Global News Podcast - The Happy Pod: The professionals and tradespeople cleaning up Ghana

Episode Date: January 4, 2025

Meet the Buz Stop Boys, a group of volunteers helping to clean the streets of Ghana. Also, the treehouse escape for people with chronic illnesses, and the Hawaiian crow which went extinct in 2002 returns to the wild.Presenter: Nick Miles. Music composed by Iona Hampson

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Hello, I'm Amber. Hello, I'm Ryan. And you're listening to the Happy Pod from the BBC World Service. I'm Nick Miles and in this edition. We are doing this every day, every day, every day. And I tell you right now in Ghana, we've got a lot of youth rising up to do the same. No one man cannot do it all.

It always takes a collective to get the results we are all looking out for. The movement of young professionals sweeping Ghana clean also. There's lots of magical ways of opening and turning off the lights, different illusions around the place. Even for an adult, it gives them that feeling

of the wonder of being a child and of being excited about things. We go to the tree houses for people living with chronic health conditions and getting to this point was a long process so to them it was just a very amazing feeling to finally see the birds flying free in the wild. The Hawaiian crow, which has been released back into the wild 20 years after the species went extinct. We start in Ghana, where a group of boys have formed a clean-up crew to tackle the out-of-control mounds of rubbish that have become an eyesore and a health hazard in cities and towns across the country. In the capital Accra, waste has been clogging up drains and spilling onto the pavements,

helping spread waterborne diseases like cholera and malaria. Only 10% of waste there is disposed of properly. The new group, called the Buzz Stop Boys, want to change that. They meet a few times a week armed with brooms, shovels and dustpans to clean the streets. The original team of five has now grown to nearly 50. They've been called heroes by local celebrities and a group of teenagers from the UK even flew over to help them. Heneba Kwajor Safol started the Buzz Stop Boys last year. Richard Hamilton caught up with him and started by asking him

if the problem wasn't the local government's responsibility to solve. Yeah it is. Of course that is what everybody would say but for us Buzz Stop Boys we are looking at it from the perspective of the effect of the environmental disaster. We are looking at it from the perspective of the effect of the environmental disaster. We are looking at it from the angle that even though it is the responsibility of the local authorities to do what they need to do, we will face the consequences of malaria, cholera, typhoid and all of that. Anything that affects the environment goes a long way to affect all of us. So our campaign is forcefully about the fact that we are trying to get a collective involvement because so long as we will face the consequences of the environment, yes, no one man cannot

do it all. It always takes the collective to get the results we are all looking out for. And are you surprised by the momentum that this movement has taken? I mean there seem to be a lot of you now involved and you've got support from celebrities and other people as well, so did you expect it to be this successful? The level of support is not something that I anticipated. The environment does not discriminate who is right and who is poor. It affects all of us on every level. So I believe this is the message that got to a

lot of people to understand, to begin to look at it from that angle to say that yes I agree and I think it always take all of us on a collective level to change the story. We human beings is the problem to anything that is destroying this planet. We are nothing without the environment. We must take collective action in protecting the environment and protecting the human race. I believe this is the message that has got a lot of people involved in the campaign against anything environmental disaster.

Do you think there's been a change in awareness among ordinary people in Ghana? Do you think this has caught their imagination? Do you think this is making a real difference? Yes, it's making a real difference. As the Bastogbois, we are doing this every day, every day, every day. And I tell you right now in Ghana, we've got a lot of youth rising up to do the same. I talk about brotherhood and a lot more, about six different groups rising up. So talk about change. We believe that as we keep the pace, keep doing, we eventually get a lot more people riding for the same cause and eventually we can get some clean air and all of that. Do you think it might spread to other countries like Nigeria,

for example? We started getting some messages on Instagram especially guys in Nigeria wanting to implement the same strategy so we go there and establish something in Nigeria. Nigeria and Ghana is more like one brothers you know anything that happens in Nigeria who currently happens in Ghana we use the same energy and spirit to clean up our communities and our environment so yes we are looking at going to places beyond Ghana. That was Hanneba Kwajosafo. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis's fantasy novel, has been beloved by children and adults for more than 70 years. Now a charity in England, influenced by the story and film adaptation have created a retreat for

people living with chronic health problems such as congenital anemia. It's one of several tree houses where those with long-term conditions can escape, relax and meet others in similar situations. Our reporter Ben Morris went to find out more. In an ancient woodland on the outskirts of Oxford in southern England, there is a treehouse inspired by C.S. Lewis's story, The Chronicles of Narnia, next door to where the author wrote all of his books. Now the only problem is everything is magic in here which means you can't turn anything on without some sort of trick but hopefully this should be fine.

