"We must bring about change ourselves," explains Kali Bista, center, holding two of her grandchildren at their home in Bhageshwar village, Achham, Nepal. Kali followed the example of her neighbor Maheshwari five years ago and now sleeps in a room inside her home during menstruation instead of outside, as many of the area women do. Bista said years of public campaigns did nothing to stop this practice in the village until Maheshwari led by example. "NGOs come and go but we, the villagers, are here to stay."

Image and caption by Pulitzer Center grantee Allison Shelley. Nepal, 2012.

Pulitzer Center journalist Ameto Akpe answers reader questions about water, sanitation, and government accountability in Nigeria. Check out her award-winning reporting here.

Meet Pulitzer Center grantee and photojournalist Shiho Fukada. In this video, she explains her reporting project "Japan's Disposable Workers." Japan's structural economic problems are further alienating its already marginalized populations. She went beyond the bright lights of Tokyo to document the country's unemployment crisis: disposable workers who are easily fired and live without a social safety net. They are usually shut out from the rest of the society, living in poverty but rarely acknowledged by their fellow citizens.

Fukada's distinctive photographs add a human face to widely discussed issues—from day laborers living on the streets to educated women taking banal jobs. She reveals the other side of Japan where alcoholism, hopelessness and suicide have become increasingly commonplace. 

Pulitzer Center grantee Jenna Krajeski talks about her project investigating the "Stone-Throwing Kids" in Turkey. Check out her reporting on Kurdistan and Turkey here.

A baby with HIV, born in rural Mississippi, has been cured, according to a story by Andrew Pollack and Donald G. McNeil published in The New York Times on March 4. This is the second well-documented case of a cure.

The baby received antiretroviral drugs starting around 30 hours after birth. The child is now 2 1/2 and has been off drugs for a year. As reported in the story, experts believe that if you treat before the virus has an opportunity to establish a hidden reservoir there is a better chance of a cure. (Babies are more receptive to this treatment than adults.) 

In the years to come babies born with HIV may face the promise of a cure. The recent finding could not come at a more opportune moment: The United Nations estimated that in 2011 (the last year for which there is data) there were 330,000 babies who were newly infected.

Not all babies born to HIV-positive mothers give birth to babies with HIV. Mothers can be treated during pregnancy and their babies given prophylactic treatment. However, women in developing countries are often unaware of the possibility. In her documentary, “The Power of Awareness: Ntutu’s Journey with HIV,” Pulitzer Center student fellow Samantha Thornton tells the story of a courageous and determined South African – an HIV positive mother who gave birth to a healthy child. Read more about Ntutu here.

Over the past several years, Ethiopia has become one of the top "sending countries" in the international adoption market. But with the growing numbers of adoptions have come allegations of fraudulent paperwork and unethical recruitment of children for adoption--a practice dubbed "child harvesting" by the Ethiopian government.

Kathryn Joyce discusses her project "Casualties of Ethiopia's Adoption Boom" and the impact this new "export industry" has had on the local population.

Pulitzer Center photojournalist Bénédicte Kurzen traveled to Jos, a city that, for over a decade, has been the epicenter of clashes between the Muslim north and the Christian south. With Pulitzer Center grantee Joe Bavier, Kurzen started this long-term project during the 2011 presidential election to uncover the rudimentary causes of such religious fissures, and she soon got caught in the midst of violence. Check out her reporting and photos here: "Divided Under God: Nigeria's Sectarian Crisis."