The United Nations Children’s Fund, or UNICEF, is leading campaigns in southeastern Haiti to reduce the occurrence of waterborne disease and cholera infection by promoting sanitary toilet conditions and access to clean water.

So far, five localities have been deemed open defecation free thanks to the UN’s Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) campaign as part of the Total Sanitation Campaign, which is reportedly active in 120 communities, and has benefited an estimated 20,000 people.

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UNICEF has been working for years in Haiti to make life better for children in the country that has a problem with poverty and health care.

As part of the Total Sanitation Campaign, the Haitian government is supporting the building of toilets, as well as addressed the lack of access to clean water by fixing water systems and chlorinating water to prevent infection.

According to statistics from the UN, only “28 per cent of the Haitian population has access to adequate sanitation and 42 percent does not have adequate access to safe drinking water.”

Last year, UNICEF made Grammy-award winning singer P!nk an ambassador, which included a trip to Haiti to work with the charity organization in helping children with education, nutrition, and other health-related initiatives.

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Children are also participating in the CLTS campaign, reaching out to community members to teach them about proper toilet sanitation, as well as hand washing and changing their open defecation habits.

The UNICEF Representative in Haiti, Marc Vincent, told the UN News Centre, “When you talk to people in the communities and see how proud they are of having built themselves their own toilets, and how proud they are of protecting their families and children by their own means – when you see that it gives you hope, hope to go further and beyond. Because what we want and have to do is totally eliminate cholera.”

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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently announced on that new rules will be enacted next year to defend the rights of people who use prepaid debit cards.

A variety of financial options are covered in the 1,700 page document outlining the new rules, including mobile wallets and person-to-person payment sites like Google Wallet and PayPal, as well as Social Security payments.

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Prepaid cards accounted for an estimated $65 billion in 2012, which is more than twice the amount used by prepaid cards  in 2009. That figure is expected to double again by the year 2018.

“The biggest deal is that this rule prevents consumers from incurring overdraft fees,” Thaddeus King, an officer for the consumer banking project at The Pew Charitable Trusts, said in a statement. “The reason most people turn to prepaid cards is to avoid debt and overdraft fees. For the past few years, there haven’t been any federal regulations on this subject.”

Most of the people who use prepaid debit cards are low-income workers and young people who have little experience dealing with financial matters. Among the new set of rules is a stipulation about being upfront about fees and costs of using prepaid card retailers, like monthly fees and extra charges for withdrawing money at an ATM.

The regulations will also protect consumers with limited liability for a lost or stolen card, holding them responsible for up to $50, as long as the card is reported within two days.

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“Before today … many of these products lacked strong consumer protections under federal law. Our new rule closes loopholes and protects prepaid consumers when they swipe their card, shop online, or scan their smartphone,” said Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

“Though many prepaid companies already offer some of these same protections to their consumers, it is vital for consumers to have assurance that these protections are now the law of the land,” Cordray concluded.

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Continuing his record-setting streak of commuting sentences for federal prisoners, Obama shortened the sentences for 102 inmates last week. Reforming the criminal justice system by granting clemency is one of Obama’s end of term moves to enforce change before he is replaced by the next president elect.

“The vast majority of today’s grants were for individuals serving unduly harsh sentences for drug-related crimes under outdated sentencing laws,” White House counsel Neil Eggleston said in a statement.

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“With today’s grants, the President has commuted 774 sentences, more than the previous 11 presidents combined. With a total of 590 commutations this year, President Obama has now commuted the sentences of more individuals in one year than in any other single year in our nation’s history.”

Last August, Obama commuted the sentences of 325 nonviolent inmates, which was already a record setting action.

The prisoners won’t be released right away, and many of them will have to wait at least two years to be released. For inmates to have their sentences commuted they have to meet certain criteria like being nonviolent with a record of good behavior while behind bars, as well as not having any gang affiliations. Cases where the inmate would have received a lighter sentence if they had been convicted a few years later also have priority.

Obama has been arguing for years that harsh sentences for nonviolent drug offenses is a scourge on the justice system that needs to be fixed.

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With his support, some prosecutors have decreased the use of mandatory minimum sentences for certain crimes. According to the Washington Post, the United States has more people incarcerated per capita than any other country on the planet.

Eggleston added, “While he will continue to review cases on an individualized basis throughout the remainder of his term, these statistics make clear that the president and his administration have succeeded in efforts to reinvigorate the clemency process.”

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Ten experimental high schools have each won $10 million from Laurene Powell Jobs to help remodel the shape of education in America.

