6 Stories From 2016 That Made Us See The World Differently

While The WorldPost is best known for publishing first-person voices from around the globe, we also regularly commission reported features from journalists abroad, covering a broad range of issues of global resonance.

Here’s a sampling of some of our best features from our contributing reporters this year:

1. This Is What India’s Devastating Drought Looks Like Up Close

Illustrating his report with striking photographs, Vivek Singh traveled across Bundelkhand, a vast rural landscape in central India, and described how drought is crippling the region with parched land, farmer suicides and forced migration.

2. On The Front Line Of The Migrant Crisis, This Doctor Has Saved Countless Lives

Angela Giuffrida visited the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa to profile Pietro Bartolo, a doctor who’s treated refugees fleeing mostly from North Africa for decades. Over the past couple years, he has witnessed more and more lives lost and more serious injuries incurred than ever before.

3. 55 Years After Agent Orange Was Used In Vietnam, One Of Its Creators Is Thriving Here

Dien Luong reported from Ho Chi Minh City about a new push by biotech giant Monsanto to spread its genetically-modified seeds to Vietnam after its toxic defoliant was sprayed by American forces during the Vietnam War.

4. In Iraq, Death Comes For A Technician Defusing Bombs By Hand

Sophia Jones, The WorldPost’s Middle East Correspondent, followed a Kurdish Peshmerga unit during the U.S.-backed operation to drive the so-called Islamic State from Mosul. She found that U.S. allies who are defusing ISIS’ bombs don’t have basic protective gear and that’s costing them their lives.

5. FARC Rebels Prepare To Leave Behind Guns, Drug Trade And The Life They Know

Sibylla Brodzinsky went to the rural Yari Plains in southern Colombia to write about the guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, as they readied to leave behind their decades-old rebellion for a new life, pending a cease-fire with the government.

6. Norway Proves That Treating Prison Inmates As Human Beings Actually Works

Baz Dreisinger reported from Bastoy Island in Norway, where she examined how the country’s model prison system treats inmates humanely — and gets results. As the governor put it, “’Treat people like dirt, and they will be dirt. Treat them like human beings, and they will act like human beings.’”

This was produced by The WorldPost, which is published by the Berggruen Institute.