Jaffna, Sri Lanka

Ramalingam Manoharan welds a curved iron roof for a well in Manipay, a town in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. Manoharan has worked with iron for the past four years, and he earns between 1,500 and 2,000 Sri Lankan rupees ($8 to $10) per day.

Lusaka, Zambia

Wilson Simfukwe makes toy cars from used spray-paint cans alongside Thabo Mbeki Road in Lusaka, Zambia’s capital. “I have sold more toys during the coronavirus pandemic than ever before, because children are usually home and they need to be kept busy,” Simfukwe says. “And these toys are durable, hence a lot of people love them compared to plastic toys.”

Puebla, Mexico

Edgar Ali Morán Alonso, right, and the other members of Zompantli, an ethno-electronica music and performance group, play their song “Chollolan” at the Archeological Zone of Tepalcayotl¬, in the Mexican state of Puebla. Zompantli collaborates with local artisans, who use ancestral knowledge to help design the band’s instruments.

Inuvil, Sri Lanka

Vigneswaran Vidushan collects beets from a gardener in Inuvil, a village in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. He’ll transport the beets to an outer district market for 80 Sri Lankan rupees (40 cents) per bag.

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Mexico

Mario Ruíz Pérez, a licensed nurse, takes Martha Figueroa Mier’s blood pressure in the observation area following her vaccination at the Parque de Feria in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. Health care workers are administering the Sinovac vaccine to the elderly first, through a federal program called Operativo Correcaminos (Operation Roadrunner).

Boudha, Nepal

Yeshe Thinley, a 16-year-old monk, prepares an altar for worship at Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery in Boudha, Nepal. The altar holds a kudung, the body of a religious teacher believed to be sacred after they pass away. Kyabje Chokling Rinpoche died in December 2020, and his kudung will be kept in the monastery for one year so his pupils and disciples can pay their last respects.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Painter Sol Rivero uses a tree as her easel at Parque Rivadavia, a park in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Rivero began to paint outside to share her creative process with the public and spread her name in new places.

Sancha Maya Limbu cleans the walls of the Bhimsen temple amid reconstruction work at Patan Durbar Square in Lalitpur, Nepal. The temple was destroyed in the April 2015 earthquake. Reconstruction began in 2019 but was temporarily halted in 2020 due to COVID-19.

Dalanzadgad, Umnugovi province, Mongolia

Suvd Oyuntsetseg and other teachers and staff at Kindergarten No. 9 wash and disinfect playground equipment after a March 14 dust storm in Dalanzadgad, a city in Mongolia’s Umnugovi province.

Mexico City, Mexico

Rosalba Moreno takes pictures of her son’s dog, Dobby, during Schoener Club, a canine training session in downtown Mexico City. “It’s been difficult for him to learn to obey; he gets really distracted,” says Moreno, who has brought Dobby to five training sessions.

Harare, Zimbabwe

Twinbless Kutsiwa, 10, plays a game called nhodo in Harare, Zimbabwe. She places small pebbles in a hole, throws a bigger pebble in the air, then tries to pull the pebbles out of the hole in time to catch the bigger pebble.

Copoya, Chiapas, Mexico

María Elena Jiménez Tevera harvests cuchunuc flowers in front of her restaurant, Doña Mary, in Copoya, Chiapas, Mexico. Cuchunuc, an edible flower that blooms in the springtime, is used in dishes like quesadillas, pizza and baked tamales.

Erdenet, Orkhon province, Mongolia

Bilegtsaikhan Pagva makes a cutting board for cooking and kneading dough at his home workshop in Erdenet, a city in Mongolia’s Orkhon province. Bilegtsaikhan, who has stomach cancer, makes wooden kitchen tools as a healthier alternative to plastic. “No matter how serious one’s disease is, a person should not abandon his or her wishes and goals in life,” Bilegtsaikhan says with a smile. “One should work hard.”

Masvingo, Zimbabwe

While guarding his maize fields from monkeys, Tawanda Nyorovai passes the time by crushing stones to sell to builders in Masvingo, Zimbabwe. When the maize is ripe, monkeys become a nuisance because they search for food in the fields.

Orkhon Province, Mongolia

Ochgerel Batbayar bottle-feeds a newborn goat at her home in Orkhon, a soum in Mongolia’s Bulgan province. “Sometimes I talk to them as if I am with my friends,” she says with a smile. “It seems to me that they understand my conversations.”

San Luis de Majimachi, Chihuahua, Mexico

María Catalina Nevaréz Cruz weaves a ware, a traditional Rarámuri basket made from the sotol plant, at her home in San Luis de Majimachi, a village in Chihuahua, Mexico. Only 35 people live in the village, all of whom are artisans. Every two weeks, they barter their handicrafts for food at the village’s trade center.

Dalanzadgad, Umnugovi province, Mongolia

Uuriintuya Tumenbayar knits using a traditional Mongolian method called zoos shiree suljmel, or coin table knitting, in Dalanzadgad, a city in Mongolia’s Umnugovi province. Uuriintuya, who was named the best craftswoman in Umnugovi province in 2019, promotes and teaches this method on her website, Ancestral Craft.

Mannar, Sri Lanka

Seltan Maristala, 10, sells vegetables to her brother Seltan Mariyaruban, 12, at MN/Adampan R.C.T.M.S., a school in Sri Lanka’s Mannar district. The school hosts a market once a year to strengthen the students’ math, prediction, and discussion skills. They encourage parents and the community to participate.

Chihuahua, Mexico

Vanesa Cristina González Beltrán cuts paper eyes for piñatas at Piñatas y Dulces Arcoiris, a piñata and candy store in the city of Chihuahua, Chihuahua state, Mexico. González, 19, began piñateria – making piñatas – when she was 16 years old.

Masvingo, Zimbabwe

Freddy Chikwaya and his nieces Rudo Chikwaya, 12, and Mary Chikwaya, 9, warm themselves by a fire as they sell beaded necklaces near Lake Mutirikwi in Masvingo, Zimbabwe. Tourists have been visiting the area less since the coronavirus lockdown began, but Freddy Chikwaya expects things to get better now that the country has started vaccinations.

Nayarit, Mexico

Armando Severiano Chavarría uses bioconstruction techniques to build a home kitchen in Mexico’s Nayarit state. Severiano incorporated bioconstruction into his process seven years ago, after he learned how the construction industry was environmentally invasive and harmful to people’s health.

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Nurse Baigalmaa Sukhbaatar tests Gantumur Naranmandmar for the coronavirus using a polymerase chain reaction test at School No. 133 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The government recommended that all essential workers get tested, and on this day, workers at this site tested as many as 1,000 citizens.

Inuvil, Sri Lanka

Sundaram Baladevan plows the soil at a tobacco plantation in Inuvil, a village in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. Egrets, a type of heron, wait to eat the earthworms and insects he uncovers.

Erdenet, Orkhon province, Mongolia

From left, Munkh-Erdene Dalantai, Molor-Erdene Munkh-Erdene, Enkhzaya Bayanjargal and Enkhtsatsral Munkh-Erdene play shagai, a traditional Mongolian anklebone game, in Erdenet, a city in Mongolia’s Orkhon province. The object of the game is to make an alag melkhii, or multicolored turtle. The family plays shagai every night to temporarily distance the children from television and mobile phone screens.