Eddy's Good News: The Sowing Peace program and The Chew Reservoir

Virgin Radio

21 Mar 2024, 17:33

Every day during his show on Virgin Radio Anthems, Eddy Temple-Morris brings you Good News stories from around the world, to help inject a bit of positivity into your day!

Be sure to listen each day between 2pm and 6pm (Monday - Friday) to hear Eddy's Good News stories (amongst the finest music of course), but if you miss any of them you can catch up on the transcripts of Eddy's most recent stories below:

Thursday 21st January 2024

I’ve only recently discovered the joy and inspiration that comes from gardening but who would have thought that gardening and recycling would have such a profound effect on some of the worst prison offenders in Panama!?

Say buenos Dias to La Joyita prison, famous for its filth and squalor. But it’s been recently turned around by a program which  - translated - means “sowing peace”. Prisoners, most of whom were or still are in gangs, recycle rubbish which is then sold and they get time off for good behaviour. But they also use compost from organic prison rubbish to plant vegetables and they’ve now got over 16,000 seedlings with a market value of over $20,000 and an output that any commercial garden would be envious of!

There's more good news because of all those involved in the program not one of them had reoffended since they were released, which has dropped the whole prison reoffending rate by 20%! 

Praise the plants and praise the prisoners planting the plants! 

Via: goodnewsnetwork.org

Last week, on a windy Wednesday, volunteers celebrated planting their millionth moss cutting in a place called Chew Reservoir, in Oldham.  

The hilltop reservoir above Manchester had become bare. The lack of vegetation meant bog water would escape down the hill and make rivers brown and silty, degrading the quality of the water. There was also a much greater risk of flooding to those who live below. 

So for the last decade volunteers from the RSPB decided to embark on a win-win venture. To replant the bogs with moss, which would hold the soil, filter the water, sequester CO2  and improve the ecosystem to attract more insects and more birds. 

These amazing volunteers have donated 45,000 hours of their time over ten years, planting moss and setting up peat and rock dams to create greater habitats for amphibians. Invertebrates and birds alike. The reservoir now looks like a nature reserve and everyone's a winner.

Via: goodnewsnetwork.org