Three great stories we found on the internet this week.
Something fishy
It sounds like something out of a myth: once or twice a year, amid a dramatic thunderstorm, fish plummet from the sky onto the streets of Yoro, a town in Honduras. (The jury’s still out on the science, but the leading theory is that the creatures are sucked into the sky from the nearby Atlantic Ocean by giant water spouts.)
Where some might see a miracle, the ad agency Ogilvy saw an economic opportunity for the town, where most residents live on under $1 a day. In partnership with sustainable fish company Regal Springs, Ogilvy worked with the town to create a plan to compensate locals for catching the falling fish.
This year, on April 23, when the fish began to fall, locals ran out to catch it, filling bags and even wagons. The “Heaven Fish,” as Regal Springs called the product, were then cleaned, processed, packaged and sent to restaurants and grocery stores. Locals made about $6 a pound on their catch, transforming a strange phenomenon into a most unusual livelihood.
Penning perseverance
When the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021, decades of progress on women’s education and rights suddenly dissolved. Women in Kabul found themselves confined, no longer allowed to work outside the home.
But some, like Husneya Saidi, age 21, have found creative ways to pursue their dreams. Stuck at home, Saidi found refuge in an online storytelling course created by human rights advocate Homeira Qaderi. The course gave her a way to express her experience: “[The Taliban] may have closed the doors of the university to me, but I will fight them with the might of my words,” Saidi said. “My pen will serve as my unyielding weapon.”
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Yes! reports that many Afghan women have turned to writing or art to portray the difficulties they’re going through — and imagine a better future. “The Taliban may impose restrictions on our public lives,” said Kimia, a 23-year-old artist who managed to complete her final semester at Kabul University under Taliban rule, “but they can never extinguish our unwavering determination to learn and relentlessly pursue our dreams.”
Not just horsing around
In rural parts of Mexico, many people depend on horses, mules and donkeys for transportation and work in the fields. But historically, veterinary care in such areas has been lacking. Through the Rural Veterinary Experience Teaching and Service (RVETS) program, veterinary students and volunteers have been bringing free care to underserved rural areas since 2010.
Crushed by negative news?
Sign up for the Reasons to be Cheerful newsletter.Not only are these rural clinics a boon for local livestock owners, but they also provide hands-on experience for the students — vaccination, dental work, castration and more. As 24-year-old student Dereck Alejandro Morín told the New York Times, “What they teach you in school is one-third of what life in the countryside is really like.”
RVETS’ work isn’t easy: funding can be hard to come by, and sometimes security risks restrict travel. But as Dr. Víctor Urbiola, director of RVETS Mexico, put it, “if we can help even one donkey that carries 80 kilos of water for an old woman, all the effort we make is totally worth it.”