Announced last month, the ten winners were selected from over 700 applicants to the XQ: The Super School Project by a panel of 42 judges. Each of the ten winners come from across the country and each are approaching education in very different ways. Which, to Powell Jobs is the whole point.

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To Powell Jobs, the education system utilized today was developed more than 100 years ago and little about it has changed since, despite how much America and its population has. And while graduation rates reached a new peak in 2014, 82.3 percent, the gap between white students who graduated on time and African-American students who did the same was nearly 15 percentage points.

When the Super School Project was first announced in 2015, Powell Jobs was promising $50 million to five schools. But five has since turned into ten.

“We cannot build schools of the future unless they serve all students,” XQ chief executive Russlynn Ali told the Los Angeles Times last year. “We are helping to restore the promise of our public high schools to become the great equalizer they were intended to be.”

The idea, Ali has explained, is that in the past schools treat time as a fixed thing — students are always expected to be at their desks — and educational standards variable. Among other factors, each of the ten winning schools is approaching this idea in a new way.

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“What they need to know and be able to do will become what is non-negotiable. The time that it takes to get there, that is what is flexible,” Powell Jobs told USA Today.

For instance, one winner, the Los Angeles-based RISE High, is looking to bring education to homeless and foster children who often struggle getting to and staying in school. In addition to having a year round schedule to meet the needs of all students, RISE High will have a “mobile resource center” that will bring Wi-Fi, homework assistance, and even washers and dryers to students.

“We started to realize that … the traditional school setting that we were both working in was really limiting,” co-creator Kari Croft told the Times. “They were getting penalized for missing the full range of services they needed.”

Other winning schools include a Louisiana school situated on a barge, where students will learn about coastal erosion, a Michigan school partnering with the Grand Rapids Public Museum, Brooklyn Lab High School that collaborates with technology companies, and the Washington Leadership Academy situated in Washington D.C.

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Powell Jobs knows how great a leap XQ is taking. “We were trying something new, and when you try something new you don’t know where it’s going to lead and how it’s going to unfold,” she said

For their ambitious desire to make a great impact in American education, for their innovation in doing so, and for all their hard work, we are proud to name Laurene Powell Jobs, everyone at the XQ Institute, and all the winners of the XQ Super School Project our Luminaries of the week.

For a complete list of winners go here.

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The United Nations and the White House both announced on Wednesday that the 2015 Paris climate change agreement reached the quota for official enactment.

“What once seemed unthinkable, is now unstoppable. Strong international support for the Paris Agreement entering into force is a testament to the urgency for action, and reflects the consensus of governments that robust global cooperation, grounded in national action, is essential to meet the climate challenge,” United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement.

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Adopted in Paris by the 195 Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at a conference known as COP21 this past December, the Agreement calls on countries to combat climate change and to accelerate and intensify the actions and investments needed for a sustainable low-carbon future, as well as to adapt to the increasing impacts of climate change.

In order to be officially ratified, at least 55 countries that account for at least 55 percent of the world’s carbon emissions had to sign up. According to the United Nations, the European Union as well as Canada, Bolivia and Nepal officially submitted their ratification documents on October 5th, for the 2015 Paris Agreement to bring the participating countries combined world greenhouse gas emissions to an estimated 56.87 percent.

“I can think of no other multilateral environmental agreement that has gone from promise to living reality in such a short space of time — real momentum,” Nick Nuttall, the spokesman for the UNFCCC in Bonn, Germany told CBS News, “It has been quite breathtaking how quickly this has all happened, after 20 years of often fraught negotiations, Paris marked a watershed of enthusiasm, cooperation and determination.”

Each country has to implement their own voluntary national programs. It will take 30 days for the agreement to formally start being enforced, which happens to be only a few days before the presidential election in the United States.

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President Obama took to the White House Rose Garden to make a statement on the historic occasion. He concluded that, “Today is a historic day in the fight to protect our planet for future generations. Make no mistake: This agreement will help delay and avoid some of the worst consequences of climate change. One of the reasons I ran for this office was to make America a leader in this mission. And over the past eight years, we’ve done just that.”

You can listen to Obama’s full remarks in the video above.

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India is the world’s third biggest carbon emitting country, and it just became the latest large nation to join the Paris Climate Change Agreement, which calls on countries to “combat climate change and limit global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius.” Officials sent the documents to ratify the agreement to the United Nations on Sunday, which marked the anniversary of Gandhi’s birthday.

India’s ambassador to the U.N., Syed Akbaruddin, delivered the documents to the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs in New York City, while the ceremony was back dropped by a portrait of Gandhi, who is seen as the father of modern Indian independence.