Cedar Hollow is a luxury holiday rental run by haematologist Dr Noemi Roy and her husband Dr Yazz Ramahi. Each month the couple gift a stay in the house to patients and families affected by sickle cell, thalassemia or other inherited blood disorders. Anemia is the lack of red blood cells. When we say anemia, most people assume it means low iron, but that's because iron deficiency anemia is the commonest cause of anemia worldwide. But there's many types of anemia and having anemia means you don't have enough red blood cells, so you don't have enough of what carries oxygen around your body, and so you're going to have low energy levels, and you're not going to be able to do the things that other people have the energy to do.

Dr Roy runs a charity called the Congenital Anemia Network, or CAN, which gives people a safe place to relax and connect with others who are also affected. We started this because we wanted to give people with inherited types of anemia the opportunity to get to know each other because they're quite rare diseases and it's very isolating to have a rare disease. Naomi is currently staying at Cedar Hollow. So it's going to be very confusing because you've got Naomi and Naomi and we won't like to be called the wrong name. She has sickle cell anemia and told me what this mystical place means to her.

So I was diagnosed as an adult. Usually you get diagnosed as a baby so you can imagine the turmoil I went through because I already had a perception about people with sickle cell that there's a lot of you you know, fear around it. So when I was diagnosed, I felt so isolated. The charity and Cedar Hollow have given Naomi the rare chance to escape from the day-to-day management of her condition. And it's more than just a cabin in the woods. So my husband is a magician.

It's not his full-time job, but he does belong to the Magic Circle and he loves building gadgets so the whole site is full of hidden gems and magical things. There's lots of magical ways of opening and turning off the lights, different illusions around the place. And so it gives, even for an adult, it gives them that feeling of the wonder of being a child and of being excited about things. The whole campus is a magical place to see. The bathroom is hidden behind a special mirror. The lights can be turned on with a golden ring and, if spoken to, the White Witch who rules over the land of Narnia will respond with her poetic words. Lights shall shine both near and far, aglow to pierce where shadows are.

That's so cool. We're all waiting for your reaction. And all of this was built by Noemi's husband Dr Yaz Ramahi with the help of artificial intelligence. That report was by Ben Morris. Hawaiian crows known as alala are intelligent charismatic birds with a distinctive call. They're of great cultural importance to the US state, once helping to maintain native forests there, but only 110 are left on the planet. They've been extinct in the wild for more than 20 years. Until now, five alalas were released on Maui Island in December. San Diego Zoo had raised them together for months to establish strong bonds. Chelsea Javar-Salas is a wildlife biologist originally from Hawaii. She's been talking

to Dani Cox about the alalas. The literal translation of alala in Hawaiian means to squeal, cry, call or scream. Alala is also like a style of chanting so like when you open your mouth and the vibrations and the tremor of your voice that relates to the call or the call of alala. Alala are included in the Pumulipo which is the Hawaiian native creation chant that details the emergence of all life forms. The dark color of the alala's feathers also represents unpredictable things in Hawaiian culture.

So if an alala was seen or heard in the past when you're entering a place, its call or cry was considered a warning to not enter that place. So what was it like for you to see it flying free again? Being from the island of Hawaii, this release means a lot to me. People in the field were very excited and anxious at the same time. Getting to this point was a long process. So to them, it was just a very amazing feeling to finally see the birds flying free in the wild.

