Dedan Ireri in Nairobi, Kenya, is all about bicycles. They are his hobby and also his profession. Maybe one day, a bicycle ride will earn him international recognition in sports. But Dedan Ireri is also on a mission: he wants to help others to take up cycling.

Listen to the report by Peter Hille:

One legged cyclist inspires others to ride

DW’s Peter Hille met Dedan while completing a cycling trip of his own – from Cairo all the way to Cape Town. Follow along with Peter’s adventures on his blog.

A young woman in New Delhi opens up the world of music to at-risk kids. Many of them have been traumatized and abandoned, but Faith, 23, gives them self-confidence and new skills with her organization, Music Basti.

From reporter Aletta André:

The moment we walk into the Kushi Home, Faith Gonsalves is surrounded by girls who demand her attention. “Didi, didi,” they yell at her: “Big sister.”

More than 100 girls between the ages of six and 14 live in the Kushi Home, in an industrial area in the southern outskirts of India’s capital New Delhi. Some of them might be orphans, some have run away from their homes, while others have families incapable of taking care of them.

Faith, a 23-year-old from New Delhi, has earned her popularity. For the past four years, she has been devoting most of her time to children like the girls living here, by teaching them music.

“The far majority of the children that we work with have been sexually abused,” Faith told me just about an hour before reaching the home, when we first met in a café in one of Delhi’s wealthier areas. It is impossible not to remember this while looking at all those girls, running around the playground, posing for my pictures and demanding attention from their didi.

A singer and music-lover herself, Faith knew that music can help children immensely, not only to enjoy life and forget their problems, but also to develop communication skills and to boost their confidence. To teach music and music appreciation to so-called children-at-risk, she decided to start up the project Music Basti in 2008 when she was still a college student at Delhi University.

Music Basti now organizes several workshops in singing and playing instruments every week, the occasional music performance and even launched an album with songs by the children last year. The project works together with dozens of other organizations and has worked with a few hundred volunteer teachers and musicians. It reaches out to more than 400 girls and boys in places such as Kushi Home.

Listen to the report:

New Delhi Music Basti

Tiffany Tiberghien wanted a job that had meaning. For this 24-year-old Parisienne, that meant putting her Christian faith into practice. When she was 21, she spent a year working as a missionary in Vietnam, where she dedicated herself to children who had been abandoned because of their physical or mental disabilities. It was a life-changing experience. “When you give love, you get it back several times over,” Tiffany said.

When she returned to Paris, she decided to find similar work closer to home. She now organizes a chaplaincy for teenagers in the East of Paris – a place where often poor and isolated children can come and talk.

Listen to the report by John Laurenson:

Mission possible in Paris

Although unemployment levels remain low in Germany, and the economy is generally doing well compared to the rest of Europe, the number of homeless people in Germany started rising again this last winter. For our Generation Change segment this week, our reporter André Leslie got to know a young man by the name of Markus Baldus, who is doing what he can help the homeless and the down and out, in the western German city of Bonn.

Listen to the report:
Generation Change: Homeless worker in Bonn

Watch the video:

James’ biggest hope is to empower the people in his community. One way he is doing that is by running a recycling an compost center in Monrovia, Liberia. He provides jobs with a purpose – and helps keep the city cleaner.

Listen to the report by Tamasin Ford:

Liberia recycling

Driving along the wide highway streets of Mississauga towards St. Joseph Catholic Secondary School, you’ll pass a gas station, a Mercedes-Benz dealership and a handful of barren shopping plazas. The suburb of Mississauga, about a 45-minute drive from the economic center of Canada in Toronto, isn’t the most exciting place for a teenager. Seventeen-year-old Leanne Iskander says there’s not much to do there aside from going to the mall. She doesn’t do that often either. She’s looking forward to the end of the school year, when she can escape to Toronto for university, where she hopes to study history or political science.

For now, Leanne is stuck at St. Joe’s, battling her school principal and the Catholic school board for a Gay Straight Alliance club. At age 11, Leanne began thinking she wasn’t straight. Now she calls herself “gender queer.” Leanne explains that she doesn’t conform to either male or female gender norms. When she proposed initiating a Gay Straight Alliance club a year ago, she thought the principal would allow it. Instead, it raised a debate that went all the way to the Catholic school board and the Premier of Ontario. Now, gay Catholic students across the province are asking Leanne for advice in starting their own Gay Straight Alliance clubs.

Listen to the report by Carmelle Wolfson:

Canadian high school student campaigns for gay rights

Lavender Hill is one of the areas in Cape Town, South Africa with a serious gang problem and the highest unemployment rate. Subsequently, there are many cases of drug abuse and domestic violence. Marcelle van Zyl started a project in the area called Lavender in Lavender Hill. The idea is to keep the youth off the street and create employment opportunities by cultivating lavender and making soaps, teas and oils with the plant. The project started last year, but is lacking funds and therefore cannot employ more than five people at the moment. But Marcelle is working hard to keep the initiative going, as it is impacting positively on the community.

Listen to the report by Faatimah Hendricks:

Lavender Hill

For more on the Lavender Hill project, go to their Facebook page.

DW’s Peter Hille is riding his bicycle all the way down the African continent, from Cairo to Cape Town. Why?! Check out his blog to find out:

DW on the Road: From Cairo to Cape Town

Halfway between Mae Sot and the Friendship Bridge linking Thailand and Burma stands the house of the Back Pack Health Worker Team, an association that, since 1998, has been giving health assistance to refugees and migrant workers in Thai territory and internal displaced people inside Burma.

A refugee and young mother herself, Snow is the deputy director of the Back Pack organization.

Listen to the report by Roberto Tofani (presented by André Leslie):

Young Burmese refugee organizes medical aid for others

Snow prefered not to be photographed. Here are some impressions from the region. Photos by Robert Tofani.

Being a community leader in one of the poorest shantytowns in the city of Sao Paulo is not a simples task – and it’s even harder when this community has just suffered from a huge fire, leaving a third of its population homeless.

Having had a rough childhood herself, Alessandra Cunha learned that life should be about helping one another, and that is what this 27 years old has been doing for her community in the past six years.

Home to more than 2,000 people, the Favela do Moinho, or Moinho shantytown, has been neglected for more than 30 years by the state. Living conditions are precarious, and it is up to people like Alessandra to help residents to improve their lives.

On the day of the recent fire, Alessandra was seven-and-a-half-months pregnant. She put her health at risk in order to help people to escape the flames.

Her baby daughter was born on that very night, but that hasn’t kept her from continuing her work of helping the residents. On the day we met, she had a 16-hour day ahead of her, leading a team of volunteers to collect donations at a hip-hop festival the association was promoting.

She hopes her work and dedication can reduce social inequalities and inspire others to always fight for a better life.

Listen to the report by Marcia Reverdosa:

Activist uses hip-hop music to help Brazil’s poor