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“That this step, so full of hope and commitment, occurred on the anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi is especially fitting, given the Mahatma’s enduring ethical messages of humanism, environmentalism and pacifism,” UN General Assembly President Peter Thomson said in a statement.

The Indian subcontinent is home to 1.3 billion people, and the country accounts for an estimated 4.1 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. They are still growing quickly, and instead of limiting the amount of energy being used, the government wants to increase the amount of sustainable or green energy that the country produces as a way to decrease their carbon footprint.

They set the goal of producing 40 percent of electricity from non-fossil fuel sources by the year 2030. India also plans a sink for at least 2.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide by planting or preserving adequate forests and tree cover. They also called on other countries to share updated technologies that will help them decrease the amount of emissions being produced in India.

In order for the historic climate agreement arranged by 195 nations in Paris last year to be formally ratified, at least 55 countries that make up a total of 55 percent of the carbon emissions in the world need to sign up. So far, 62 countries have signed up — now including India — accounting for an estimated total of 52 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions.

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Last month, China and the United States joined the agreement as the first and second biggest polluters in the world to slow down climate change. Each country that joins is required to present concrete plans to curb their consumption of fossil fuels and the production of carbon emissions with various strategies.

The 28 countries of the European Union, which count as one entity, are expected to sign the agreement this month, which will fulfill the required quota for the ratification of the Paris agreement. The next round of global climate talks will take place in Morocco in November.

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The World Health Organization (WHO) announced last week that, “The region of the Americas is the first in the world to have eliminated measles, a viral disease that can cause severe health problems.”

“This is an historic day for our region and indeed the world,” said Carissa F. Etienne, Director of the Pan American Health Organization of the UN World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO).

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The highly contagious virus was wiped out in the Americas after a mass vaccination campaign against measles, mumps and rubella that has lasted for 22 years. According to Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) the last case of measles in the Americas was registered in Brazil in 2015.

This is the first time that a region of this size has been declared measles-free. Measles is one of the most contagious diseases on the planet, and thanks to the vaccinations it is the fifth disease to be eliminated in the Americas after smallpox was eradicated in 1971, while poliomyelitis was eliminated in 1994, along with rubella and congenital rubella syndrome in 2015.

“It is proof of the remarkable success that can be achieved when countries work together in solidarity towards a common goal,” said Etienne in a statement. “It is the result of a commitment made more than two decades ago, in 1994, when the countries of the Americas pledged to end measles circulation by the turn of the 21st century.”

Last year, just under a quarter million cases of measles were reported worldwide, according to WHO. Before mass vaccinations started happening, measles would kill up to 2.6 million people a year, and most of the victims were children. Symptoms include a rash, high fever, and irritated eyes. It can also cause blindness, encephalitis, severe diarrhea and pneumonia.

Vaccination efforts continue around the world. Two years ago, Nigeria was declared polio-free, and continues to maintain their successful vaccination campaign.

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“It would not have been possible without the generosity and commitment of health workers and volunteers who have worked so hard to take the benefits of vaccines to all people, including those in vulnerable and hard-to-reach communities. Indeed it would not have been possible without the strong leadership and coordination provided by PAHO, Regional Office for the Americas of WHO,” Etienne concluded about the elimination of measles in the Americas.

Etienne, however, did point out that, “our work on this front is not yet done. It is critical that we continue to maintain high vaccination coverage rates, and it is crucial that any suspected measles cases be immediately reported to the authorities for rapid follow-up.”

ABOUT PAHO

PAHO, founded in 1902, works with its member countries to improve the health and the quality of life of the people of the Americas. It serves as the regional office for the Americas of WHO and is the specialized health agency of the inter-American system.

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The world’s first typhoon-powered wind turbine looks to harness the energy of storms in Japan.

Designed by Atsushi Shimizu and his company Challenergy, the new turbines look to capitalize on what is typically just destruction: the super storms that often strike Japan.

“Typhoons are normally nothing but a disaster,” Shimizu told CNN.

In fact, such storms hit with such force that they have a tendency to damage and destroy the European style wind turbines that Japan has utilized in the past. Shimizu’s turbines on the other hand, are ultra durable and designed to withstand even the most sever typhoons and tropical storms.

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To accomplish this, Shimizu and his team made two integral changes. The first: they created the turbine in the shape of an eggbeater with an omnidirectional axis to help it withstand volatile shifts in the wind’s direction.

