Happy Monday 👋

Here are the impactful insights that I have for you today:

• How to get involved in International Microvolunteering Day ⏱️
• A landmark case win for human rights and the natural planet 🌎
• Researchers discover a way to significantly reduce waste from beer production 🍺
• And more… 💚

Sometimes, volunteering can feel like a big challenge at hand that takes up a lot of time…

But did you know that you can also engage in micro-volunteering activities that are way less daunting?

Dedicating just a few minutes of your time can already help make a positive impact. Especially if it’s something that you do consistently 🙂

And if we all do it consistently, then we’ll collectively make a big positive impact 💚

⏱️ Event of the Week: International Microvolunteering Day

👉 Did you know that today (April 15) is International Microvolunteering Day? This awareness event was established to encourage people and organizations to become more impactful by getting involved in small volunteering tasks. 

1️⃣ The big picture: International Microvolunteering Day was first held in 2014 by the Help From Home organization as a way to increase the uptake of volunteering tasks that benefit our planet and all its inhabitants. The term micro-volunteering was first coined in 2008 by San Francisco-based company The Extraordinaries (Skills For Change) and has since grown into a powerful global force to connect people who want to become more impactful but find they don’t have much spare time. 

2️⃣ Why is this important: People are stretched thin; working long hours, maintaining a household, and squeezing in time for self-care. So, no matter how much people want to do it, finding the time to volunteer for a cause can be tricky and daunting. In fact, the global volunteer rate is just 15%. Microvolunteering can take anywhere from 1-30 minutes, making it a much more viable option. So, whether you have a couple of minutes during your lunch break or you are stuck in traffic on the way to pick the kids up from school, there is something you can do to better your own community or for the benefit of the whole planet.  

3️⃣ How can you get involved: The best way to get involved in International Microvolunteering Day is to perform small volunteering tasks. These can be as simple as picking up litter while walking in the street, planting a tree in your garden, or writing articles for charitable organizations. Even spreading the word about microvolunteering on your social media channels is a form of microvolunteering. One of the best ways to do this is by using the hashtag #microvolunteering when posting.

You can also consider donating to one or more charities that are working to improve the health of our planet and its inhabitants, such as:

• 9 Best Charities for International Aid
• 9 Best Charities That Fight to End Plastic Pollution
• 20 Best Animal Charities to Donate to
• 9 Best Charities That Fight for Racial Equality

If you are looking for more inspiration, you can find a wider range of charitable causes to support in our charity support blog.

📢 Three Good News

🌎 A landmark win for the natural planet and human rights in Swiss case ruling:

• On April 9, 2024, the court ruled that the Swiss government had violated the human rights of over 2,000 elderly women by failing to do enough to combat climate change.
• Similar earlier lawsuits filed over the last decades around the world have mostly succeeded or failed below the national level. 
• This ruling is thought to have set a precedent for other pending cases due to be seen before the European Court and worldwide, showing that government inaction is not acceptable in the face of global warming. 

💰 The development of a new online tool to track funding to indigenous, local, and Afro-descendent communities:

• The Path to Scale dashboard is the world’s first online tool developed to track all funding for indigenous peoples, local communities, and Afro-descendant peoples’ forest stewardship and land tenure. 
• The tool has already highlighted that the global disbursements have averaged $517 million annually between 2020 and 2023. Yet, there is no evidence of increased direct funding to community-led organizations.
• Indigenous leaders say that the Path to Scale tool will be useful to track progress and setbacks on funding pledges, as well as hold donors and organizations accountable.

🍺 A group of researchers has found a way to extract and reuse proteins from beer-brewing waste:

• Researchers from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) have created a method to extract 80% of the available protein in grain leftovers from brewing beer, also known as brewers’ spent grain.
• Brewers’ spent grain (BSG) is the most significant waste material created by beer production, with about 36.4 million tons ending up in landfills every year.
• The researchers from NTU’s Food Science and Technology program say that the extracted proteins can be used to enrich diets and cosmetic products without the heavy carbon price tag.

🤝 Three More Important Awareness Events

⨾ April 16, World Semicolon Day:

• Over 800,000 people around the world die from suicide every year. And, for every suicide completion, there are countless more attempts.
• World Semicolon Day celebrates those who chose not to end their life and continue their story. It also advocates for mental health services and spreads stories of hope to those struggling.

🦇 April 17, International Bat Appreciation Day:

• Bat Conservation International founded International Bat Appreciation Day to bring awareness to the vital role bats play in the ecosystem and clear up misconceptions about them.
• For example, did you know that bats are not actually blind? Bats help keep pests under control, create fertilizer, and pollinate fruit and flowers, so they deserve our protection.

🐈‍⬛ April 15-21, Animal Cruelty/Human Violence Week:

• The third week in April is reserved for bringing awareness to the connection between animal abuse and human violence. 
• The purpose of this week is to foster a deeper understanding of how animal cruelty often serves as a precursor to human violence, and how to support victims of any species.

Related: You can discover all the 109 most important awareness events (for the month, days, weeks) in our awareness calendar for April 2024!

📜 This Week in History

🌳 April 15, 2000: US President Bill Clinton established the Giant Sequoia National Monument, which is a preserve that comprises of 500^sq miles (1,300^sq km) of Sequoia National Forest in the Sierra Nevada, California. 

👂 April 15, 1817: Thomas H. Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc founded the first American school for the deaf in Hartford, Connecticut.  

🛩️ April 16, 1912: American aviator Harriet Quimby became the first female pilot to fly across the English Channel, guiding her French Blériot monoplane through heavy overcast from Dover, England to Hardelot, France.

💭 Quote of the Day

“I had a great desire to see the world, and especially to make my unfortunate fellow beings on the other side of the Atlantic participate in the same benefits of education that I had myself received.”

— Laurent Clerc, French teacher

Share the news with your friends to make a bigger positive impact on the world and society together!

Stay impactful 💚