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Local Heroes Header Landingpage Englisch 1***ACHTUNG: Nur in Zusammenhang mit Local Heroes Englisch verwenden

For people who want to make a difference

The new DW is for the world’s local heroes. People who rely on global insights and who think, reflect, reconsider and innovate. We are there for them with the news and information they need to shape their world. 

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Soccer meets schooling in India's slums

Growing up in a Mumbai slum, Ashok saw how hard it was for many young people to break out of poverty. Now the 24-year-old has launched a soccer program for disadvantaged kids with a focus on education and life skills. 

In France, a rabbi, an imam and an interfaith friendship bus

Rabbi Michel Serfaty with UOIF (Union of Islamic Organizations of France) official Ghazi Wehbi

Michel Serfaty is used to being called names. The rabbi has spent the past decade targeting Muslims and Jews and doing what he says the state has failed to do: promoting dialogue. Elizabeth Bryant reports from France. 

Solar energy lights up lives in Kenya

M-Kopa solar energy being sold in a small shop in Kenya

In Kenya, the majority of the population doesn't have electricity at home, since the country's national grid is unreliable and expensive to buy into. Now a solar energy startup is changing people's everyday routines. 

Former fashion designer saves Borneo reefs

Felicity Finlayson NEU2

"Flik" Finlayson gave up her goal of becoming a fashion designer to do conservation work on a remote island in Borneo. There she replants coral reefs, and says she sees the impact of her work every day. 

'I am a journalist, not a criminal'

Ägypten Kampagne Freedom Of Shawkan Mahmoud Abou Zeid Fotojournalist NEU

Egyptian photojournalist Mahmoud Abou Zeid "Shawkan" was arrested while covering the Rabaa protest dispersal in 2013. He is still being held without charge in jail, from where he wrote this letter for DW. 

'Global Shapers' give new boost to community work in Kano

Salihu Tanko Yakasai und Zainab Mahmoud NEU

The city of Kano in northern Nigeria is widely regarded as backward and underdeveloped. A group of young people are actively working to change this, despite terror attacks by Boko Haram and political violence. 

#NoEsc: Life on (the) line - full episode

Nur für Life Links - Gesamte Folge #NoEsc NEU

A refugee from Syria, a Mexican data protection activist and a blogger in Bangladesh - they are fighting online to find an escape from their realities. 

Tech Needs Girls: equipping Ghanaian girls

Ghana Initiative Tech Needs Girls NEU

Learning about technology and practical science can help children develop into critical thinkers. That is according to a young Ghanaian entrepreneur who encourages girls as young as six to develop technology tools. 

Nur für Life Links - Aleksander Bulgarien

#AForEffort: Is this Bulgaria’s last teacher?

Conditions for teachers are awful in Bulgaria. 23-year-old Aleksandar is one of the few stepping into the breach. 

Zohra is organizing the colorful scarves Afghan women have stitched. Copyright: F. Steinborn

Generation Change

Zohra is helping Afghan families by making Germany's fashion more colorful. 

Jonas Kakoschke

Giving refugees a new home in Berlin

Jonas Kakoschke decided to share his apartment in Berlin with refugees - and now it's become a much larger project. 

Portrait of Claudine wearing a motorcycle helmet. Photo: Jesko Johannsen

Kigali's only female moto driver

Claudine Nyanamajambere is the only woman to drive a "mototaxi" – one of Rwanda's last male domains. 

Watch local heroes on DW

Tune in to DW's different hero stories - about people who want to make a difference.

Registering babies in rural areas  

Competition in the aid industry in Kenya  

Mobile credits stimulate business  

Fanta Diallo: Role model for young Senegalese  

A cinema in a backpack brings films to rural South Africa  

Social and economic disadvantages in Washington DC  

Young Ugandan athletes on track for success  

A doctor helps refugees in Sicily  

#NoEsc: Life on (the) line  

App from Uganda can detect breast cancer  

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Discover Germany - The Travel Guide

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Young journalists pick up DW 'local heroes' prizes in Kenya

In a bid to boost its regional coverage, Deutsche Welle launched a "Local Heroes Journalism Competition." Director General Peter Limbourg has been handing over awards at a ceremony in Nairobi. 

“Africa on the Move” – DW's new multimedia project for Africa

Africa on the move

“Africa on the Move” is Deutsche Welle's new multimedia package. With support from Germany's Federal Foreign Office, it presents influential young Africans - with 90 films plus radio and online portraits planned in 2015. 

  • Climate Heroes Mori und Mila. Resist@nce

    Meet Europe's climate heroes

    Fighting for forests

    Mori and Mila are determined to save Hambacher Forst, an ancient forest in Germany, which is facing the chop. German power company RWE wants to expand the country's largest brown coal mine. To keep the diggers away, Mori and Mila have moved into treehouses. Some activists even regularly sneak into the open-pit coal mine where they lock themselves to mining excavators to stop operations.

