Zimbabwe is experiencing a major gas shortage. Social media platforms like WhatsApp are countering its worst effects.

Researchers at Qatar University in Doha are programming robots to make autistic children feel more comfortable around other people.

And they’re helping a region of Morocco recover from drought.

Almost the entire moringa tree is edible (and it’s a “superfood”), it makes a great soap, and it thrives in the grim climates of the future.

Over the last ten years, the population of African elephants has decreased by 24 percent, mostly due to poachers.

On the “Sneakernet,” files and media are sold, physically, by street vendors. It’s often more efficient than using 3G or a low-speed broadband.

A Q&A with scholar and programmer Xiaowei Wang on her upcoming book, Tech Goes Down to the Country.

This is a surprisingly difficult thing for urban developers to do.

Much of the world doesn’t have access to vaccines for one solvable reason: transportation logistics.

Tepmachcha is an open-source flood detector designed for Cambodia.

In Azerbaijan, government-sponsored harassment drives dissidents off the internet.

Fake news stories spread like wildfire on messaging service WhatsApp — and there’s no easy way to stop it.

Researchers believe that sediment and silt from man-made lakes can turn deserts into forests.

With more than 5 million solar-home systems, all Bangladeshis need is a shared power grid. SolShare helps redistribute the surplus energy.

It’s way more than you think.

Apps like SafeCity and #WalkFreely help users around the world report locations of abuse and harassment.

Repairing ocean levels, rising temperatures, and pollution is another story.

Technologist and venture capitalist Kai-Fu Lee talks WeChat, AI, and how the Chinese government finally encouraged entrepreneurship.

SaveMom is a new wearable app that helps expectant mothers in rural areas keep track of their and their baby’s health when doctors are far away.

At least two women have been arrested for accusing state officials of harassment.

Most farms in Ghana are small operations, and middlemen often take advantage. AgroCenta is a mobile platform that helps farmers avoid exploitation.

And they deliver medical resources to poor and rural hospitals during one of India’s worst blood shortages.

TIMBY is an encrypted app that helps Kenya’s Sengwer people report on escalating government violence.

The conditions are perfect. So why isn’t it?

CGNet Swara delivers local news over the phone to residents of central India, where only 3 percent of residents have internet.

Tierras Indigenas gives Paraguayans the data over who rightfully owns land areas, and who has a claim to its use.

Over the next month, we’ll be exploring stories about how technology is being used around the world to make the planet better.