- welcome to teen kids news, i'm veronique. let's begin with our top story for this week. access to good medical care is something we take for granted in this county. after all, if we have an accident or illness that requires surgery, no matter where you are in america, there's probably a qualified hospital nearby. but as amelia reports, that's not the case around the world. - when olivia waaben was a high school freshman, she spent two weeks in the hospital. the experience opened her eyes to a scary statistic. two out of three people on this planet don't have access to safe surgical care. that's about five billion people. realizing how lucky she was to live in the united states, olivia became a girl with a mission. and here she is to tell us about it,

along with her friend skyler troast. hi. - hi. - hello. - olivia, even before you went into the hospital, you were already involved with an international organization that provides medical care. - yes. that organization is operation smile, and operation smile is an international children's medical charity that repairs cleft lips and cleft palates in developing nations. often, these children with their facial deformities will suffer from a variety of physical and emotional effects, but operation smile steps in to help heal their smiles across the world. - specifically, what is a cleft lip or a cleft palate? - so a cleft lip or a cleft palate is simply a unilateral or a bilateral gap in their mouth, that causes them to have malnutrition, to be shunned by their community, and sometimes not even be able to go to school, so it's really important that operation smile provides them access to proper medical care so that they can live a normal life. - and skyler, how did you get involved with operation smile? - i got involved with operation smile my sophomore year of high school, when i just heard about the club

through a few friends. i attended my first meeting, and i learned about the organization and how they raise money and provide surgical care to those who have cleft lip, cleft palate, and other facial deformities. it was then that i grew such a love for operation smile that i was motivated to take advantage of all the opportunities available to students that operation smile makes. - olivia, what happened during your time in the hospital that made you aware that safe surgery was such a problem around the world? - yeah, so i remember one night in particular, a nurse wheeled me out to this beautiful atrium, and i could see all the different rooms in the hospital, and i began to think about the tons of illnesses, diseases, and disorders all the kids in the hospital have, and how we're so lucky to be in a place where we have access to proper medical care, but then i thought about all the kids who weren't in the hospital, all the kids around the world who can't even see a doctor, and that made me think about how fortunate i am to have proper medical care, and how it's just, at the end of the day, a fundamental human right. - so you wanted to take action,

what were some of the things you did? - when i got back to school i immediately threw myself in the organization and organized girl scout workshops. service projects like smile bags, which are just simply a bag with donations to give to children after their surgeries. i made smile dolls, which help comfort the kids after their surgeries and beforehand as well. and also hosted leadership summits across new jersey. - skyler, you're president of your school's operation smile club. what are the goals of that club? - one of the main goals is to educate students about operation smile and to raise awareness throughout our community. i try to ensure that all the students know that there are other problems outside the united states that they might not be aware of, and that it's our job as students to take initiative to better these problems and to help out, in the ways that we can. - you got to see operation smile in action when you went to peru as part of a medical mission. - yeah, i got to see operation smile impact on the families as they go through the surgical process. i got to see individuals go through pre-screening, post-op, pre-op, and even leave with a beautiful,

beautiful smile. while i was there i noticed that the hospitals didn't have the same setup as we do in the us. and that really affected me because i can go to the hospital any second i want to and receive amazing surgical care, things accessible to them. and while people in peru do not have the same - olivia, tell us about the campaign called until we heal. - yes, of course. so, it might seem complex, but until we heal is pre it's this idea that there's five billion who lack access to surgical care worldwide. and we won't stop until we heal each and every child. this is a primarily youth-led movement with support from doctors and celebrities. so we're really trying to get a chain reaction going to involve as many people as possible - what results have you achieved so far?

tons of kids and students create events,edia, and other activities to help people get involved in on the new jersey level, skylar and i have organized a t-shirt campaign where we had kids purchase shirts that they then posted pictures of on social media, on nj until we heal day, and finally we hosted ournew jet where we had doctors, students, and medical professionals come and brainstorm ways to spreaaround the country?ther.ts if they want to get involved, what suggestion can you make? - the biggest suggestion to go to untilweheal.org. there's tons of information about how to get involved, and the types of events. - great talking with you both. thanks for joining us! - thank you. - thank you. - until we heal, clear proof that no matter how big a problem may be, something can always be done to make things a bit better. it all starts with a desire and commitment to take action. for more information, follow the link on our website. for teen kids news, i'm amelia. - in make the grade, i'll tell you a fun way

to build your vocabulary. teen kids news will be right back. - [announcer] closed captioning is brought to you by,

- do you sometimes feel overwhelmed with all the work you have to do for school? well, christin's here to help, with this week's make the grade. - okay, here's the clue, nine letters. a game that can help you build your vocabulary. got it! c, r, o, s, s, w, o, r, d.

