One Good Thing
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 Romanian castle on the brink of ruin.
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…” David Vallejo and M
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.
The pandemic that put much of normal life on pause — stopping travel and shutting people in their homes — also afforded more time for many families to study the wildlife in their own backyards.
To all the struggles of life in Lebanon — the pandemic, power outages, inflation, financial and political crises — add one more: shortages of crucial medications.
Summer is arriving in Tuscany’s wine country. Yahya Adams moves his gloves through the shimmery foliage, removing excess buds and shoots to make the vines stronger.
They aren’t supposed to get along, let alone be friends, but this new wife and ex-wife say they’re sisters for life after a kidney transplant.
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 over a year, the AP’s “One Good Thing” series has highlighted 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.
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.
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.
Mariam Yehia has a Ramadan tradition of buying hot meals and driving around to hand 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.
An 8-year-old boy living in metro Phoenix has been staging food drives from his home in response to the pandemic.
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.N. buffer zone that cuts across ethnically divided Cyprus.
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 h
LUMBINI, Nepal (AP) — Just next to the Mayadevi temple where Buddha was born more than 2,600 years ago, hundreds of people lined up outside a makeshift hospital on a recent hazy day, hoping their fading eyesight could be restored.
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.
SINGAPORE (AP) — The capsules of the Ferris wheel in Singapore were peppered with rain.
Not great for a bird’s eye view of the city.
Not great for a bird’s eye view of the city.
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.