Tell us about how we got to here. How much effort has it taken to get to this point? We have improved habitat conditions by installing fences that exclude ungulates. Ungulates are hoofed animals. We've also improved habitat by transplanting and reintroducing native plants, which help to provide shelter and forage for alala. The alala are important to the ecosystem of Hawaii's forests as they eat and dispense those seeds of native plants. They fell foul of, I I guess the ecosystem before. How confident are you about their future now? We think success is getting to a point where the alala released will survive longer

with the potential to mature, pair and breed into wild. The end goal is to get enough birds to eventually release them back to the island of Hawaii. How proud are Hawaiians of their alala? How has this been received? In general, the community are very supportive. The alala are culturally important to Native Hawaiians. Alala is regarded as an alma cool or a family guardian, and they provide protection for your family. We all want Hawaii to have this experience with the birds, to see this magnificent bird with beautiful, shiny, dark feathers, and to hear their distinct calls, which is unique.

You'll never hear anything like it in today's forest. Ah! Chelsea Javar-Sala speaking to Danny Cox. Now, many of us may well have a childhood memory of being out and losing sight of our parents for a few agonising moments. This next story makes that sound very tame indeed. It involves an eight-year-old boy who went missing in north-western Zimbabwe and wandered alone for five days in a national park full of wild animals. He's called Tinatendapudu and don't worry this tale does have a happy ending. Camilla Mills is from Zimbabwe and tell me more. According to officials in Zimbabwe,

eight-year-old Tinatender, he wandered away from his home in Kuriba and found himself all of a sudden in this national park up in the north of the country in Kuriba. So there's just a wealth of wildlife there. It's very thick, dense bush. You also have Lake Kuriba, which is the biggest man-made lake in the world, and it is infested with crocodiles. So he had a lot to fend himself against. So he wandered off and found himself trying to survive in the wild. For the days that he was there, apparently he slept on rocky mounds to avoid nighttime predators. And in the day he went foraging for wild fruit and then he also dug mounds in the dry river bed to try and find water.

So this boy was clearly not a city kid he'd grown up and was familiar with how you look after yourself in the bush. Yeah so growing up in that kind of community so it's called the Nyammy Nyammy's the local community up there you would have to have these survival skills you live in the bush. Yeah, so growing up in that kind of community, so it's called the Nyammy Nyammies, the local community up there, you would have to have these survival skills. You live in the bush and you have to know how to live alongside this wildlife. So he would have grown up learning all of this and it would just be second nature to him, literally. The kind of animals that are around there, you mentioned the crocodiles, but there are other animals on land that were quite hard to avoid one imagines,

but he went up to these copies, these stone areas above the plane to escape them. Yeah, so he would have had to contend with buffalo, which are incredibly dangerous, probably the most dangerous animals that he would have come across, lions and also elephants. We're not even thinking then about the snakes and the spiders and all of the other things. I mean, he was literally living in amongst the wild. Now, would this have been seen as remarkable in Zimbabwe? Or is it just because we're seeing it from the outside? No, I think everyone there is pretty amazed that he was able to do this at the age of eight.

Apparently, he had heard rangers in the region and he tried to run after their truck and they drove off. And he then went back into the bushes and they came to run after their truck and they drove off and he then went back into the bushes and they came back along the same route and they saw his little human footprints and they were able to find him and the rangers said that after five days living in the wild they don't actually think he would have survived for another day. So it's amazing that they found him then. Camilla Mills. Coming up in this podcast. I said, did you get sworn in with daddy?

And she goes, yeah, I did. And I said, are you a police officer now? And she said, yeah, and you're under arrest. One of our listeners highlights from 2024. Now to a story about friendship. Seven-year-old Betsy lives little more than a kilometre away from five-year-old Lacey, who she says is her best friend. Despite attending the same school in England, the girls barely knew each other until they were tragically brought together after they were diagnosed with the same form of rare cancer. Since then, the girls barely knew each other until they were tragically brought together after they were diagnosed with the same form of rare cancer. Since then the girls and their parents have become like a single family and Betsy and Lacey say they've helped each other get through the gruelling

process. The Happy Pod's Holly Gibbs has the details. She's special to me because she's my best friend. We met in hospital. That seven-year-old Lacey talking about five-year-old Betsy. The two girls have a very special friendship. They live close to each other in the Welsh town of Bridgend and they attend the same school, but they did not meet until April 2023 when they received the same diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia within three weeks of each other. Betsy's mum Charlotte said she received a text message from a mutual friend who had heard about Lacey's similar diagnosis and put the families in touch.

