Good News: the mosquitoes wiping out dengue and the Indian village doing a digital detox

It can be hard to see from the headlines sometimes, but not all news is bad news. This is the Good News round-up, a weekly digest of positive stories to make you feel better about the state of the world.

This week we cover the woman bringing computers to children in remote African communities; a breakthrough in transportation for donated hearts; the genetically modified mosquitoes that are wiping out dengue fever in parts of Brazil; South Korea’s new pet protection scheme using ‘nose prints’; and the Indian village practising ‘digital fasting’.

Nelly Cheboi is on a mission to ensure children in rural Kenya don't miss out on essential IT education.

She founded Techlit Africa, an NGO that collects old laptops from institutions and companies, refurbishes them and brings them to schools in remote communities so that kids can learn computer skills.

Most of the students that take part in the project “would not have used a computer because we are targeting the most remote parts of Africa,” she says.

“Right now we have students who don't even speak Swahili [the most widely used language across East Africa], yet they know how to use a computer and build websites, and the coolest part is that they can still do that in their own village. They do not have to go to Nairobi to do that, they do not have to go to America to do that."

Cheboi was inspired to start Techlit Africa by her own story. She had never touched a laptop until she won a scholarship to study in the United States, and she wanted it to be different for the students of her village.

Sammy Ruto, a student at the Zawadi Yetu Academy says he will make his own website using HTML and CSS thanks to the "visual studio code” he has been taught how to use.

“I was taught about OpenShot