Global News Podcast - The Happy Pod: The gloves that hug premature babies

Episode Date: October 26, 2024

Meet the woman helping premature babies feel their parents' love, after her son Zachary was born 12 weeks early. Also: how Egypt became Malaria free; the homeless tour guide; and the world's oldest battle rapper.

Hello, I'm Jamila Jackson and you're listening to the Happy Pod on the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway and in this edition... It was agonising to leave the NICU without Zach. I held them skin to skin when I was in the NICU and I touched them, but who was going to do that when I wasn't there? How one woman's desire to help her premature baby has provided comfort for thousands of others around the world. A major health milestone as Egypt is declared malaria free.

If you have a country free of malaria, you will have a lot of economic nourishment, a healthy generation, a healthy generation equals a good economy. The cat who travelled more than a thousand kilometres and... When you're homeless you get to know all these places as well so tourists not just see the city centre or the tourist response but Edinburgh's got a kind of underbelly I should say. We hear from a man who turned his time spent living on the streets into a job as a tour guide. But we start with a woman who used one of the most difficult periods of her life to create a product that ended up helping thousands of people. helping thousands of people. Jamele Jackson's son Zachary was born 12 weeks premature.

Jamele was desperate to find a way of letting him know he was loved, even when she couldn't be there in the hospital. Worried that he would grow up wanting to avoid being touched, she made a pair of weighted gloves to comfort him when he was alone in the incubator. The idea developed into something called the Zaki Hug, which is now used in hospitals in more than 30 nations. Jamile spoke to the Happy Pod's Holly Gibbs about the inspiration that arose from those tough days at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, or NICU. It was agonising to leave the NICU without Zak.

One of the questions that I asked a nurse was what is a common denominator of these babies when they grow? And without any hesitation, she said they don't like to be touched. To me, it was really important to learn why. Because I'm Hispanic and we touch. For him to not feel that that human touch was comforting was very, very serious to me. I held them skin to skin when I wasn't there. So the Saki hug, which is a product that I made for Zach, it simulated my hands, simulated my husband's hands. And we would put the sun, by putting it on, you know, sleep with it.

So we also felt that those nights that we were holding that little glove, we were doing something for him. So it helped me a lot. Then when Zachary got home, well, actually we had a flood and we kept him alive by hand for nine hours until he was evacuated. And that's when I made a decision to promise Zach that his pain and struggle to survive were not in vain and that I would dedicate my life to helping babies like him and families like ours. Could you describe to us what the glove looks like and how it helps a baby?

So it's basically like a pillow that is the shape of a glove or a hand. We have right and left hands. So basically you use them as you use your hands and your forearm and like you're hugging them. We don't want to replace the human touch. We just want to extend it in a way that is soothing for them. There is also evidence that shows that if the babies are with the Zacchi hug, they show less pain indicators. So that means that they're actually sleeping and they're calm, so the babies show less pain indicators.

How does it feel to help parents in their most traumatic moments? There's nothing that I could do for work that would be more fulfilling than what I do right now. Nothing tops knowing that you're helping a baby be introduced to his family. I wanted to help one family. I was like, I would be so happy if I can help one family. So to be able to help families around the world, it's an amazing feeling. Everybody has a calling, I always say. Everybody has a calling and I am very grateful that I found mine.

What do you say to others about turning around a traumatic incident into something that could help people like you've done? Well, it is not easy because when you make a decision to help others in something that was so traumatic for you, you relive it. Like for me, every time I go to a NICU, I remember Zach in the NICU and it's not easy. But isn't that what life is about to be able to help others not go through the same trauma that you went to? Any healthy baby is the same, you know, we just want them to have a better life. Tell us about Zach. What does he do now?