The second is that the turbines had the Magnus effect incorporated into their design. By tightening the center rod, Shimizu and Challenergy are able to control the speed of the blade, enabling it to harness the force of the Magnus effect — the force responsible for a ball swerving in flight.

Such changes make Shimizu’s turbine capable of capturing incredible amounts of energy. And since a mature hurricane, according to Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Laboratory, produces an amount of kinetic energy “equivalent to about half the world-wide electrical generating capacity,” such storms are a source of energy worth tapping into.

Shimizu estimates that a single typhoon could produce enough energy to power all of Japan for 50 years.

And now, Challenergy is waiting to test their turbine in a live typhoon. After that, it will be about installing the turbines in places that will generate attention as well as power.

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“I want to install our wind-power generator at the new National Stadium [for the 2020 Olympics],” Shimizu told CNN. “Or on the Tokyo Tower, because the Eiffel Tower installed a wind-power generator last year at the time of the COP21 (climate summit).”

“We are responsible for changing the future,” he said.

For their innovation, for seeing the potential of turning a destructive event into a positive force, and continuing the push toward a renewable future, we are happy to name Atsushi Shimizu and Challenergy our Luminaries of the week.

Visit Challenergy here.

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In a show of support for the United Nations proposal to curb climate change, 60 countries around the world and several major airline companies are planning to offset their carbon emissions by funding environmental initiatives.

The United Nations International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is meeting in Montreal, Canada this week to discuss market based measures, and how to achieve the possible strategies for reducing the impact of carbon emissions caused by air travel.

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In fact, if the airline industry were a country, it would rank as one of the top ten carbon dioxide polluters in the world, according to the Huffington Post. Because of the ongoing increase in air travel, the amount of carbon emissions is expected to triple or even quadruple by the year 2040.

Limiting the amount of pollution created by air travel may end up costing air line corporations $24 billion annually, which underlines the significance of the commitment made under the UN proposal.

“We recognize that as an industry, we have an impact on climate change. The industry is willing to pay its share. We just want to pay our share in the most economic way possible,” said Michael Gill (pictured above), Executive Director of the Air Transport Action Group.

The industry has pledged to cap carbon emissions to levels reached in 2020, but using technological advancements might not be enough to maintain this goal. The UN agreement would also require companies to offset their carbon emissions by funding environmental initiatives, such as contributing to developing countries’ efforts to protect their forests. The World Bank has recently allocated 28% of their investments to help fight against the effects of climate change in developing countries who are hit the hardest.

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According to Huffington Post, between one-third and one-quarter of global carbon dioxide emissions are stored in the forests of the world, while a fifth of all carbon dioxide released each year from the burning of fossil fuels is absorbed by tropical forests.

European Union Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc concluded that, “This will be the first-ever global carbon-reduction deal for a single industry. I hope that we can encourage other sectors to follow. It is a critical time for action.”

According to Bloomberg, if this UN-sponsored deal fails, airline companies could potentially face even costlier regulation, because Europe and other regions would most likely push ahead with their own carbon emission regulations, which would create a patchwork of local regulations across the globe. So agreeing to the UN guidelines as currently discussed would be smart business and help environmental causes — a win win.

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Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and the leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) Rodrigo Londono, also known as Timchenko, signed a peace agreement on Monday in the coastal city of Cartagena to put an end to what the Los Angeles Time called “Western Hemisphere’s longest war” — a half century of conflict in their country

Peace talks in Havana, Cuba have lasted four years. Finally, after many issues in the process of ending the civil war in Colombia that has lasted over 50 years, claimed over an estimated quarter million lives, and displaced millions, both parties have endorsed a mutual solution.

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Both Santos and Londono shook hands for the first time on Colombian soil as they signed the accord with a pen made from a bullet casing. Santos presented Londono with a white dove pin, signifying the end to the longest conflict in Latin American history.

Among the guests in attendance at the ceremony were Cuban President Raul Castro, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, and the Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon. Everyone was asked to wear white as a gesture of peace.

Santos made a statement through his tears saying, “The horrible night of violence that has covered us with its shadow for more than half a century is over. We open our hearts to a new dawn, to a brilliant sun full of possibilities that has appeared in the Colombian sky.”

In June, the two factions agreed on a ceasefire, and in late August, the final agreement was reached. It took another month before the peace accord was signed, and the next step will take place when the Colombian public votes on the controversial agreement on Sunday. Most opinion polls show that the agreement will be ratified.

Londono reportedly asked for forgiveness from FARC victims, adding, “No one should doubt that we will conduct politics without arms. We are all prepared to disarm in our minds and our hearts.”