You could help rebuild someone's life with this new app

It has been a feature of our towns and cities for decades - both as a great read and a crucial support to the lives of those who sell it. Big Issue North, which was founded in 1992, now has a newly launched app that showcases stories from around the world - and helps train and support its sellers in locations such as Manchester.

Street News, a news app, draws together stories from Big Issue North's partner street papers from across the globe - an international network that stretches from Australia, to Europe and South America. For £4.99 a month - there's also a 'freemium' app option offering five free stories a month - the app provides a first-hand glimpse into the lives of those experiencing world events.

One such story, says George Wright of Big Issue North, followed the experiences of a gay man in Afghanistan who witnessed the fall of Kabul to the Taliban.

"He'd kept a diary of his experiences there as an LGBT person, so it was a way of experiencing what he'd seen," George said. "It's more than a broad brush approach, it's about telling stories from people's perspectives."

The app shares its name with the first street paper - Street News - which was launched in New York in 1989, and gave people the means to escape poverty by selling the publication. The Big Issue and Big Issue North are part of that movement, which now includes more than 100 street papers around the world.

Income from subscriptions to the app will help support Big Issue North, which has around 350 vendors – and up to around 500 during the busier Christmas period - in locations from Stoke on Trent in the west, and Grimsby in the east, up to the border of Scotland.

George says the cost to set up someone selling Big Issue North is around £30, which