Oh my God. I am super proud of Zach. When he was three weeks old, he almost lost his life. Then he almost lost his life several times in the NICU. but he held on and he's healthy, young, adult. His passion is cars and he has his own small business like his mother, helping people with cars. So he wants to help people as well. You've inspired him. Yes, yeah. Well, he's a small business owner. You have to be crazy to be a small business owner. He's just my inspiration. He was born and weighing 900 grams and he was packed with inspiration. Jamilae Jackson in the US talking to Holly Gibbs. Malaria is one of the world's deadliest diseases with more than 600,000 deaths a year, mostly in Africa and mostly among the under fives.

But in the past few days there's been something of a landmark in the battle against it, as the World Health Organisation declared Egypt to be malaria-free. It becomes the third country on the African mainland to achieve that status after Algeria and Morocco. The head of the WHO, Tedros Sadanom Ghebreyesus, praised Egypt, saying a disease that once plagued the pharaohs now belonged to the nation's history, not its future. Dr. Islaam Anan is assistant professor and consultant of health policy and health economics at FUE, a private university in Egypt. He's been talking to the BBC's Audrey Brown.

The first and most important is the vector control. The vector control, which is the He's been talking to the BBC's Audrey Brown. The second thing is the vaccination for all the Egyptians if they are going to another country with malaria to make sure as well they are not getting infected. And finally, and the most important thing is to make sure that we don't have any lakes, especially after rain water or after the season of the rains, which will be actually happening in a couple of weeks, we don't have any residuals where mosquitoes can actually nourish and can live beside the lakes and so on. So it was a concerted and combined effort using all the available tools. So vaccines as well, making sure that people use bed nets, testing. But the United Nations said that Egypt had been trying to limit human mosquito contact

since the 1920s, when it banned rice cultivation and agricultural crops near homes. Can you explain to our listeners how that happened and how effective that was? You need to put a safe zone between the houses of the farmers and the land they are actually cultivating, which was not the case prior to that. And hence, you're not going to find any stagnant water in that place. And usually, they do what we call the insecticide by aeroplane spreading over all the stagnant water,

especially for cultivating in south of Egypt and near the borders of Sudan. And this is actually very effective. That's what happened in sub-Saharan as well. We are trying to do that what What happened in Morocco and Algeria, although it will actually decrease a little bit the cultivating land itself, but it's very safe to make sure that we do have a safe zone

between people and the vector itself, which is a mosquito. Why was it such a priority for the Egyptian government, the health department, to eradicate malaria? We are not talking only about clinical burden and a lot of fatalities, but we are talking as well for an economic burden, to eradicate malaria? We are not talking only about clinical burden and a lot of fatalities, but we are talking as well for an economic burden. COVID highlighted that infectious disease

is very important to be eradicated and prevented by a lot of budgets and a lot of resources and the research and development as well. If you have a country free of malaria, free of hepatitis C, for example, before that, free of polio, you will have a lot of economic nourishment, hepatitis C, for example, before that, free of polio, you will have a lot of economic nourishment, a healthy generation, a healthy generation equals a good economy at the end, which is the vision of what Egypt is seeking by 2030.

So Egypt is only the third country in the Eastern Mediterranean to receive this certification. What does it need to do to maintain it? It's very hard because you continue making the testing and even more testing and hence to sustain that, it means that we need more budget than the budget we actually spent on the education itself. And then what's very important, I believe, is to make a technology transfer and experience transfer to the sub-Saharan countries because still, till now we don't have enough vaccination for the sub-Saharan, near 200,000 deaths among children. Maybe

last year it was 300 as well. So we need a lot of vaccination. As we've done in COVID, we need to have more vaccination. Imagine in Africa, the vaccination is not there. I believe the most important thing being the third country is to help the sub-Saharan countries as well to follow the steps that we made. Dr. Islam Anan in Egypt talking to Audrey Brown. When on holiday in a new city, a guided tour can help provide a local perspective while making sure you don't miss any of the main attractions. But our next story is about a tour with a difference, highlighting

