Two of our favourite hidden gems function goats who take no guff and an ice sculptor from Kenya who defied skeptics.

Forest P. Hayes; Michael Kaloki

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Forest P. Hayes; Michael Kaloki

Two of our favourite hidden gems function goats who take no guff and an ice sculptor from Kenya who defied skeptics.

Forest P. Hayes; Michael Kaloki

Dear readers, we’re grateful that so lots of you — thousands and thousands of you — learn our tales every year.

And after all we adore it when a narrative will get an enormous variety of web page views.

But web page views aren’t the one measure of a narrative’s on-line success. There’s additionally “time on page.” Do readers click on on a publish for a nanosecond, then jump over to Amazon to purchase some matcha tea? Or do they learn during?

So sure, it’s deeply satisfying to know that readers discovered a narrative and stayed with it. But we will not assist however want there had been extra devoted readers.

So the editors of our weblog are shining a highlight on “high engagement” tales from 2022 that we predict deserve extra web page views. Some of the posts are sobering. Some are inspiring. And some are simply plain enjoyable.

You’ll examine a younger man in Kenya who improbably determined to attempt his hand at ice sculpting — hoping to ship a message about local weather change. A nurse in Liberia who was pissed off that hospitals demanded pregnant girls deliver a expensive bag of provides for admission — and got here up with an answer. And a deeply transferring probability encounter that our visuals editor Pierre Kattar had on the streets of Rome with an Afghan schoolteacher.

Here are 8 of our favourite hidden gems from 2022 that we hope you may click on on because the 12 months involves a detailed.

Climate change gave a Kenyan youth a ‘crazy’ idea: Become a world-class ice sculptor

Ice sculpting and tropical warmth do not often go collectively, till Kenyan journalist Michael Kaloki determined to do one thing “crazy”: type a group to symbolize Africa on the Quebec Winter Carnival. Published on November 26, 2022

Michael Kaloki of Kenya defied the doubters and took up ice sculpting and snow carving to ship a message about local weather change. He gained a prize in Quebec and competed on the Helsinki Zoo International Ice Carving Festival.

Michael Kaloki

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Michael Kaloki

Michael Kaloki of Kenya defied the doubters and took up ice sculpting and snow carving to ship a message about local weather change. He gained a prize in Quebec and competed on the Helsinki Zoo International Ice Carving Festival.

Michael Kaloki

‘Comfort Closet’ helps Liberians overcome an obstacle to delivering in a hospital

Public hospitals in Liberia might require a bag of provides to achieve admission for supply: bleach, child garments, diapers. The $100 price ticket is an excessive amount of for the poor. One nurse has an answer. Published on October 15, 2022.

Yassah Levelah, a nurse from Liberia, began the “Comfort Closet” to supply provides that pregnant girls should deliver to a public hospital to achieve admission for childbirth. Currently incomes a grasp’s diploma in social work at Temple University in Philadephia, Lavelah is stocking up on provides to deliver residence for her charity challenge. At proper: Lavelah’s Comfort Closet.

Joel R. Dennis (left), Maima Cooper

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Joel R. Dennis (left), Maima Cooper

Yassah Levelah, a nurse from Liberia, began the “Comfort Closet” to supply provides that pregnant girls should deliver to a public hospital to achieve admission for childbirth. Currently incomes a grasp’s diploma in social work at Temple University in Philadephia, Lavelah is stocking up on provides to deliver residence for her charity challenge. At proper: Lavelah’s Comfort Closet.

Joel R. Dennis (left), Maima Cooper

‘I was their teacher’: A chance encounter as Afghans protest after a suicide bombing

Pierre Kattar edited the images for an NPR story about two of the youngsters killed within the Sept. 30 assault. On Oct. 10, he went to an illustration in Rome and made an surprising connection. Published on November 1, 2022.

Mohammad Jan Azad (left) and Hamidullah Hussaini (proper), maintain a poster with faces of the women killed in a suicide assault on the Kaaj Learning Center in an ethnic Hazara part of Kabul. I acknowledged the 2 younger girls within the higher left nook. Per week earlier than, I’d edited the images for an NPR story about Marzia Mohammadi (left) and her cousin, Hajar Mohammadi. Hussaini was their math trainer.

Pierre Kattar

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Pierre Kattar

Food insecurity is driving women in Africa into sex work, increasing HIV risk

A examine discovered that giving direct meals help to girls and women in sub-Saharan Africa reduce their threat of contracting HIV by 64%, as a result of it alleviated the strain to interact in high-risk intercourse. Published on November 11, 2022.

‘Scream for Me, Africa!’: How the continent is reinventing heavy metal music

Africa’s metalheads have a daring imaginative and prescient. We speak to Edward Banchs, writer of a brand new guide about Africa’s metallic scene, and to a heavy metallic singer in Botswana generally known as “Vulture.” Published on August 7, 2022.

A screenshot from a music video depicting members of the Botswana heavy metallic band, Overthrust. Tshomarelo “Vulture” Mosaka, the lead vocalist, backside middle, talks to NPR about why his nation has been a powerhouse within the African heavy metallic music scene.

Youtube

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Youtube

A screenshot from a music video depicting members of the Botswana heavy metallic band, Overthrust. Tshomarelo “Vulture” Mosaka, the lead vocalist, backside middle, talks to NPR about why his nation has been a powerhouse within the African heavy metallic music scene.

Youtube

A $2.5 million prize gives this humanitarian group more power to halt human suffering

Jan Egeland of the Norwegian Refugee Council, which has been awarded the Hilton Humanitarian Prize for serving to thousands and thousands in disaster, talks about unprecedented challenges and desires of a greater future. Published on October 20, 2022.

Iraqis displaced from the town of Fallujah gather support distributed by the Norwegian Refugee Council, which has been awarded this 12 months’s $2.5 million Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize.

Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP through Getty Images

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Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP through Getty Images

Iraqis displaced from the town of Fallujah gather support distributed by the Norwegian Refugee Council, which has been awarded this 12 months’s $2.5 million Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize.

Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP through Getty Images

This MacArthur ‘genius’ grantee says she isn’t a drug price rebel but she kind of is

Health justice lawyer Priti Krishtel does not imagine your capability to heal ought to rely in your capability to pay. Her mission is to reform the patent system that drug corporations use to dam competitors. Published on October 13, 2022.

Priti Krishtel, a 2022 MacArthur fellowship winner, says of her work to create truthful drug costs for the world: “I just don’t think that people’s ability to heal should depend on their ability to pay.” Her father labored within the pharmaceutical business and impressed in her a love of science and discovering cures.

John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

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John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Priti Krishtel, a 2022 MacArthur fellowship winner, says of her work to create truthful drug costs for the world: “I just don’t think that people’s ability to heal should depend on their ability to pay.” Her father labored within the pharmaceutical business and impressed in her a love of science and discovering cures.

John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

And as a result of we are able to by no means resist a very good goat story:

High up in the mountains, goats and sheep faced off over salt. Guess who won

It was the unstoppable power versus the immovable object as goats and sheep locked horns over salt licks newly uncovered in a warming local weather in Montana. A brand new examine stories on this cage match. Published on October 17, 2022.

A feminine mountain goat in an alpine meadow in Montana’s Glacier National Park. When goats competed with sheep for salt within the park, the goats gained virtually unanimously.

Forest P. Hayes

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Forest P. Hayes

A feminine mountain goat in an alpine meadow in Montana’s Glacier National Park. When goats competed with sheep for salt within the park, the goats gained virtually unanimously.

Forest P. Hayes