Ten-month-old Ahmin Esas, who was born with clubfoot, shares a moment with his mother and brother in the family's home near Battambang, Cambodia. As a single parent with limited means, his mother, Pho Sok overcame many challenges to ensure her son could receive the treatment he needed. Tommy Trenchard for NPR hide caption
Left to right: Barbies in India; Maya softball players in Mexico; walking on a frozen fountain in the mountains of Pakistan, where efforts are underway to revive the ancient art of glacier mating. Anushree Bhatter for NPR, Bénédicte Desrus; Diaa Hadid/NPR hide caption
Palestinian children, having fled the Israeli bombing of the northern Gaza Strip in response to the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, are living in temporary shelters at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. Global health groups say they are doing what they can to keep a lid on infectious diseases amid crowded, unsanitary conditions and a devastated health-care system. Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Reuters Connect hide caption
tk Sahat Zia Hero, hide caption
A young girl in the courtyard of Nigeria's Sokoto Noma Hospital. She arrived with her mother for reconstructive operations, including a skin graft taken from her chest to replace tissue destroyed by noma. Claire Jeantet and Fabrice Caterini / Inediz hide caption
Hamidullah Nadeem, an Afghan climate advocate, attended the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit in Dubai as part of his university delegation. He was on a mission to get help for his homeland in the face of climate-related droughts and floods. Christopher Pike for NPR hide caption
Manzanas del Cuidado, el programa para cuidadoras, encomendó la realización de murales en honor a Ruth Infante (izquierda) y Rita Salamanca por el importante papel que desempeñan como cuidadoras en la comunidad. Los murales están expuestos en una escuela del centro de San Cristóbal. Ben de la Cruz/NPR hide caption
Images from some of our most popular global stories of 2023 (left to right): A woman from Brazil's Awa people holds her bow and arrow after a hunt; an artificial intelligence program made this fake photo to fulfill a request for "doctors help children in Africa" â AI added the giraffe; researchers are learning that a stranger's hello can do more than just brighten your day. Scott Wallace/Getty Images, Midjourney Bot Version 5.1. Annotation by NPR, David Rowland/AP hide caption
Mosquitoes can carry viruses including dengue, malaria, chikungunya and Zika. They are a growing public health threat abroad and in the United States. Rick Bowmer/AP hide caption
The world may be out of the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic, but humans still share the globe with countless pathogens. Here are some of the ways viruses shaped 2023. Olivia Taussig-Rees for NPR hide caption
An Israeli air strike damaged this ambulance in front of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on November 3. Israel said the vehicle was "identified ... as being used by a Hamas terrorist cell" and that a "number of Hamas terrorist operatives were killed." Hamas denied the presence of fighters in the ambulance convoy, calling the claims "baseless." Momen Al-Halabi AFP via Getty Images hide caption