MICASASA, Romania (AP) — On a scorching summer day in the remote Transylvanian village of Micasasa, 39-year-old Romanian architect Eugen Vaida is busy coordinating a team of volunteers helping to breathe new life into a centuries-old castle on the brink of ruin.
NEW YORK (AP) — After more than two decades beating the odds to obtain medical care for children injured in war and crises around the world, Elissa Montanti’s Global Medical Relief Fund was thwarted by COVID-19.
Students from a Maine island high school have seen the world on senior class trips -- the Eiffel Tower, Iceland’s volcanos, Norway’s fjords, the canals of Italy, the tropical beaches of Panama.
This year, members of Islesboro Central School’s Class of 2021 — all 13 of them — were eyeing a trip to Greece, or maybe South Korea.
Kieran Moïse’s afro was a splendid 19 inches, a huge part of his personality. But after six years of growth, the 17-year-old Alabamian knew that he and his hair would soon be parted: He was bound for the U.S.
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Their songs are about “women chained” in abuse witnessed by generations, or teenage brides being forced into marriage by their fathers. And they tell women to seek love, fight back and stand up for their right to be equal with men.
QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — They were a pair of young doctors in love who put off marriage to save lives.
As the pandemic raged in Ecuador last year, they posted a social media photo of themselves dressed in biohazard suits kissing and holding a sign saying: “Today was to be our wedding day, but instead…”
KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — The scenic Himalayan mountain trails that normally draw throngs of foreign trekkers to Nepal have been empty for more than a year, with most of the country's tourism industry still shut down by the pandemic.
To all the struggles of life in Lebanon — the pandemic, the power outages, the inflation, the punishing financial and political crises — add one more: shortages of crucial medications.
But as residents struggle to find the medicines they need, some are finding that their fellow Lebanese are doing what they can to help.
CASALE DEL BOSCO, Italy (AP) — Summer is arriving in Italy's wine country in Tuscany, and the leaves on the vines shimmer in gold and green.
Yahya Adams moves his gloves through the foliage, removing excess buds and shoots to make the vines stronger.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Ten years after their first date, Debby Neal-Strickland put on a cream-colored lace gown and married her longtime sweetheart at their Florida church. Two days later, she put on a hospital gown and donated a kidney to Mylaen Merthe — her new husband’s ex-wife.
VERANO BRIANZA, Italy (AP) — Four second-grade classes in the Milan suburb of Verano Brianza have been learning to play basketball this spring from a real pro. They also got a lesson in diversity.
For more than a year, The Associated Press has been bringing you “One Good Thing” — stories highlighting good deeds done by individuals to brighten others' days during trying times.
NEW YORK (AP) — Roberto Novo has styled the hair of a constellation of stars, from singer Britney Spears to supermodel Naomi Campbell. But during the pandemic, he’s turned his talents to the heads of lesser known, older New Yorkers — and he’s done it for free.
THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) — Torn apart in the deadly chaos of an air raid, a Syrian family of seven has been reunited, against the odds, three years later at a refugee shelter in Greece's second city of Thessaloniki, a centuries-old melting point of cultures overlooking the Aegean Sea.
BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP) — When the coronavirus pandemic shut down the Levis Jewish Community Center last year, 98-year-old Trudy Berlin sprang into action to keep her weekly women’s group active.
For Berlin, who began hosting “The Ladies Room” at the JCC’s Sandler Center in 2000, the show needed to go on...
A few years ago, Mariam Yehia, her mom and a friend started a Ramadan tradition — they bought hot meals and handed them out to the needy in Cairo so they can break their fast during the Muslim holy month...
When the coronavirus pandemic struck New York City, LaGuardia Community College professor Lucia Fuentes assigned students in her honors biology class to compile all the information they could find about COVID-19...
DALLAS (AP) — Not long after he began posting advice last year for people facing eviction during the pandemic, Mark Melton found himself inundated with phone calls and messages...
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Entering her magical quinceanera on by her father’s arm, her tiara sparkling and her fuchsia ballgown trimmed with ruffles to perfectly match her cake, Adriana Palma scanned the crowd for familiar faces...
