After the New Year holiday, as people returned to work and school, Zhai Lixin, a Chinese stationmaster on the Lagos-Ibadan Railway in Nigeria, received a video call from his son. Zhai once again enthusiastically shared stories about the railway. His son had been listening to such stories with keen interest since childhood.
In a red-roofed, white-walled house on the outskirts of Vientiane, Laos, a 10-year-old hearing-impaired boy got creative with crayons, drawing with wobbly outlines two figures holding hands next to a bright sun. This artwork was exhibited alongside nearly one hundred other paintings, forming the first art exhibition for the children of the "Hand of Hope" education center.
In Iraq’s Muthanna Province, new schools are rapidly emerging along the Euphrates River. Every morning, children with schoolbags fill these freshly built campuses, their reading voices echoing on the edge of the desert.
