A midwife assesses a pregnant woman at a mobile health clinic in Afghanistan. In the wake of the freeze of USAID, some 200 clinics in the country have had to close. Midwives told NPR that it's now more difficult for pregnant women, especially in remote areas, to get medical care in case of a crisis. Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption
Dr. Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, photographed at NPR headquarters during a visit to Washington, D.C., in March. In the wake of the Trump administration's foreign aid cuts, he tells colleagues: "It's like you are a child. You had a wealthy father. One day, you wake up and they say, 'Oh, your father had an accident. He passed on.' Then you have to survive. You have to find a way to survive." Ben de la Cruz/NPR hide caption
The site of a former lead and zinc mine in Kabwe, Zambia. Thirty years after the closure of the mine, the land remains highly contaminated — and artisanal miners continue to work here, exposing themselves daily to dangerously high levels of lead. Tommy Trenchard for NPR hide caption
"USAID" is etched onto a covering where signage used to be at the U.S. Agency for International Development's headquarters in Washington, D.C. Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption
A health care worker administers a measles vaccine to a child at a temporary vaccination camp following an outbreak in Mumbai. India is among the countries that get vaccination support from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, whose USAID funding has been terminated. Vijay Bate/Hindustan Times via Getty Images/Hindustan Times hide caption
Susan Anderson began using skin lightening creams at age 12. Now 52, she has stopped using the products but her skin shows the damage they caused. Yagazie Emezi for NPR hide caption
Pete Marocco (center), who served as deputy administrator for USAID in the new Trump administration until last week, arrives at Capitol Hill on March 5 to meet with members of Congress to discuss foreign assistance. He was on staff at the agency during the first Trump administration — and both times sought to cut many of its programs. Kent Nishimura//Reuters hide caption
Saadia Faruqi, a popular young adult author, says her new book, The Strongest Heart, is a book she wished she could have read when she was growing up and coping with her father's mental illness. Saadia Faruqi hide caption
The boy and bird are, of course, not really flying together. But ... they are both airborne. The child is jumping into the Chao Phraya river in Bangkok, Thailand, during a heatwave in February 2024. Photographer Andre Malerba notes: "This image recalls the free feeling of leaping from several times one's height into water to escape the heat as friends laugh and cheer you on. A time many of us might remember as when we felt truly whole and at peace, even if life wasn't perfect. It's always worth realizing that this version of ourselves still exists somewhere inside and to let that lend us a sense of well-being that can never be taken away."
Andre Malerba / The Everyday Projects/
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A schoolgirl waits to receive a measles vaccine at a school in Baghdad as part of a vaccination campaign for students across Iraq. Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP via Getty Images/AFP hide caption
A pregnant woman brought her child to a health clinic in Farchana, Chad. They are sitting under a mosquito net. Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption
Measles is spreading in West Texas and New Mexico. Isolated cases mostly linked to international travel have been reported in about a dozen other states. Bilanol/Getty Images hide caption
GAZA CITY - March 14, 2025. On the right, 12-year-old Nimer Saddy al-Nimer sits with his mother Badir Al-Dujja Al-Nimer and his 4-year-old sister Seedra Saddy Al-Nimer. Wearing a knee brace, Nimer still finds it difficult to walk a year after being shot five times by the Israeli military when he was collecting food aid. Anas Baba/NPR hide caption
Children of Hani al-Farra. They went missing along with their mother in 2013. Hani al-Farra hide caption