the places that most visitors don't see and giving a boost to some of the city's most vulnerable residents. Rebecca Wood reports. I know there be ins and outs here everywhere. That's Sonny, a tour guide in Scotland's capital city, Edinburgh. My tour is all about crime and punishment. So I show you the old prisons, the old gallows and stuff. But this hasn't always been how Sonny spent his days. He was previously homeless. I used to show people about and stuff, people would give me their tenner,

still showing them the train station, helping them with their suitcases. I was kind of like an unofficial tour guide. Once unofficial, he's now official, and uses the time he spent on the streets to give his tour a unique perspective. When you're homeless, you get to know all these places as well, so tourists not just see the city centre or the tourist response but everyone's got a kind of underbelly, should we say. Sunny works for Invisible Cities, a social enterprise that trains the homeless to design

their own guided walks, showing the sights but also speaking about their own experiences. Zakia Mulawigiri is the founder. We provide people with an opportunity to grow confident but also access jobs. The appeal is to know that the tour you're going on will have a positive impact on the community you're visiting because a walking tour may be something you will do on any of your trips. You might as well do it and pay so the money is used for a good cause. And for people like Sunny, that positive impact can be life-changing.

Obviously I still have problems like everybody else else but definitely compared to being in the streets and having nowhere to go and addicted to drugs and stuff, there's definitely been some turnaround. I think if everybody was given a chance of something they actually liked doing it would probably flourish a wee bit to be honest. Sonny, ending that report from Rebecca Wood. Sonny ending that report from Rebecca Wood. And still to come on the Happy Pod. He laughed and he said that's not poetry, that's rap. And his friends said she should do rap.

And he said, oh no, she should do battle rap. And he just laughed. How a chance encounter inspired Joy to take up an unlikely musical challenge. Returning to the theme of tourism and South Korea's largest island, Jeju, is a popular holiday destination known for its stunning landscape. But not everyone on the island can access its beautiful sandy beaches. A problem a group of local high school students set about solving with the help of an unusual wheelchair as Anna Murphy explains. Pyo-San beach has the widest stretch of sand in South Korea and no matter how far into

the ocean you go, there's no deep water. So people who are afraid of swimming or those those with children, can enjoy the ocean with no fear or risk. But not everyone can enjoy the beach. The beach is a public place that everyone should be able to enjoy, not just certain people. It's heartbreaking that some people can't go to the beach because they're disabled or because they have difficulty with transport. That's Eum Junshun. She's one of the students who started a campaign to bring accessible

wheelchairs to the island's beaches. The wheelchair moves well on sand thanks to its thick rubber wheels and it floats in the water because of the buoys. The students discovered a specialist wheelchair which allows people with disabilities to enjoy both the beach and the ocean. Choi Ji-seul worked alongside her. When we saw this wheelchair, we felt like not only can we make people come, but also make them enjoy the beach. We can make the impossible possible. When we started the campaign last year, there was only one wheelchair. When we were told

that there were only a few special wheelchairs in Jeju Island, I wondered why they were so rare. They soon found out it was because of the price. Each wheelchair costs over $3,000 and the mats that make sandy beaches accessible using a normal wheelchair cost nearly $2,000 for 10 metres. But by combining the money they raised with some they won as a prize, the students were able to buy two specialist wheelchairs and a few mats for the island beaches. They say that although this may seem like a modest amount,

they've raised more than they've ever had in their bank accounts, and each individual who gets an opportunity to access the beach is an accomplishment. Son Yoon-ho is one of them. I've lived my whole life near this beach, is an accomplishment. Son Yoon-ho is one of them. I've lived my whole life near this beach swimming and playing in the sea. But after my injury, one of my legs was amputated. It had been 10 years since I was in the sea.

