When Gary Roustan visits school classes in Paris, he’s the first gay person some of the students have met. As the president of an LGBT organization, he’s fighting homophobia – a year after France legalized gay marriage.

Over the past year, he and other members of the organization haven been invited to speak to students in 128 different high schools about what it means to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

Listen to the report by Fabien Jannic-Cherbonnel in Paris:

About five years ago millions of mysterious plastic pieces started appearing on France’s beautiful beaches. They were filters from nearby water treatment plants, where they play a useful role. But when the treatment plants overflow, the plastic filters escape and end up polluting the environment.

One 25-year-old Frenchman heard about the plastic invasion and decided to help protect the coastal environment. As a volunteer with the Surfrider Foundation Europe he’s been picking up as many plastic pieces as he can find. And that’s not all – he’s on a mission to find out where exactly these filters are coming from to hold the polluters accountable.

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

(first published October 29, 2013):

 

When Madalina moved from Bucharest to Paris, she fell in love with the city. But she was so disturbed by the stereotypes she encountered that she founded a project to introduce real Romanians to their Parisian neighbors.

The initiative, Je suis roumain (aussi) – I’m Romanian too – breaks down stereotypes by helping Parisians get to know who the local Romanian immigrants really are. One of them, artist Dan Perjovschi, recently joined the campagne with an installation the Immigration Museum.

Listen to the report by Fabien Jannic-Cherbonnel in Paris:

 

 

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

Their lives couldn’t be more different, but Amelia in France and Regynnah in Kenya have the same goal: to make life better for kids in Nairobi’s largest slum who’ve been orphaned by AIDS.

Listen to the report by Nik Martin from Lyon:

Crossing continents to reach kids in a Nairobi slum

More on the Angels of Hope Kibera website.

In a secular country like France, religion is rarely mentioned. But one young student is campaigning to make sure that Muslims, Christians and Jews tal­­­­k to each other about their faith. Samuel Grzybowski believes that interfaith is central to helping France establish a strong identity in the 21st century.

Listen to the report by Naomi Scherbel-Ball in Paris:

French student believes in inter-religious dialogue

Here is Coexister’s website, in French.

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