crossword! what's really great about crossword puzzles is that you're learning vocabulary while having fun. and you can do them just about anywhere. there are crossword puzzles in many newspapers. but they may be a bit difficult for beginners. whether you play online, or buy a book of crosswords, you can find puzzles that range in difficulty from easy, to medium, to challenging. as you learn new words, keep a running list. not only will this help you on future puzzles, reviewing the list will build your vocabulary as well. crosswords are fun to do with your friends. in fact, it can even be a great ice-breaker. steve, what's a four letter word for a social occasion, usually for two? oh thanks! d, a, t, e, date! think he'll get the hint? i'm christin, here to help you make the grade! - every state has one, but most of us don't know why they look the way they do.

here's eric with flag facts. (upbeat drum music) - in 1886 france gave the u.s. a gift to symbolize friendship and independence. officially named liberty enlightening the world, we call it the statue of liberty. and she proudly stands at the entrance to new york harbor. the concept of liberty is an important symbol for new york. - [randy] the flag of new york comes from the state seal, and it features both liberty and justice. - [eric] the roman goddess liberty holds a staff with a cap on it. known as a liberty cap, it symbolizes freedom from slavery. a discarded crown at liberty's feet represents another type of freedom, america's independence from england. the goddess justice is blindfolded to show that justice is blind to race, religion and income. scales represent equality for all, while the raised sword

points out the willingness to fight for it. - in the middle of the flag, you see the hudson river, and on the hudson river river, two boats meant to represent commerce. atop the state seal is an eagle sitting on a globe. the globe shows the western hemisphere and that was meant to represent the new world. and new york's important place as a port city in the development of the new world. - [eric] finally, the word excelsior encourages new yorkers to reach ever higher to achieve their goals. maybe that's why new york city has so many skyscrapers. just about everyone knows manhattan, new york is called the big apple. but did you know that manhattan, kansas has a similar nickname? it's called the little apple. with flag facts, i'm eric. (horn and drum music) (loud crashing) - if you live in oklahoma and own a donkey, be careful.

it's against the law to let your donkey sleep in your bathtub. but only after seven at night. apparently it's okay for your donkey to nap in the tub during the day. - coming up, we'll walk the walls of england's historic city of york. most popular cities for tourists to visit. nicole tells us more. ('god save the queen') (orchestral music) - when you wander along the quaint streets of york, it's hard to imagine that its history was far less colorful. lining these stone lanes, called snickleways, used to be butcher shops. sanitation was non-existent back then, so the butchers just tossed the unwanted parts onto the street, which was called shambles street.

all that blood and guts made quite a mess. and that gave us a word we still use today. when something is in great disorder, we say it's in a shambles. (band music) fortunately, as the town grew, the butcher shops were replaced by chocolate makers. york became famous for its sweets. since many people in the days of yore were illiterate, it was the custom for shops to identify themselves by hanging signs with pictures. rising above the roof tops are the towers of the largest gothic cathedral in northern europe. called york minster, it took two centuries to build the ornate church. but the town's most unique feature is the protective wall that encircles the old section. and it's a wall that the public is welcome to walk on. the first walls were built by the romans in 71 a.d.,

then rebuilt by the english in the 12th century. strolling along the old walls is a popular attraction for tourists and locals alike. it's great, it brings you around all the sites so you can pretty much see everything, 'cause it brings you around the whole city. the walls make a circuit that runs about 2 1/2 miles. along the way, there are gates and guardhouses. now there are houses outside the old walls. but back in the day, an army of vikings might have been camped there, preparing to attack. they cut holes in the walls so that the archers could fire their arrows at the enemy. these were called loopholes, a term still used today as in a loophole in a contract or a video game. the ancient walls were built to keep first the roman soldiers and then the townspeople safe. it must still be working. according to a travel survey, york is one of the world's safest places to visit.

in york, for teen/kids news, i'm nicole. (audience cheering) - the boston red sox have eight world series titles. but they won no world series from 1918 to 2004. why you ask? well people speculated that the reason that the red sox were not winning world series was because they sold babe ruth to the new york yankees. thus, this world series drought was nicknamed the curse of the bambino. the red sox had chances to break this curse in 1946, 1967, 1975 and 1986, but they lost all those world series. however, the red sox finally broke the curse of the bambino in 2004 with a world series sweep of the st. louis cardinals. i'm matt with teen kids news. - this important message is brought to you by the national road safety foundation. they want you to keep your hands on the wheel, your eyes on the road and your mind on driving.

(soft electronic music) (glass shattering) (electronic music) - i'll show you how a bag is changing lives around the world. teen kids news will be right back.

