In today’s Good News, African hairdressers are learning how to give their clients mental health advice during haircuts, stepping up to help in regions with limited counseling services. And in a win for green sea turtles, major conservation efforts that began five decades ago are showing signs of success.

Catherine Garcia
The Week Digital

Global conservation efforts to save the endangered green sea turtle are paying off, with new data showing populations are increasing around the world. By the 1980s, sea turtles had been hunted to the “brink of extinction,” with poachers seeking their eggs and shells, said the BBC. Since then, environmentalists have worked together, releasing hatchlings into the sea and patrolling beaches to protect eggs at nesting sites. These steps have “undoubtedly” made an impact, said conservation scientist Brendan Godley.

When bulldozers digging Toronto’s new river channel hit patches of unusual green shoots, workers realized that they had uncovered a lost wetland buried since the 1800s. Scientists then unearthed worms, water fleas and plankton that sprang back to life in century-old soil samples. “It’s like finding buried treasure,” said ecologist Shelby Riskin of the University of Toronto. The discoveries, part of the city’s vast waterfront restoration and renaturalization project, “underscored the resilience of ecosystems in the face of human-led destruction,” said The Guardian.

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More than 400 hairdressers in West Africa have been trained to provide mental health advice during their appointments, giving them a chance to help more than 100,000 women. The nonprofit Bluemind Foundation’s Heal by Hair initiative teaches stylists in Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Togo about “active listening, gender-based violence and signs of depression,” said The Guardian. Participating hairdressers also stay in touch after their training and offer support to one another through peer groups.

When picking a theme for his fifth birthday party, Ryan Ramos went with a niche interest: his favorite president, Jimmy Carter. Ryan’s mom, Lauren, ordered a cake with Carter’s image in frosting and decorations like a life-size cardboard cutout, documenting it all on TikTok. Carter’s daughter, Amy, saw the videos and sent Ryan a package filled with items from her father’s 100th birthday. When he received the presents, Ryan was “over the moon,” his mother told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

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