It’s easy to find restaurants serving high-end Vietnamese fusion cuisine in many parts of the world, but in Vietnam diners have much more conventional palates.

Twenty-nine-year-old Thao Nguyen runs one of Hanoi’s few fine-dining restaurants, Pots ‘n’ Pans. She says her tough childhood nurtured her independent spirit, making it easier to break from convention.

Listen to the report by Marianne Brown in Hanoi:

What’s your favorite local dish from your own region? Share your recipe with us!

Muna Mire is passionate about information. And about impacting her generation.

Some people say today’s 20-somethings are vain and self-absorbed. But Muna is working together with Canada-based youth news organization Young{ist} to prove they’re not – and also make sure her peers don’t become like that.

Mira and her team – all under 26 – are a critical voice in today’s media landscape, aiming to reach anyone who wants to stay engaged with what young people are doing on the ground.

Listen to the report by Ellie Gordon-Moershel in Toronto, Canada:

Alcohol abuse is a series problem in Turku, especially among youths. Sanna Aalto gives up her own Friday nights to help teens who are too drunk to help themselves. The real problem, she says, is that they need an ear.

Listen to the report by Ari Welling in Turku, Finland:

Finland’s guardian angel

 

Kevin Hofmann, 22, spends a lot of time in cafes, where he likes to read books. When he noticed how much food his regular cafe was throwing away after closing time, he felt he had to take action. Now he regularly collects the unsold sandwiches and cookies and passes them out to the homeless people in his city, Bonn.

Germany has plenty of soup kitchens and shelters. But Kevin says why leave the work to other people? Instead, he’s taking responsibility himself – and breaking out of the apathetic stereotype of his generation.

Listen to the report by Nuradin Abdi in Bonn:

A heart for the homeless

 

Emil Schneider, a 19-year-old from Germany, was shocked to see with his own eyes that the poorest of the poor in Chile are not having their basic needs met. That’s why he signed up as a volunteer with TECHO, an organization that works with at-risks family in the slums.

Tamara Ramos, a coordinator for TECHO says the group’s aim is to empower those living in extreme poverty to find jobs so that they can reach long-term financial stability.

Listen to the report by Francisco Tapia in Vina Del Mar, Chile:

Hope for Chile’s poorest

 

He may be blind, but 20-year-old Eric le Fleur is determined to see change in his homeland of Gabon in central Africa.

Eric makes his living by singing rap songs, which he makes up on the streets of Libreville, Gabon’s capital city. He plays by ear, integrating the discontent he hears into his texts.

He sings to escape his reality of sleeping rough on the streets, but also to awaken his fellow Gabonese to the social injustices in their country.

Listen to the report from Gaia Manco in Libreville, Gabon:

Gabon’s blind street poet

 

Millions of small plastic filters started appearing on the beaches of France five years ago.

It turns out these filters are known as “biocarriers”. They come from water treatment plants, where they play a useful role. But when the treatment plants overflow, the plastic filters escape and end up in the environment.

When 25-year-old Surfrider Foundation Europe volunteer Charleric “Charlo” Bailly heard about this plastic pollution problem, he made it his mission to find out more.

Listen to the report by Charlotta Lomas in La Teste-de-Buch, France:

Holding polluters to account

Getting access to enough energy for heating and electricity is a struggle for people living in Argentina’s poorer communities.

Diego Musolino, 31, has designed a solar water heater which he hopes will provide a cheap, renewable solution, while at the same time reducing his country’s carbon footprint. He co-founded the non-profit Energizar Foundation, which works to help solve social problems by using alternative energy.

Listen to the report by Eilís O’Neill in Buenos Aires, Argentina:

Energy for Argentina’s poor

Plastic can take hundreds, even thousands of years to break down in the environment. In Kenya, communities are struggling to cope with the thousands of tons of waste being generated each year.

Despite having grown up in a slum littered with trash, 28-year-old Lorna Ruto developed a passion for taking care of the natural environment. 

Now her passion has become her business, turning plastic waste from the city of Nairobi into something useful – fence posts. Her goal is not only to grow a successful company, but also to provide her community with much-needed jobs.

Listen to the report by Andrew Wasike in Nairobi, Kenya:

Turning Kenya’s trash into treasure

Xiao Zuo, outdoor adventurer and entrepreneur, represents a growing number of young Chinese interested in exploring their country’s wild places.

Since founding the 54 Traveler tourism company with her husband, she’s organized countless outdoor trips, always emphasizing responsible travel guidelines, like packing out trash and respect for local communities.

Xiao Zuo says she hopes the people who join her excursions will become invested in protecting China’s environment. China’s government has vowed to address environmental concerns after taking a growth-at-all-costs approach during the country’s economic opening.

Listen to the report by Ruth Morris in Hangzhou, China:

Eco-tourism in China