- here's what's coming up on teen kids news this week. - i'll tell you why there's blindfolded woman on one of our state flags. - plus much more on teen kids news. (rock music)

of the things we use every day. but there are simple things even teens help make a difference.

eden tells us more. - when we're hungry, it's easy to cook something on the stove or in a microwave. but for many people around the world, that's just not possible. not only don't they have microwaves and stoves, they don't have the electricity needed to power them. but there's a pretty amazing invention that can do the job without needing to plug anything in. it's one of the incredible devices in the book "100 tools for empowering global women." and it was written by betsy teusch. welcome back. - great to be here, thanks. - you call this tool the wonderbag. how does it work? - the wonderbag is an insulated bag for cooking in, they call it a fire-less cooker. it's kind of like a crock pot, but it doesn't require any electricity and that's important in places where people don't have any electricity. so you boil a pot of soup, i made mine this morning

on a gas stove, but in the developing world you do that over a camp fire really, that's how people cook and then once it's to a boil, you tuck it right in this bag, very tight and you pull the string and then you leave it for several hours and just like a crock pot, the soup will cook. so we're gonna see if it worked. first i just loosen up this and then i take this top off and then you see a pot of soup and it's still really, really hot. i'm gonna put this down. it saves a lot of fuel and also, when your not cooking over a fire, the food doesn't burn and that makes it much easier to clean up afterwards. because as you can imagine, if you don't have running water, it's really a pain to clean your dishes.

so here's what the soup looks like and i can tell you that it smells really great and it is steaming, even though its been in here for about five hours by now and i'm going to give it a taste and we'll see. yum. - that sure does look good. so this actually isn't a new invention, but rather a technique that's been around a long time? - it's an ancient technique, sometimes they dig a hole in the earth and put a pot in it and that will insulate it. you can make your own at home. you can just take a box, like a carton and a sleeping bag, bring your food to a boil and put your food right in and cover it up tight and leave it and you will save a lot of fuel. it's a great way to fight global warming and for girls in the developing world that have to go collect that wood to cook food, it saves them a lot of time and they can be in school.

- so how can american teens help girls in other countries get wonderbags? - well, there's a wonderful company called wonderbag, and if you go to their website, you can buy one and then one is donated, so one will come to your house, maybe you want to give it to your mom for mothers day or something, and use it yourself and then one is donated to people in south africa, where they have a lot of poverty. - thanks betsy. we'll see you again soon. - bye bye. - the wonderbag, truly a wonderful way to help others. for teen kids news, i'm eden. - coming up, we'll show you how to speak dog. (electronic music)

if you know what to look for. brandon continues our series on dog body language. - can you tell if your dog is loving, tolerating, or hating something? the clues are in the dog's body language. to help us learn to speak dog we welcome back robin bennett and susan briggs, the dog gurus. hi. - hi! - hi, it's great to be with you. - susan, so where do we start? - well let's start with the mouth. is the mouth open, which means usually the dog is loving the interactions, or is the mouth closed, which is your first clue that they may be tolerating or moving towards hating an, an encounter. the other thing is, you know when we get uncomfortable we kinda have signs that we're stressed a little bit,

well so do dogs. so they may lick their lips or they may even yawn. those are clues that the dog may just be tolerating the situation that they're in right now. - robin, how about when a dog jumps on you, does that just mean he's happy to see you? - well if you just came home from school, it might mean he's just happy to see you. but if he's in a new environment and he's jumping on you a lot and you've been with him the whole time, it might be him saying, hey i really need help, can you get me out of here. it might mean that he's really starting to get upset with the situation and wants to go home. - susan, let's talk about sniffing and scratching. do they have special significance? - well, they do and it can mean that the dog just has an itch with a flea or he's smelling something interesting, but sometimes you'll notice that your dog may sniff or scratch when you know he doesn't have those things. and what it can mean, it kinda goes back to those stress signals that they're uncomfortable and really trying to determine if this situation is safe or not. so it's really a sign that they're a little bit uncomfortable. - robin, if your dog is signaling it's not comfortable

in a situation, what can we do? - well one of the easiest things to do is just move some distance between you and your dog and whatever it is that might be scaring him. so just back away or take him down the street a little bit. another thing you can do is if you can't get away, you can just step in between your dog and whatever it is he might be afraid of. so those are two really good options, if you happen to have something really fun or tasty that your dog can play with or eat, you can try that too. so try just distracting your dog, get him to do something else, take some treats from you, throw a ball for him, run around and play with him, just get him to think about something other than what is worrying him. - alright, great advice. thanks susan and robin. - you're welcome, thanks for having us. - it's great to be here with you. - one of the best quotes about dogs comes from the american writer josh billings. he said, "a dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself." next to your parents, of course. anyway, a dog's love is a two-way street. you have a responsibility to treat your dog with love and respect as well.

- that wraps up our show. but we'll have more teen kids news for you next week. so make sure you tune in! (rock music) - [announcer] write to us at info@teenkidsnews.com

alex: coming next, the austin zoo helps injured and abandoned critters. plus, attempting to save stranded pigs. and a puppy in trouble. this is "animal rescue."