Students cheers from the stands during the celebrations for Ghana 65th Independence Day on March 6, 2022. The country gained independence on March 6, 1957. The author of this article recalls his boyhood celebrations — which involved uniforms, marching and a free bottle of soda. Nipah Dennis/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
A patient with AIDS at a community hospital in the Central African Republic. Sub-Saharan Africa has high rates of HIV infection -- and was the location for a trial testing the effectiveness of a new strategy for preventing infection.
Barbara Debout/AFP via Getty Images
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A century-old wrestling competition in Chittagong, Bangladesh, known as Abdul Jabbar's Boli Kheladraws thousands of spectators annually. In this picture from April 24, 2023, two wrestlers go at it on a sandy stage in front of a street audience. Sanchayan Chowdhury hide caption
Eatizaz Yousif, the Sudan country director for the International Rescue Committee, poses for a portrait at NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C. on June 24. She herself was displaced by the conflict a year ago. “As Sudanese, we are pretty resilient," she says, referring to the fighting that has caused 12 million people to flee from their homes. "But this is beyond our resilience." Ben de la Cruz/NPR hide caption
People walk outside the European hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on May 17, amid the ongoing conflict in the Palestinian territory between Israel and the militant group Hamas. AFP/Getty Images hide caption
Fatma Hijazi holds the lifeless body of her 10-year-old child, Mustafa Hijazi, who died due to malnutrition and lack of medication in Deir al-Balah, Gaza. The photo is from June 14. Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images hide caption
An aerial view shows painted circles in the grass to encourage people to keep a distance from each other at Washington Square Park in San Francisco. The photo is from May 22, 2020. Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Bruce Onobrakpeya, a towering figure in modernism, in his home/studio in Lagos, Nigeria. At 91, he has his first Smithsonian solo show. Manny Jefferson/for NPR hide caption
An Afghan boy shovels mud from the courtyard of a house following flash floods after heavy rainfall at a village in Baghlan-e-Markazi district of Baghlan province on May 11, 2024. More than 300 people were killed in flash flooding in Afghanistan's northern province of Baghlan, according to the World Food Programme. ATIF ARYAN/AFP via Getty Images/AFP hide caption
Ansar Khan, 40, whose six-month-old daughter died on late May. He blames the extreme heat.
Ansar Khan
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At a one-day workshop run by the Care School for Men in Bogotá, Colombia, male medical students at Sanitas University learn how to cradle a baby. This class of participants consists of medical students, but the usual enrollees are dads of all types. Ben de la Cruz/NPR hide caption
Rodent trainer Neema Justin, 33, shares a moment with an African giant pouched rat after an exercise in detecting illegal wildlife products at the Apopo training facility in Morogoro, Tanzania. Apopo's staff often form close bonds with their rats. Tommy Trenchard/for NPR hide caption
A health officer collects ducks to be killed at a farm north of Bangkok during Thailand's bird flu outbreak in the early 2000s. A massive culling of fowl was part of the country's strategy to quash the virus. Stringer/AFP/via Getty Images hide caption
In modern times, malaria is thought of as a tropical disease but evidence from ancient bones reveals a different narrative. Above: In Ambowuha, Ethiopia, Birtukan Demissie and her siblings are protected from mosquitoes that carry the disease with a bed net. Joining them is the family cat. Louise Gubb/Corbis Historical via Getty Images hide caption
A UNICEF report reveals more than 180 million children aren't getting anywhere near the nutrition they need. The problem is so severe, the report says, these kids suffer from the devastating effects of malnutrition. Some countries, however, have shown that it is possible to reduce what the report calls child food poverty. Discha-AS/Getty Images hide caption
A fluorescent image of a human body louse with Yersinia pestis infection — that's the cause of the plague — depicted in orange/red in the glands.
plague/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
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Honoré Prentice (in yellow shirt and glasses), who lives in Canada, met three of his birth siblings, who live in the U.S., in person on Dec. 13, 2021. The brothers were all born in Haiti. Family photo/Family photo hide caption
Alok Shukla walks across the Paturiyadand forest of Korba district in India's state of Chhattisgarh. Shukla has led a decade-long grassroots campaign against some of companies seeking to develop coal mines in forested areas. Idrees Mohammed/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
A computer illustration of the multi-drug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii bacteria — one of the pathogens that has gained power as a result of overuse of antibiotics during the pandemic. -/Science Source hide caption
Girls at a primary school in Sheno, Ethiopia. In partnership with UNICEF, the Sheno Primary School developed a program to educate both girls and boys about menstruation — and provide sanitary pads. A new UNICEF report says that only 39% of the world's schools offer such instruction. Zacharias Abubeker/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Mothers participate in a pilot program for one of two new malaria vaccines. Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP via Getty Images hide caption