A newborn baby, a father, a look of delicate tenderness on the father’s face.
Here’s one of the heartwarming photos from a story we published this year about kangaroo care: When a baby is born prematurely, the best way to help a child survive and thrive is simply simply hug her to her parents’ bare chest.
That picture tells you everything you need to know about the relationship between a parent and a vulnerable child. The father is Yappe Pako of Ivory Coast. His wife gave birth to triplets 5 weeks early. One person died. The two survivors did not thrive. Caring for kangaroos is a gift from heaven. Pako said: “I started joining to dedicate a father’s love to his children.
This portrait by Andrew Caballero-Reynolds is one of many moving pictures featured in this year’s Goats and Soda magazine: from a determined female miner in Angola to a Ukrainian opera singer working holds the sheet music she carries as a reminder of her dear home as she flees a brutal war.
Here are some of our featured photos — and photo stories — from 2022.
There is a global appeal for kangaroo care. This is what it looks like in Ivory Coast
Newborn father Yappe Pako is helped by a midwife to take care of the kangaroo. His newborn son is named Ambo Crisostome. They are in kangaroo care at the University Hospital Medical Center in Treichville, Ivory Coast. A new program teaches this technique to parents. It is especially beneficial for premature and low birth weight babies.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds for NPR
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Andrew Caballero-Reynolds for NPR
Newborn father Yappe Pako is helped by a midwife to take care of the kangaroo. His newborn son is named Ambo Crisostome. They are in kangaroo care at the University Hospital Medical Center in Treichville, Ivory Coast. A new program teaches this technique to parents. It is especially beneficial for premature and low birth weight babies.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds for NPR
If you had to leave the house and could only take 1 keepsake, what would it be?
Olha Abakumova, an opera singer from western Ukraine, came to America with her daughter. (Her husband cannot emigrate.) Olha brought her most precious music to the Ukrainian arias. “They connect me to my hometown, my culture and my roots,” she said. “When I sing, I see images before my eyes,” she said. “The words and music moved in me and brought me back to Ukraine.”
Jodi Hilton for NPR
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Jodi Hilton for NPR
Olha Abakumova, an opera singer from western Ukraine, came to America with her daughter. (Her husband cannot emigrate.) Olha brought her most precious music to the Ukrainian arias. “They connect me to my hometown, my culture and my roots,” she said. “When I sing, I see images before my eyes,” she said. “The words and music moved in me and brought me back to Ukraine.”
Jodi Hilton for NPR
In this nomadic tribe in Iran, the women persevere despite difficulties
Fereshteh, 14, is pictured in the mountains of central Zagros, where her tribe spends spring and summer. They travel long hours on rough roads year-round, from pasture to pasture – and then make the annual 10-hour journey from their summer home to their winter home. She says she doesn’t like the nomadic lifestyle but feels she has no choice but to accept and endure it.
Enayat Asadi for NPR
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Enayat Asadi for NPR
Fereshteh, 14, is pictured in the mountains of central Zagros, where her tribe spends spring and summer. They travel long hours on rough roads year-round, from pasture to pasture – and then make the annual 10-hour journey from their summer home to their winter home. She says she doesn’t like the nomadic lifestyle but feels she has no choice but to accept and endure it.
Enayat Asadi for NPR
Angola thinks women cannot clear landmines. These women proved them wrong
Esperanca Ngando is in charge of three all-female demining teams in Angola. “In the past, people thought this was just a man’s job,” says Ngando. “But we changed that attitude.”
Tommy Trenchard for NPR
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Tommy Trenchard for NPR
Diamond miners in abandoned mines break the law – and risk their lives
Jefferson Ncube, an illegal diamond miner from Zimbabwe, works on his newest tunnel at the abandoned De Beers mine near Kleinzee, South Africa. Ncube graduated from university but could not find a job.
Tommy Trenchard for NPR
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Tommy Trenchard for NPR
Jefferson Ncube, an illegal diamond miner from Zimbabwe, works on his newest tunnel at the abandoned De Beers mine near Kleinzee, South Africa. Ncube graduated from university but could not find a job.
Tommy Trenchard for NPR
At Guinea’s only snakebite clinic, doctors need luck and an antidote
A forest cobra harvested for its venom at Guinea’s Institute of Applied Biology. Its venom will be analyzed for different toxins and will help inform future antidote development.
Guy Peterson for NPR
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Guy Peterson for NPR
A forest cobra harvested for its venom at Guinea’s Institute of Applied Biology. Its venom will be analyzed for different toxins and will help inform future antidote development.
Guy Peterson for NPR
South Africa’s ‘train of hope’ is a gift from heaven to millions But new threats emerge
A pharmacist on the Phelophepa healthcare train receives money for a patient’s prescription.
Tommy Trenchard for NPR
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Tommy Trenchard for NPR
A pharmacist on the Phelophepa healthcare train receives money for a patient’s prescription.
Tommy Trenchard for NPR
Ukrainian refugees feel surprisingly at home in Brazil’s ‘Little Ukraine’
Ukrainian refugee Anastasiia Ivanova reads the Bible on the rooftop of her apartment in Prudentópolis, Brazil, where she currently lives with her mother and siblings. The devout 22-year-old says it’s her faith that has helped her overcome all challenges. She took her Bible with her when the whole family fled Kharkiv.
Gabriela Portilho for NPR
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Gabriela Portilho for NPR
Ukrainian refugee Anastasiia Ivanova reads the Bible on the rooftop of her apartment in Prudentópolis, Brazil, where she currently lives with her mother and siblings. The devout 22-year-old says it’s her faith that has helped her overcome all challenges. She took her Bible with her when the whole family fled Kharkiv.
Gabriela Portilho for NPR
A 70-year-old man in Gaza needs open-heart surgery. It’s a race against time
Yousef Al-Kurd waits for a heart check-up at Shifa Hospital in Gaza.
Fatima Shbair for NPR
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Fatima Shbair for NPR
Yousef Al-Kurd waits for a heart check-up at Shifa Hospital in Gaza.
Fatima Shbair for NPR
Inside Cape Town’s ‘robbed’ buildings: ‘All we wanted was a place to call home’
Boys play in the stairs at Cissie Gool House, an abandoned hospital that is now home to more than 1,000 people. By painting, decorating and maintaining the building, the new occupants of the building managed to transform it into a decent home for themselves and their families within impressive distance of central Cape Town.
Tommy Trenchard for NPR
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Tommy Trenchard for NPR
Boys play in the stairs at Cissie Gool House, an abandoned hospital that is now home to more than 1,000 people. By painting, decorating and maintaining the building, the new occupants of the building managed to transform it into a decent home for themselves and their families within impressive distance of central Cape Town.
Tommy Trenchard for NPR