I was so happy that my hands were shaking with excitement. I could even change the direction by waving my hands. It was really great. Choi and Eum have achieved what they set out to do, and they have this message for the grown-ups. Now we see that just a few students and a teacher made this happen with the help of one corporation. If adults with more influence had taken on this project, it might have been

implemented earlier. With students, we should be practising university entrance exams now. If we can do this, why can't adults? That report by Anna Murphy. Now, have you heard of the incredible journey? It's a story about three animals who find their way home through the wilderness of North America. Well one cat has done it in real life. Rainbow apparently traveled more than a thousand kilometers from the state of Wyoming back to California, a trip that took two months. His owners, Suzanne and Benny Angiano,

took him on holiday to Yellowstone National Park and never imagined he'd leave without them. Sophie Smith has the details. The couple took Rainbow and his twin sister with them in their RV to the park in early June. It would turn out to be the trip of a lifetime. We've always travelled with our cats. It's always been, you know, shorter, just long weekends. We thought we want to go to Yellowstone with them. But on the first day of their holiday, Rainbow cut loose from his leash and collar, escaping into the wilderness.

He jumped out of the truck. I screamed and I ran and he went right for the woods. Suzanne was distraught. She and her husband Benny spent the next four days trying to find the little grey cat. They even laid out his favourite treats and toys, calling out for him in the woods. But then their holiday was over and they finally had to drive back to Salinas. In my heart, I just could not lose hope. I could just not let it go. Even though that day when we left, I was crushed leaving without him. It felt so unnatural to leave without him. With heavy hearts, the Angianos carried on with their lives. But then, in August, a curious thing happened. They received a message saying their cat was at an animal charity elsewhere in California, 1,448 kilometres from Yellowstone and only around 320 kilometres away from his home in Salinas.

So my husband gets them to take a picture in the shelter and send it to him and then we realise it's really him. And I just couldn't believe it. So the couple drove to Roseville, where their little rainbow was waiting for them. He was almost three kilograms lighter and a little worse for wear, but he was theirs. His paws were really beat up, lost 40% of his body weight.

He was not cared for. Yeah, he's a trooper but I believe truly that he made that track mostly on his own. No one knows just how Rainbow made that long journey. To cover 1,448 kilometres in 59 days by himself, the little grey cat would have had to walk more than 24 kilometres a day, not to mention the terrain he would have had to cover. Between Yellowstone National Park and Roseville, there are lakes, forests, canyons, deserts, mountains and cities like Las Vegas. The Angianos contacted the media hoping someone might come forward and fill in the blanks. Did anyone help Rainbow on his journey? How did he navigate his way? It remains a mystery. He's my adventure. I don't put it past him, you know, that he's determined I'm going to get home. Whatever happened, there's no doubt that this little cat's been on the journey of a lifetime.

Sophie Smith, a lifeguard in the US, has been describing how he was overcome with emotion when he managed to rescue a teenager lost at sea for nearly 12 hours. Anand Kialana was off duty when the 17-year-old son of a friend went missing while kayaking off Hawaii. Mr Kialana described how he commandeered a boat and eventually found the boy who had become separated from his group. I got a text from my wife saying that it's one of her friend's kids so I was like, oh, I've got to go. And I did about a hundred mile search,

see the C-130 flying over me, couldn't find him, and he said, oh, we got the target. I spot a kayak, I saw his head above water, and I was so stoked to see that he was alive. They remember asking, are you okay? And he's like, yes. And then, moved next to him, and then I'm like two feet away,

opened up the side door on the boat, and I was like, hey, come to me and give me your hand. He's like, oh, what about my kayak? I was like, leave the kayak. I think he was in total shock because he wasn't emotional at all. And I was actually crying my guts off because he was okay.

I just threw all my blankets, towels, everything on him and then it showed me too short. The US Coast Guard had deployed planes, boats and drones to search for the 17-year-old. Paramedics say he was treated for exhaustion, dehydration, exertion and cold exposure. Finally, have you ever wanted to try something new but thought you were too old or wouldn't quite fit in? Well Joy France shows it can be done. After a long career as a teacher as she approached the age of 50 she felt she needed to shake things up. I just hit a point where I just thought my life is so boring, it was so predictable and it was like is this it?

