty and poor access to clean water. Timor-Leste earned its certification the slow way. Investigators screened children on Atauro Island, checked eye clinics nationwide, and went house to house between 2015 and 2017. A 2025 survey analyzed 4,949 samples from children aged one to five across all 13 municipalities. They found nothing. "Timor-Leste has once again demonstrated that strong national leadership, high-quality evidence and integrated health services can deliver lasting public health gains," said Dr. Nilesh Buddha of WHO's Southeast Asia office. India was the last country to join, in 2024. Read the full story → | |||
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KINDNESS • Sunny Skyz
Two boys arrived on his doorstep. Strangers gave $15,000.No water, no power, no guardianship. He stayed anyway.
A GoFundMe campaign has raised more than $15,000 for Sam Restifo, a Saginaw, Michigan man who took in two boys, then 14 and 12, after a woman he barely knew dropped them off at his home in February 2025. He kept them for months in a house without running water, on a generator after the electricity was shut off. He could not enroll them in school because he had no legal guardianship, and the boys were afraid of being separated in foster care. "If I decided I didn't want to, there are no homes for them, and they would split up," Sam told ABC12. After the station aired their story, strangers who had never met the three started sending money. The house will have water and power again, and Sam is working toward guardianship. He says the boys did as much for him as he did for them. He also mentioned, more than once, that they are getting shoes. Read the full story → | |||
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KINDNESS • GreaterGood
Two puppies pulled from beneath a sidewalk, now thrivingThe call was about one puppy. There were more.
Firefighters in Harris County, Texas, spent two hours digging in oppressive heat last week to reach puppies trapped in a washed-out void beneath a sidewalk near Heritage Elementary. The Little York Fire Department got the call from a concerned resident about one puppy stuck under the pavement. Crews arrived with animal control officers from Harris County Pets and found there were more. They pulled out two, both about eight weeks old. A third did not survive the four-foot-deep collapse. The dig turned up a second problem. "During the rescue, we also discovered a large washed-out void beneath the sidewalk, creating a potential collapse hazard," firefighters said, noting the walkway leads straight to the school. County crews were notified to fix it. The rescued puppies now have names, Sparky and Flame, which is roughly what you would expect a fire department to pick. KHOU 11 News reported both are doing well and ready for adoption. Read the full story → | |||
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PROGRESS • Optimist Daily
186,500 square miles of Amazon now off-limits to drillingHe had three days left. He used them.
Three days before he left office, Colombian President Gustavo Petro signed a resolution placing 186,500 square miles of the Amazon off-limits to any new mining, oil or gas extraction. The August 4, 2026 timing was deliberate. His successor, Abelardo de la Espriella, had campaigned on reviving oil exploration and legalizing fracking, and took office on August 7. The government reached back more than 50 years to invoke Article 47 of the Natural Resources Code, a statute that lets the state exclude an entire region from private exploitation. It had been used before, in smaller pieces, never across the whole Colombian Amazon at once. Existing operations continue until their contracts expire. What is closed is renewal. Of the protected area, 55% consists of indigenous reserves, which retain 99.5% of their forest cover intact. Where indigenous communities manage the land, the forest fares better than anywhere else. That is not a talking point. There is recorded evidence to support it.
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KINDNESS • Good News Network
30,000 trees will turn Athens' hottest ground into shadeAthens once held Europe's heat record. Now it's planting shade.
Athens is building a 400-acre park on the site of its old airport, which will make it the second-largest city park in Europe when it opens to the public next year. Called Ellinikon Park, the project stretches along the sea in a southern suburb, and it has one stubborn goal: to stay cool. Planners want each shaded space to run 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than the surrounding asphalt, and they ran simulations on wind direction and evaporation to place every path and plant. The park will hold 30,000 trees and 3 million smaller plants, drawing on more than 520 species, most of them native or adapted to the Mediterranean climate. This matters in a city that once held Europe's heat record at 48 degrees Celsius and became the first on the continent to appoint a chief heat officer. Rainwater catchment will feed the misters and fountains. The design assumes the drought is coming and plans around it. Read the full story → | |||
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THE HONEYMAP
Sweet news is everywhere, if you know where to look.
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With love, The Editor
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