CHANDLER, Ariz. (AP) — Neighbors walked by during their morning stroll, passing families waved from their bikes and drivers slowed down long enough to read the hand-drawn sign — “Dylan's Food Drive...
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — There’s something regal in the sprightly step and curious gaze of the long-horn sheep that roam the hills near Varisia, an abandoned village inside a U...
PUERTO RICO DE GRAN CANARIA, Spain (AP) — When hotel director Calvin Lucock and restaurant owner Unn Tove Saetran said goodbye to one of the last groups of migrants staying in one of the seaside resorts they manage in Spain’s Canary Islands, the British-Norwegian couple didn’t know when they would have guests again...
NEW YORK (AP) — When Erin Shields belted out “Being Alive” — the showstopper from the Broadway classic “Company” — the title had extra levels of meaning...
NEW YORK (AP) — In Miami, Oklahoma, restaurants and their customers are doing their part to ease pandemic heartache, one meal at a time...
AVENTURA, Fla. (AP) — Name a show tune, jazz standard or movie score, and chances are 91-year-old Peter Fuchs can not only hum it, but play it from memory on his keyboard...
WUHAN, China (AP) — Scribbled instructions for incoming patients plastered on the window of a silent hospital reception counter...
When flight paramedic Rita Krenz boards a helicopter, she knows her patients are about to face problems she can’t fix — a health care system that buries people in debt after a car accident or stroke...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Every day at 5 p.m., no matter what Dr. Debra Schwinn is doing, Palm Beach Atlantic University's new president jumps on a Zoom call — not with faculty or donors, but with students in isolation due to the coronavirus...
PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Helping her elderly father beat back his coronavirus infection on her own taught Arta Jashari how the power of one can offer hope to others and change things for the better...
LONDON (AP) — Glenda Andrew pulls a tray of salmon from the oven, filling the community center's kitchen with the aroma of garlic, cayenne and lemon rising from its crackling skin...
When artist Kristina Libby started the Floral Heart Project to give the survivors of COVID-19 victims places to mourn, she was thinking of people like Michelle Pepe...
NEW YORK (AP) — While dozens of New Yorkers lined up outside in the rain, shopping carts at the ready as they waited for free food, Sofia Moncayo led her team in prayer.
In 200 stories over this pandemic-ridden year, The Associated Press has celebrated selfless people who have given of themselves in trying times.
The stories have warmed hearts of readers around the world.
AVLONA, Greece (AP) — Setting up a television channel from scratch isn’t the most obvious or easiest thing for a math teacher to do — especially without prior technical knowledge and for use inside a prison...
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — It was the week after Christmas and coronavirus case numbers and hospitalizations were soaring in Portland, Oregon...
BEIRUT (AP) — In the middle of the destroyed Beirut neighborhood of Gemmayzeh, a small team in masks and gloves were sanitizing and packing oxygen machines to be sent to those in need...
LONDON (AP) — The legacy of Capt. Tom Moore, the super fundraiser who died Tuesday of COVID-19, lives on in Imogen Papworth-Heidel — and many others...
Bonifaz Díaz biked through the sprawling city of Quetzaltenango, 7,640 feet (2,330 meters) above sea level among Guatemala’s volcanoes, to deliver a sociology book to the home of a local teacher...
Once a month, Magena Morris, Tyler Bone and Nic White bring racks loaded with clothes into Charlotte’s largest homeless encampment and invite residents to shop at no cost...
NUCSOARA, Romania (AP) — A gentle hero to many in Romania, Valeriu Nicolae says that, at heart, he is more like former NBA star Michael Jordan — highly competitive and eager to improve in what he does best...
Even before she sees the name on the return address, Nancy Sloane knows who sent the letter — the Snoopy sticker that seals the envelope is a dead giveaway...
Even as she fights cancer and struggles with a rare lung disease, Corinna Dewar thinks of helping others...
In the wake of a massive explosion that devastated Beirut, 93-year-old Yolande Labaki sought a way to help bring healing to the Lebanese capital...
When Marybeth Hearn was 10, she asked her parents if she could train a puppy to become a guide dog...
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Two days before Thanksgiving, on the eve of a turkey giveaway for dozens of jobless residents in an impoverished Miami neighborhood, Sherina Jones got word that one of the free community refrigerators she'd been stocking was stolen...