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Welcome to October...
🎃 October is National Book Month! This annual, month-long event honors the power of reading and writing, and we can all join in celebrating by reading books, supporting others’ rights to read books, making the choice to support independent bookstores, and more!
❤️ October is also AIDS Awareness Month, a time to spread knowledge, fight stigma and misinformation, and support the over 37 million people around the world impacted by AIDS — and that’s an area we actually have a lot to celebrate! (Keep reading for even more.)
A new ‘autism-friendly’ restaurant in North Carolina is making sure all its guests feel welcome
Jim Gordon owns the Peninsula Prime restaurant in Cornelius, North Carolina. His daughter also has autism, and he wanted to make sure she and other autistic people feel welcome and supported at the steakhouse.
The restaurant recently announced it would be an “autism-friendly” dining destination by offering sensory kits, a menu with pictures to allow customers with nonspeaking autism to point to their order, and generally providing a welcoming environment.
Gordon emphasized the need for more establishments to move past autism awareness to autism acceptance, and accommodations like these help get us there.
Why is this good news? Families and experts agree that this kind of support makes them feel welcome, considered, and cared for. One family whose son is autistic said they didn’t go out to eat for five years after his diagnosis, but this move communicates, “Please come have dinner at our restaurant because we’re going to meet your needs.”
Despite only giving a small share of its income, foreign aid from the US has saved millions of lives each year
In 2023, the U.S. was the largest foreign aid donor, giving $62 billion — about the same as the next three largest donors, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom, combined.
This only represented 0.24% of gross national income, the smallest share of any of the ten countries that gave the most, but had a massive impact: saving an estimated 3.3 million people every year.
While it’s difficult to precisely determine the number of lives saved, researchers at Our World In Data’s “best estimate” found that AIDS programs saved the largest number of lives at over 1.5 million per year. Vaccines, tuberculosis, malaria, and humanitarian response saved between a quarter and half a million lives.
Some nuance: This impact was thanks in large part to USAID, which made up about 61% of the country’s foreign assistance. The Trump administration has completely dismantled the program, but people like Jane Goodall are helping ensure its work continues to make an impact.
Sit, stay, and snuggle up with ... The Dogs Edition!
In the pages of this Goodnewspaper, you’ll read about dogs doing good — and humans doing good for dogs.
And it’s not all fluff, either: You’ll learn ways to decrease your pup’s carbon “pawprint,” about volunteer vets that make sure homeless dogs (and their humans) get the care they need, and about dog jobs that help people and the planet, and more.
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