JUST GIVE ME POSITIVE NEWS

Previously this site was wholly focussed on COVID-19, but now, with so much negative news in the world we want to help showcase some of the more positive traits in humans and how humans can come together in times of despair and heartbreak to help each other. We believe in a more positive World and this is a starting point to help showcase that.

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Latest stories

Kyiv children’s choir’s world tour was canceled amid war – Conductor Saul Zaks is now on a mission to make sure the world hears the choir’s “magical” sounds

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Shchedryk Children’s Choir from Kyiv, one of Ukraine’s most-recognized youth musical ensembles, was poised to celebrate its 50th anniversary this year with new recordings and a world tour.

Then, on Feb. 24, Russia invaded Ukraine.

The choir had to halt all rehearsals and celebratory plans as children and their families scattered across Ukraine. Some fled the country, while others sheltered in their homes.

But the choir has still managed to find ways to share their music with the world, thanks, in part, to the efforts of Danish Argentinian Israeli conductor Saul Zaks.

Zaks immediately got to work on the new mission, contacting international choirs and children’s organizations to spread the word and find ways to share the music.

In collaboration with Choir of the Earth, Zaks has put out a request to global children’s choirs to perform a traditional folk song from the Shchedryk Children’s Choir repertoire called “Rocking the Sun to Sleep.”

https://theworld.org/stories/2022-04-19/kyiv-children-s-choir-s-world-tour-was-canceled-amid-war-conductor-finding-other

7-Year-Old Who Sang In Bunker, Now Sings Ukrainian Anthem In Polish Concert

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Her voice soaring out above a large audience, many of them waving the lights on their phones in support, seven-year-old Amelia Anisovych sang the Ukrainian national anthem at a charity event for Ukraine in Poland. Anisovych became known around the world through a viral video of her singing ‘Let It Go’, from Disney’s “Frozen”, for other families sharing a bunker with her family in Ukraine.

Russian Journalist Will Auction Nobel Peace Medal For Ukrainian Refugees

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The Russian journalist who won last year’s Nobel Peace Prize will auction off his medal to support Ukrainian refugees. Novaya Gazeta editor Dmitry Muratov said he was compelled to the action by seeing “wounded and sick children” needing “urgent treatment” following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Muratov shared the 2021 Nobel with Filipino American journalist Maria Ressa for their “efforts to safeguard freedom of expression.” Proceeds will go to The Foundation of Assistance to the Ukrainian Refugees, which supports refugees from Ukraine. Muratov stressed the need for a ceasefire, exchange of prisoners and provision of humanitarian corridors. More than 3.5 million refugees have fled Ukraine during the invasion.

https://www.karunavirus.org/story/7078/russian-journalist-will-auction-nobel-peace-medal-for-ukrainian-refugees

Holocaust Survivors Reunite in Florida After a Labor Camp Friendship was Broken 80 Years Ago

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Sam Ron and Jack Waksal credit Red Banyan

Those who say there’s no such thing as destiny need to meet Jack Waksal and Sam Ron, victims who met during the Holocaust, and who met again 79 years later in South Florida.

Having endured slave labor shoulder to shoulder in the Pionki Labor Camp in Poland, the two were separated after Waksal escaped into the forest, and Ron was moved to a different camp that was ultimately liberated.

Neither knew the other had survived, until Waksal attended a United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s South Florida Dinner last Sunday, and found his old camp comrade to be the guest speaker. Introduced by his former name of Shmuel Rakowski, Waksal felt as if he was seeing a fraternal brother.

“He jumped off the seat and came running over to my seat and says you’re my brother, I was very emotional, I’m normally not a very emotional guy,” Ron explained, according to NBC Miami.

Just teenagers at the time of their imprisonment, the two managed to both immigrate to the United States, specifically to Ohio, where they both lived for 40 years unaware of each other’s existence before eventually moving to South Florida.

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/holocaust-survivors-reunite-in-florida-80-years-after-imprisonment/

A piece of Marine veteran John Rubino is keeping 8-month-old Ariany alive

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It was the life-saving transplant her family at Montefiore were waiting for, now they get to make more memories together.

“Being able to provide that relief to her family and know that she is going to be a healthy little girl and live a long healthy life – it’s quite an amazing feeling,” said Rubino.

Ariany was suffering for months from a potentially deadly and very rare disease, Biliary Atresia. It is a blockage in the tubes (ducts) that carry bile from the liver to the gallbladder. Ariany needed an implant right away, so Dr. Nadia Orchinsky got her on the national donor waitlist immediately, but there was no match.

This is Rubino’s second time giving someone a second chance. The first was a kidney given to a woman named Jessica in Connecticut.