  • Climate Heroes: Marius Smit, Amsterdam. I fish plastic in Amsterdam

    Meet Europe's climate heroes

    Fishing plastic out of Amsterdam's canals

    Where others see trash, Marius Smit sees a valuable resource. Amsterdam's canals are littered with discarded plastic bottles - until Marius and his volunteers have passed by. They enjoy a drink, while casting their nets and pulling in a haul that Marius’s company "Plastic Whale" turns into boats. That way, the bottles make their way back onto the canals - but in a much more attractive form.

  • Climate Heroes: Luana Carretto. I make people taste their waste

    Meet Europe's climate heroes

    Making people taste their waste

    Luana Carretto believes we've lost touch with food and can't tell if something wrapped in plastic is still good to eat. As a result, we throw away perfectly edible food without a second thought. That's why she set up "Taste Before You Waste" in Amsterdam, delivering food otherwise headed for the trash to those in need. She hands out "waste" food to strangers and cooks up delicious community meals.

  • Climate Heroes: Guus van der Ven, Metabolic, Amsterdam. I pioneer clean technologies

    Meet Europe's climate heroes

    Pioneering clean technologies

    Guus van der Ven helped set up a green-tech playground, De Ceuvel. Built on an old shipyard in Amsterdam, the site was heavily polluted. Now it's being cleaned up using pollution-extracting plants and is home to a creative co-working space thriving on renewable energy and recycled materials. Even human waste is turned into fertilizer and used to grow food in the on-site greenhouse.

  • Climate Heroes: Ignace Schop, Brussels. I'm suing the Belgian state to tackle climate change

    Meet Europe's climate heroes

    Taking legal action

    In 2009, 195 countries agreed to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius. Belgium was one of them - but Ignace Schops, director of an NGO that runs Belgium's national parks, says his government isn't taking the action needed to fulfill that promise. So together with a creative group, he is suing the Belgium parliament to cut CO2 emissions by 25 to 40 percent by 2020, and 87 percent by 2050.

  • Climate Heroes: Tobias Postulka, Berlin. I build solar boats

    Meet Europe's climate heroes

    Banking on the power of the sun

    Tobias Postulka is passionate about boats and passionate about protecting the planet. That's why he converted an old fishing boat into an eco dream, running solely on solar power. Even on cloudy days, the solar panels are more than up to the job. He’s now even inviting groups of tourists, friends and school kids aboard to educate them about the power of the sun - and to ship them across Berlin.

  • Climate Heroes: Guido Borgers, bicycle rickshaw driver, Berlin. I offer CO2-free transportation

    Meet Europe's climate heroes

    Pedal powering through Berlin

    Guido Borgers uses sheer physical strength to provide 100 percent carbon-neutral transportation around the German capital. Unlike many of his competitors on Berlin's bike rickshaw market, which have bikes powered by electric engines, Guido's vehicle relies solely on muscle power. More than just a taxi driver, he somehow finds the breath to give guided tours of the historic sights along the way.

  • Climate Heroes: Milena Glimbovski, Original Unverpackt, Berlin. I sell nude food

    Meet Europe's climate heroes

    Selling nude food

    With the average German producing 250 kilograms of waste every year, Milena Glimbovski found herself asking: "Why is all of this food I buy every day wrapped in so much plastic? Is that really necessary?" That's why she founded Berlin’s first package-free shop: "Original Unverpackt." It gives customers a more climate-friendly way to shop, with more than 400 products - minus the trash - on sale.

  • Climate Heroes: Thies Schröder, Ferropolis. I supply festivals on a former coal-pit with renewable energy

    Meet Europe's climate heroes

    Greening the festival scene

    What used to be a coal mining region has become a green festival haven, where five colossal steel excavators provide a dramatic backdrop as up to 25,000 festival goers dance the night away. Thies Schröder, CEO of the festival site Ferropolis, is determined to host a climate-friendly party and pave the way to a greener festival future. 75 percent of Ferropolis’ energy comes directly from solar.

  • Climate Heroes: Benjamin Böhme, Windtest Grevenbroich. I test wind turbines

    Meet Europe's climate heroes

    Testing the energy future

    Windtest Grevenbroich gives wind turbines a rigorous going over to gather the data manufacturers need to get the best performance out of these green power behemoths. Benjamin Böhme's job involves finding new locations where the turbines can reap their zero-carbon energy harvest. He says the German government needs to do more to reach its target of 80 percent renewable power.

'Most important prize ever awarded by the Bobs'

GMF 2015 The Bobs Awards Ceremony

At the Global Media Forum, DW has honored four international online activists with the prestigious Bobs Awards. In a bittersweet ceremony, it also bestowed its first Freedom of Speech Award on Saudi blogger Raif Badawi. 

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