San Pedro Pochutla, Oaxaca, Mexico

Carlo Magno sculpts with clay collected from a nearby hill in San Bartolo Coyotepec, a town in Oaxaca, Mexico. After molding, the clay goes through a special firing process that gives local ceramics a distinctive black color.

Erdenet, Orkhon Province, Mongolia

Tuvshinjargal Batsukh, an actress at the Children and Youth Theater in Orkhon province, reads books to children during a book festival held at Amar Square, in Erdenet, Mongolia. Tuvshinjargal participated to encourage parents to read to their children.

Puebla, Puebla, Mexico

Axel Cervantes, 11, prepares his favorite meal – sausages with potatoes, tomatoes and chipotle peppers – at his home in Puebla, Mexico. Axel learned to cook during the pandemic, when his mother had to take an afternoon shift at her job. “I used to be scared to light the stove, and I didn’t know how to use the blender,” he says. “Now I know how to make the meals I like, and I think they turn out really well.”

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

To promote traditional Mongolian script through art, Sergelen Bayasgalan, left, and Togtuun Erdenebileg paint a poem in the script along with a portrait of the author, Rinchen Byambyn, a founder of modern Mongolian literature, on a wall in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The poem reads, “Although there are many beautiful places in this colorful universe / There is no place more beautiful than my native land / Although every language is great to study virtue / There is no greater language than our mother tongue.”

Mexico City, Mexico

Dentists Jesús Godínez, left, and Mónica García inspect the teeth of Mateo Gómez, 7, at Kids Dental, a dentist’s office in Azcapotzalco, Mexico City. Mateo’s mother brought him in because of intense pain in one of his molars. Mateo was nervous about the visit, so the dentists put on a movie and tried to make him feel comfortable.

Rusike Zimbabwe

Dorothy Chishiri cuts dried branches from the shrubs around her home in Rusike, a rural area east of Harare, Zimbabwe. Chishiri says firewood is scarce in this part of the village and at times she has had to walk more than 20 kilometers (12 miles) in search of firewood.

Tecámac, Mexico

Oscar Espinoza tends to products at his antique shop, El Precio del Tiempo, one of the few antique stores in Tecámac, in the state of Mexico. “This sells really well in Coyoacán, San Ángel, La Roma (Mexico City), but it’s difficult here, especially right now,” Espinoza says. “People prefer to spend their money on food and health, not on things like this.”

Khuvsgul, Mongolia

Ganbold Lkhamaa compresses cans and plastic bags and containers with a machine at his home in Mongolia’s Khuvsgul province. Since there isn’t a location to recycle waste in Khuvsgul, for the past 10 years Ganbold has bought recyclable waste to compress and transport to a recycling center in Ulaanbaatar, the capital city.

Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico

Ramón Torres makes shoes at his shop in downtown Guadalajara. Torres, 75, has worked in shoemaking since he was 8 years old. He has noticed that local shoe quality has declined over the years with the introduction of synthetic materials – although, he notes, prices have remained about the same.

Kampala, Uganda

Kamushwa Sunday, left, and Rubandamayonza Daniel cast a net into Lake Victoria, in Kampala, Uganda, where they hope to catch fish overnight.

Chihuahua, Mexico

The plaza outside the Cathedral of Chihuahua in Chihuahua, Mexico, usually bustles with older adults who pass time on the benches and families who come to shop at the mobile vendors. The plaza has been closed since November due to the spread of the coronavirus.

San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico

Ivette Gutiérrez makes a necklace at her workshop in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico. Gutiérrez designs and creates clothing and accessories with recycled material. “Any piece of material, broken necklace or unworn dress,” she says, “can be turned into a piece of recycled art and have a new life.”

Tixtla de Guerrero Mexico

Leonardo López Martínez cuts terciopelo and cempasúchil, also known as Mexican marigold, flowers to sell in Tixtla de Guerrero, a town in Mexico’s Guerrero state.

Mexico City, Mexico

Rubén Hernández Medina, 62, a public bus driver since the age of 18, lives with his wife and two children in Mexico City, Mexico. Since the coronavirus pandemic started, he’s lost 25 kilograms (55 pounds) because he sometimes skips meals so his children can eat more. Public transport ridership went down 75% due to school and office closures. “I’m going to ask God for this to change at least a little bit, even just 50% ... I think with that we’d be on the other side,” he says. “And I think that behind us there are people who are even worse off than we are. We complain, but we need to ask God to help them and to help us.”

Chihuahua, Mexico

Victor Olivas lifts weights outside a gym in Chihuahua, Mexico. Some gyms have reopened with outdoor activities in the wake of the coronavirus shutdown.

Mayagüez, Puerto Rico

Jacqueline Villarubia practices the drum at a small art studio in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. This drum is a key instrument in bomba, a genre of music with roots in Africa and now traditional to Puerto Rico. Villarubia wanted to understand the genre and decided to take private classes to learn the basics. She practiced a rhythm called calindá first, and later one called holandés, which is characteristic of Mayagüez, on the western part of the island.

San Pablo Villa de Mitla Oaxaca Mexico

Arturo Hernández makes a shawl with a homemade spinning wheel in San Pablo Villa de Mitla, a town in Mexico’s Oaxaca state. Hernández began to learn the art of weaving when he was seven years old. Today, he is a master Zapotec weaver.

Murun, Khuvsgul Province, Mongolia

Erdenechimeg Enkhbat spots Uranbayar Delgermaa, 10, during a contortion class at the Contortion Center at the Children’s Palace in Murun, a city in Mongolia’s Khuvsgul province. According to a 2013 order from the Minister of Education, Culture, Science and Sports, contortionism is on the national register of Mongolia’s intangible cultural heritages – and urgently needs to be preserved.

Moca Puerto Rico

Ada Hernández works on a piece of mundillo lace in Moca, a town in western Puerto Rico. As she moves the bobbins, cotton threads intertwine to make the lace. The threads are then held in place with pins to maintain the spacing of the pattern. Hernández has been making mundillo lace for more than 50 years.

Cheddikulam, Sri Lanka

Chandran Sasikaran, left, and Tharmalingam Thileepan construct wire cages for the framework of a new shop in Cheddikulam, a small town in Sri Lanka’s Vavuniya province.

Santo Tomás Jalieza Oaxaca Mexico

Crispina Navarro weaves on a backstrap loom in Santo Tomás Jalieza, a town in Mexico’s Oaxaca state. In this southwestern community, girls learn to weave on these traditional looms from a young age.

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Gegeen Amgalan, 13, fills a bottle with lip gloss at her home in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Gegeen learned how to make lip gloss in March by watching videos online. She’s used her free time during the coronavirus pandemic to perfect her product, adding flower petals to change the flavors.

Kirumba, DRC

Mwindiki Victoire, left, and Héritier Mumbere plow a field to prepare to plant cassava in Kasando, a neighborhood in Kirumba, Democratic Republic of Congo. Most Kirumba residents grow cassava, which is a food staple.

James Kakuru spreads mud over wattle to construct a home in Kyarenga, a village in Uganda’s Isingiro district.