Diana Lopez, the young activist who featured in the Adobe Youth Voices (AYV) film “Image of Contamination”, recently said that a summer of volunteering with the union changed her life plans in order to keep fighting for environmental justice in her community.

The role of Lopez in convincing the city to put up signs around Leon Creek advising people of the health risks was appreciated by many members of the society.

From Blogs.adobe.com:

AYV: Do you have any words of advice for young people who want to get involved with environmental activism?

DL: One thing I want young people to know is that it is important not to hold back any opinions or suggestions that you have around bettering your neighborhood. It is important to demand that young people be part of a struggle for environmental justice. Your opinions and ideas are important, because many times we get used to the same routine and when young people introduce new ideas into the space, it advances the movement.

There are many opportunities for summer internships for young people with the Southwest Workers Union. I invite any young people to apply with us, or to look for an internship in their area. It might just change your life!

Lopez is also teaching the community sustainable gardening skills, such as rainwater harvesting, building a garden using recycled materials, and how to create an urban farm.

According to a recent study, eating popcorn is good for health and could actually prevent cancer by a significant extent.

Scientists discovered that popcorns contain ’surprisingly large’ levels of health-boosting antioxidants called polyphenols.

From Dailymail.co.uk:

Polyphenols in fruit and vegetables are thought to help reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer and other diseases.

The U.S. study was led by the chemist Dr Vinson from the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania. It is the first to establish that snack foods and some wholegrain breakfast cereals are a good source of polyphenols.

He said: ‘We really were surprised by the levels of polyphenols we found in popcorn. I guess its because it’s not processed. You get all the wonderful ingredients of the corn undiluted and protected by the skin. In my opinion it’s a good health food.’

Wholegrain products have comparable antioxidants per gram to fruits and vegetables, Dr Vinson said while presenting his findings to the American Chemical Society in Washington.

Installing stair gates, cabinet locks, and smoke detectors tend to bring a fall in injury rates in young children in a new study that provided and set up the safety products in almost 200 homes.

The researchers found that injuries that could be prevented by making the home environment safer were cut by more than two-thirds.

From Reuters.com:

Lanphear and his colleagues recruited about 350 expectant mothers and inspected their homes for possible injury hazards, including unlocked cabinets, unstable furniture, and accessible electrical sockets.

In a randomly selected group of half those mothers, the researchers discussed safety products with the family and installed all products the families agreed to when their babies were an average of 6 months old. All mothers in the study were also given information on injury risks and how to make their homes safer for kids.

Over the next 2 years, researchers kept in touch with mothers to find out if their children had suffered an injury in the house, and whether it was an injury that could have been prevented with home safety products.

“It seems to me that there’s a number of hazards that children encounter in the home that we have failed to protect them from,” said Dr. Bruce Lanphear from Cincinnati Children’s Environmental Health, one of the study’s authors.

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The Dutch national, Dirk Bellens, founder of Young Africa Namibia, has signed an agreement with the Walvis Bay municipality on the shared use of the former youth hostel kitchen and adjacent land as a youth skills and art centre.

The agreement fulfils the dream of Bellens to set up a skills development project for the underprivileged youth in Kuisebmund recently.

From Economist.com:

With his experience as a capacity builder at the Rundu Town Council between 2001 and 2007, Dirk knew the dire need of skills development projects for underprivileged youth in Namibia and a fact finding mission to the country in early 2010, confirmed his earlier observations. His and his wife plans to set up a Young Africa Skills Centre was welcomed by various governmental and non-governmental institutes.

The recent trip to Namibia was his third visit. The aim of this visit was threefold: to register the Young Africa Namibia Trust; to reach an agreement with the municipality of Walvis Bay and to meet with the architect to produce a visual project plan as well as a rough cost estimate for a youth skills and arts centre.

In addition, Bellens was invited by the Walvis Bay Rotary Club to present the Young Africa project and also met with other local non governmental organisations in the field of youth development.

In Windhoek, he had a very fruitful meeting with Pohamba Shifeta, deputy minister of Youth, National Service, Sports and Culture, who gave his full support to the project.

Dirk and Yvette Bellens, having worked as capacity builders for Young Africa Zimbabwe for three years, were keen to continue their work for underprivileged youth in Africa.