A message which Lacey's mum Jess says she was thankful for. We were in the first week of diagnosis when Charlotte messaged me and I'm so glad she did because she could give me an insight of what was to come. They met in the hospital and they just hit it off straight away. They were like hugging, they were getting to know each other, asking each other questions and it's just evolved from there. Since then the families have become very close and formed a support bubble. Charlotte says the girls have found comfort in each other during their treatment. They've lost their hair the same time they've had you know when they're both on the steroids at the same

time they can both be you know a little bit moody sometimes maybe and for them both to have that understanding and to see each other, you know, being the same I think has been such a huge help. They don't feel so alone, they've got each other. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia affects around 440 children a year in the UK. The parents of Betsy and Lacey couldn't believe two girls in the same school had the same diagnosis. The girls' nurse, Lesley, visits them every week in school. She says she's watched the friendship flourish. Having a blood sample, they're really very supportive of each other. Because I think Lacey found it quite difficult having a blood sample in school for the first couple of

times, but Betsy was really encouraging. So it made the whole process easier. Betsy and Lacey are in the maintenance phase of their treatment, which is due to be completed in 2025. They still have to take daily medication and have frequent hospital appointments. But, as both the girls say, they have each other. It's really nice to have a friend that's always with you in hospital. I think I'm going to be as brave as Betsy is. Ah, that's good! Holly Gibbs reporting.

Last year saw deadly wildfires across Europe, Canada and parts of South America. And as the earth warms up, they're becoming increasingly common and harder to deal with. But in Spain one project is using cows and horses to help keep some of the flames under control. Craig Langren went to find out how it works. I've traveled about two hours northeast from the capital of Madrid to meet biologist Pablo Shapira. Pablo heads up the team at an NGO group rewilding Spain and today he's taking me for a walk in the Iberian Highlands, a rugged area where tall trees with orange and red leaves cling to the hillsides.

And what happens is that when you have a fire now, you have a normal natural fire, you have a huge fire that doesn't stop and birth thousands and thousands of eggs. One of the reasons for this is that the forests have been left to grow unchecked as there simply aren't enough animals to feed on all the trees, bushes and grass. And the more dense this vegetation is, the more likely it is to catch fire. What we had before in our ecosystems here in Europe is that we had big grazes. We had the bison, we had autos, we had wild horses, and now they are gone

from the ecosystem because of extinction, domestication. Pablo's solution is really quite simple, to reintroduce some of these long-lost big beasts of the forest and let them run wild. So I can just see one of the Prowalski horses in the distance. This particular type of horse is called the Prowalski horse and it's the world's last species of truly wild horse. Wow they're beautiful aren't they? Really big, brown, with a long mane that's quite distinctive. Pablo and his team started reintroducing these horses to this area in 2023 and there are now 26 dotted around the forest. We're just emerging from the forest into what looks like a sort of clearing I suppose.

Oh there are loads more horses in here and they're just peacefully grazing. Well these animals consume more than 30 kilograms of grass every day and that's very very important. The idea here is that if a fire broke out in the forest this clearing would provide a natural buffer and slow its progress. Whilst the horses are great at clearing all the grass and flora closer to the ground, in order to keep all of the flammable vegetation in check you need a whole army of animals. Down the road I made some more four-legged friends. Slender with long legs and sleek black fur, toros are a cross-breed species of cow who have been carefully bred to resemble the long extinct wild aurochs who used to roam the

Iberian highlands. It's Rafa's job to look after this herd of 13 wild cows. These large, heavy cows are like habitat engineers, so their role here is to eat and move in a way that helps us to prevent another wildfire. The cows eat their favorite trees. The trees that they eat usually are the weakest trees, which means that the ones that survive are also the healthier ones. So this is also good for the ecosystem.

