Good news for today feature – 2019 August updates
Mass shootings, protests descending into violence, oil tankers seized, trade wars, warnings of economic slumps. These are just some of the headlines that many of us have seen in the last month of global happenings.
It would be easy to feel helpless with constant doom and gloom dominating world news, or paralyzed with fear at the thought of what the next headline might be. However, it is important to remember that there is still a lot of good news to celebrate.
As a part of The Millennial Source’s mission to spread awareness of all global events, it is time once again for our monthly good news feature. By reporting on these events, we hope to spread awareness of the positive developments occurring in this fast-paced world.
Here are our top four good news stories of today.
Unemployed father is offered a job after handing out hundreds of resumes on the street
Patrick Hoagland was a forklift driver for a metal recycling company in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA before he lost his job. After weeks of hand delivering resumes to local businesses and applying for jobs online to no avail, he took to the streets.
Hoagland was determined to provide for himself, his wife and his two-year-old son. So he printed out a few hundred copies of his resume, placed a smile on his face and stood at a street corner for eight hours a day, handing out copies to all who would take them.
“It was cool,” he told Inside Edition. “A lot of people stopped, took resumes, and gave me thumbs-up.
On his second day at the corner, a passerby with her own public relations firm took a photo of Hoagland and his resume and posted it on her Facebook profile. “I love that he was not asking for a handout, just for people to consider him for a job.” The post gained mass traction, with Hoagland receiving a flood of messages of support and job offers.
After just four days, Hoagland’s unconventional job search strategy paid off. Last week, he started work at Flatline Concrete Grinding.
Wind power generation surpasses coal in Texas – the largest consumer of coal in the US
Although Texas still consumes more coal than any other US state, the Electrical Reliability Council of Texas published a report in early August stating that wind power provided 22% of the state’s electricity in the first half of 2019, beating out coal by a percentage point.
While this may not sound significant, just 16 years ago, coal accounted for 40% of the state’s power generation, with wind turbines providing less than 1%.
Texas now leads the US in both wind power capacity and number of wind turbines. Currently, 41 US states have at least some wind energy production capability, but some have only a single wind turbine. Texas now has 13,000.
Man helps young boy doing homework on the streets of Peru
Víctor Martín Angulo Córdoba lies on the pathway outside his home, using the streetlights to finish up his schoolwork. He hopes to graduate from school and become a police officer.
Victor’s mother, Rosa, doesn’t just lack the money to pay for electricity; she also lacks the documents to verify ownership of their family home. Those documents are required in order to legally install electricity.
CCTV footage of Victor doing his homework went viral, touching the hearts of viewers across the country and the world. Among those viewers were a few people in a position to help.
First was the city’s mayor, Arturo Fernández Bazán. Bazán helped Rosa to obtain all the necessary home ownership documents. He also delivered supplies to Victor’s school.
The footage of Victor reading and writing by streetlight also impressed 31-year-old millionaire Yaqoob Yusuf Ahmed Mubarak. Victor’s struggles reminded Mubarak of his own sufferings in childhood.
Determined to ensure that Victor and other children in the area didn’t have to continue enduring such hardships, Mubarak flew to Victor’s hometown. There, he paid to rebuild the Córdoba family home, update the school’s infrastructure and furniture, and create a new computer center in Victor’s honor.
Mubarak also helped Rosa start her own business. He has promised to return to see the new school and home when all the work is completed.
Ophthalmologist treks to rural areas of Nepal, restoring the sight of over 130,000 peopled
While cataract surgery is a routine procedure in developed nations, it remains largely unattainable for billions of people worldwide. Those residing in rural areas of developing nations are often forced to live with diminished eyesight, simply because surgeons are out of reach.
Dr. Sanduk Ruit is an ophthalmologist and executive director of the Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology, a not-for-profit organization based in Kathmandu. Aware of the painful inequalities in eyesight care in his country, Ruit often embarks on week-long hikes to remote areas, where he treats rural Nepal residents suffering from cataracts.
To date, Ruit has personally treated and restored the vision of 130,000 people in his home country. His organization has also helped source cataract lenses – the replacement eye lenses needed for cataract surgery – locally. As a result, the lenses now cost as little as US $3 a pair.
At The Millennial Source, we are committed to showing you the world as it is, both the bad and the good.