And so she made a commitment to try new things by following coincidences, starting with a creative writing workshop which led her into performance poetry. Then came a big leap into the unknown as she got into the world of freestyle rap battles, as made famous by Eminem in the film 8 Mile. Joy made her debut at the age of 61 earning her the title of the world's oldest battle rapper. She's been talking to my colleague Mobin Azhar. I think it's just realizing the power of words and poetry in particular and the level of connection you can make with people but it was quite cathartic

for me to say some of the things that emotions I've had, people I've known, things like that and being able to put them out there and to resonate with other people, it's a beautiful thing. We were meant to grow all together, disgracefully, do wheelchair wheelies down care home corridors, fill baths with bubbles or jelly. But you went and died. I'm not sure it was the catalyst, but it is what I had turned to when I did get creative.

I had turned to actually living the life in honor of people who'd been important to me. You know, whilst I can still drive and travel and I feel like I should be doing it because I haven't much time time maybe I can't so it's not like an urgency but it's a delight that I want to chase. Soon she was winning poetry competitions and performing at festivals across the UK. She was asked to be the creative in residence at an arts market in Manchester. She set up a creativity room, inviting people to come in

and let their minds run wild. And one day, these two teenage lads came in and one of them said that he wrote poetry but he'd never shared a poem with anybody but could he read his poem off his phone to me? After he'd read his poem, I thanked him and said, I'll do a poem for you. And I did a poem called running,

which has got a lot of rhythm to it. You're just a little boy and you're running through the park, running barefoot through the streets, running till it's dark, and your mama's smashing legs when you're running to catch up. By the time I got to the end, he laughed and he said, that's not poetry, that's rap. And his friends said, she should do rap. And he said, oh no, she should do battle rap.

And they just laughed. But they didn't know I had a list of 60 things I'm trying to do so on the list went battle rap. This would be Joy's biggest challenge to date, battle rapping in which opponents trade insults of them brutally in verse is not exactly polite or for the faint hearted. I want to see whether I could step into that world and survive it, hold my own and show verse is not exactly polite or for the faint hearted. and I wondered whether I could actually do that. Were you scared? Yes. Anybody stepping into that world and doing a battle, if you're not scared, there's something wrong with you. But particularly for me, because stepping into that world, there's nobody looks like me. So on my very first one, we get to the entrance and the bouncers are there,

and they look me up and down and say, sorry love, you've come to the wrong place, the toilets are around the corner. You know, and then I'll say, but you know, I want to come in, but there's gonna be some swearing. They say, yeah, it might be me doing the swearing. Can you let me in? You know? They really, they're scratching their heads

because they can't figure out why somebody like me would want to walk in. And it was terrifying. On the left, we're from Manchester. Yes, George! The semi-famous spoken word poet. Yes, George! 61 years old.

Yes, George! Make some noise-famous spoken word poet. Yes, Joe! 61 years old. Make some noise for the Joyfrads! I checked you out. And I thought the video was buffering, but no, it was you freezing and stuttering. You were mumbling. Bella, you were utterly bad. You were lame. You looked like a character in a Sims game.

If you think Joe France won, make some noise now! And so you... you win? The winner is Joe France! In that moment, what is going through your mind? It's crazy. What happened to that little girl who wouldn't say boo to a ghost? The crowd is shouting, singing we love you Joy, friends we do and I'm like what? Yeah it was unreal, it was surreal, it was yeah. And you can hear more from Joy on Outlook wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

And that is all from the HappyPod for now. If like joy you've changed your life and taken on an unusual new role or hobby, we'd like to hear from you. The address globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. This edition was mixed by Abby Wiltshire and produced by Holly Gibbs and Rachel Bulkley. Our editors Karen Martin, I'm Oliver Conway. Until next time, goodbye.