Along with the cows' voracious appetite, they trample on the vegetation, and it's that trampling that helps to open up the forest, so it's not so densely packed full of flammable vegetation. Pablo, Rafa and the team hope that their herds of cows and horses continue to grow in numbers so it's harder for the fires that do break out to spread. We need to have natural fires occurring. The natural fires are small fires, not huge fires like we have now. And you can hear more on that on People Fixing the World wherever you get your podcasts. As we enter 2025, we've been asking you, our listeners, for your happiest moments. Amber Cherian from Quincy in Chicago is one of those who got in touch. Amber told us about a very proud day just before the New Year when she watched her husband Aiden get sworn in to their local police

department. He becomes the only Indian American officer on that force. Pictures of his ceremony have been shared many times on social media after their two-and-a-half-year-old daughter Violet refused to miss out on the action. I caught up with Amber about what happened. It was definitely an exciting moment, something that we've been waiting on for a while, but definitely trying to keep her happy and entertained in the back was difficult. I can imagine. So your husband then went up to be sworn in. Talk us through what happened then. So he initially went up by himself and started getting sworn in and she saw him up there and she wanted to run to him. And so at first I was trying, she was crawling on the floor

and I was bending over trying to keep her back. And someone, I don't know who it was, but someone was like, it's okay, she can go up there. And then after they said that, she just darted and ran up there and they told her to hold her hand up and she got sworn in with her dad. Now is she quite a feisty young girl at the best of times or does she just want to do what her dad does at any moment? I think that she wants to do what everyone tells her she can't do. So you won't cross at all, you kind of saw this happening and thought ah let's go with it. If you look close enough at the photos you can also see that she's not even wearing shoes. I didn't see that but she's looking very proud, her hand is raised up, I think it was her

left hand actually raised up, she looks to was her left hand actually, raised up. She looks to be looking straight ahead. Did she repeat any of the words? I'm wondering whether or not she's technically officially been sworn in herself. She assisted with his swearing in, but she repeated some of the words and then when it was done and everyone started clapping, she turned around and started clapping for him too. But when we got in the car after the ceremony, I asked her, I said, did you get sworn in? And she said, what? I said, did you get sworn in with daddy? And she goes, yeah, I did. And I said, are you a police officer now? And she said, yeah, and you're under arrest.

Yeah, she's pretty feisty, isn't she? Violet, maybe we can have a little word with her now. Hello, I'm Violet. Hello, Violet. I'm Nick. What do you want to do when you're grown up? Do you want to be a police officer like daddy? No. Do you want to be a police officer like daddy? No, mommy.

Can I just ask you, Amber, what kind of a reaction have you had from these pictures? I mean, when I first saw them, I thought that's so cute and the whole story. What kind of reaction have you had from people to this? That's pretty much what everyone has told me that it's just really cute. Someone told me, I told them what happened and they just said that's awesome because they said that when you swear in like a police officer, firefighter, any law enforcement like that, he said you're swearing in the entire family. You aren't just swearing in the one individual. And so

he just really loved that they let her go up there like that. Amber and Violet, of course. Now, if you've got a story you'd like to share with us about what's made you happy, get in touch. As ever, the address is globalpodcast.bbc.co.uk And that's all from the HappyPod for now. This edition was mixed by Callum McClay, the producers were Siobhan Leigh, Holly Gibbs and Rachel Bulkley. The editor is Karen Norton. I'm Nick Miles and until next time, goodbye.

Delve into a world of secrets. The BBC's Global Investigations podcast, breaking major news stories around the world. A BBC investigation finds that Mohammed Al Fayed, former owner of Harrods, was accused of raping five members of staff. Mohammed Al Fayed was like an apex predator. From the top of British society to the heart of global fashion brands.

The former boss of clothing brand Abercrombie and Fitch is accused of exploiting young men for sex. That world has eaten up and spit out a lot of young and attractive guys. Gripping Investigations, available to listen to now with more coming soon. Search for World of Secrets wherever you get your BBC podcasts and click, follow or subscribe so you never miss an episode. I'm Zing Zing and each week my co-presenter Simon Jack and I take a closer look at the world's mega-rich and we try to decide whether they're good, bad or just another billionaire. From celebs and CEOs to sports stars and tech titans, find out how billionaires made their money and how they use it.

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