Rubino says this is his opportunity to be a part of something much bigger than himself. He is currently on the Bone Marrow Registry and is doing advocacy work with Yale-New Haven and is a living donor ambassador.

https://bronx.news12.com/it-s-quite-an-amazing-feeling-marine-veteran-donates-part-of-liver-to-save-8-month-old-girls-life

University Gives Unexpected Bonus To All Employees Saying Thanks for Their Service During Covid

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The Chancellor of Vanderbilt University is recognizing all the school’s employees for their diligent work over the past two years with a surprise bonus in their paychecks.

All the eligible faculty, staff, and postdocs, will receive a $1,500 bonus in their paychecks at the end of March.

That’s around 9,000 workers, including part-time employees, who are getting the generous bonus.

In announcing the Chancellor’s Recognition Award—which coincided with the March 17 anniversary of the university’s founding 148 years ago—Chancellor Daniel Diermeier expressed gratitude for the extraordinary efforts of those at the heart of Vanderbilt’s educational mission.

“It has not been easy, especially during the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic,” Diermeier said.

“However, your dedication to our vision and goals enables our university to operate at its highest level. I am indeed grateful as we approach Vanderbilt’s 150th anniversary in a position of strength and with optimism about our path forward.”

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/university-gives-unexpected-bonus-to-all-employees-in-tennessee/

Young brothers found in Amazon after nearly four weeks

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Two young indigenous boys rescued after almost four weeks lost in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest have been found and taken to hospital.

Glauco and Gleison Ferreira, eight and six, got lost trying to catch small birds in the jungle near Manicoré, Amazonas state, on 18 February.

A local tree cutter found them by chance on Tuesday.

They are expected to make a full recovery after being treated in hospital for malnourishment.

After the boys disappeared, hundreds of residents spent weeks looking for them.

But lost during the rainy season of the Amazon – a time which makes walking and moving in the jungle even more difficult than usual – they were nowhere to be found.

Emergency services decided to call off the search on 24 February, but locals continued to search for the boys, according to local media outlet Amazônia Real.

Almost four weeks later, the boys were found by a man cutting wood 6 km (3.7 miles) from the village of Palmeira in the Lago Capanã protected land reserve where the boys live with their parents, Amazônia Real adds.

One of the boys shouted for help when he heard the local man hitting the trees nearby. Following the calls, the man found the two boys lying on the rainforest floor, hungry and weak, with many skin abrasions.

According to local media, the two boys told their parents they had eaten nothing while lost and had had only rainwater to drink.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-60789542

Violinists Around The World Play Alongside Ukrainian In A Bomb Shelter

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Illia Bondarenko, 20, recorded himself playing a Ukrainian folk song on his violin and posted it on Instagram, asking for others to join in support of his people. “The meaning is that now everybody, every person in Ukraine and in the whole world is a soldier in their own battlefield. Not only for musicians but for all people. Music is the best language to say emotions because in that horrible situation, sometimes words, it’s not enough. I think now every human in the world should say something about the situation and support Ukraine,” Bondarenko said in his video. The response was stunning: nearly 100 violinists from around the world created their own videos. In a compilation video, they play alongside him, pledging their support to the Ukrainian cause. One of the violinists who made his own recording said, “The violin has always had that ability to sing from the heart in a way. Any little bit we can do to help, we’re willing to do.”

This World War II veteran decided to become a children’s book author at age 95

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Sam Baker first discovered his love of reading in the ninth grade, but it wasn’t until he turned 95 that he realized how much he enjoyed writing books, too.

Baker, now 99, lives in Scottsdale, Arizona. He served in the Marines from 1942 to 1947, and later embarked on a career with the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, now the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. When his children were young, he read to them every day, and would make up his own stories about a worm named Herman. When Baker decided to start writing four years ago, his son encouraged him to turn his Herman tales into a book.

He did just that, publishing The Silly Adventures of Petunia and Herman the Worm in 2018. Baker was then inspired to write about the pet rat he had as a child, and penned his second book, Oscar the Mouse, in 2020. He told Fox News Digital he changed the rat to a mouse because “people accept mice over rats.” Baker is continuing Oscar’s story in a third book he expects will be published later this year.

Baker felt compelled to write for kids because “reading is a foundation for all other learning,” he said. “If you don’t know how to read, you’re going to have a hard time learning.” For Baker, being an author isn’t about the fame or paychecks. “I don’t want to make money,” he told Fox News Digital. “I want children to learn to read.”

https://theweek.com/donald-trump/1011506/trump-campaign-ordered-to-fork-over-350000-for-trying-to-enforce-unenforceable