Julie Beck earns roughly $20 an hour teaching in Head Start classrooms 10 months a year. “I'm paycheck to paycheck,” she says. Cory Turner/NPR hide caption
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Christopher Santiago, 38, hangs out at home in Alsip, Ill., with one of his three children, 9-year-old Calliope. He says Cook County's basic income program has let him provide more for his kids. Taylor Glascock for NPR hide caption
Places across the U.S. are testing no-strings cash as part of the social safety net
A demonstration at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in 2023. A perennial Davos topic is how to improve the lives of the world's poor. Markus Schreiber/AP hide caption
So far it's a grand decade for billionaires, says new report. As for the masses ...
A Freddie Gray protest in Baltimore, Md., in 2015. Devin Allen hide caption
Carla Claure's daughters prefer eating homemade meals at home than the "nasty" food served at school. Keren Carrión/NPR hide caption
A women holds a child in the alley of a slum in Dhaka, Bangladesh, a country where poverty persists even as average incomes rise. Spencer Platt/Getty Images hide caption
The richest people in the world got even richer during the pandemic and more people fell into poverty, says an Oxfam report. The charity claims that this growing economic gap leads to "economic violence." Peter Dazeley/Getty Images hide caption
Laura Sifuentes lives in Rosedale, Miss. The government's Child Tax Credit, a monthly payment for many American parents with kids, helped her financially when she had to give up her job to care of her kids, nieces and nephews during the pandemic. Stephan Bisaha/Gulf States Newsroom/Stephan Bisaha/Gulf States Newsroom hide caption
Why many Americans continue to struggle despite trillions of dollars in pandemic aid
People line up to receive a rapid COVID-19 test in an agricultural community in Immokalee, Fla., where the poverty rate is over 40%. Partners in Health is working with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to test, educate and vaccinate the community during the pandemic. Spencer Platt/Getty Images hide caption
Cattle graze on land burned and deforested by cattle farmers near Novo Progresso, Para state, Brazil. Brazil is among the nations that have signed a pledge to protect forests. Andre Penner/AP hide caption
Most nations are promising to end deforestation, but skeptics want proof
People shop in the Brooklyn borough of New York City in May. Poverty declined in 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's Supplemental Poverty Measure. Spencer Platt/Getty Images hide caption
Wearing a mask and a face shield to curb the spread of the coronavirus, 10-year-old Jade Chan Puc writes in her workbook during the first day of class in Hecelchakán, Campeche state, Mexico, on April 19. On average, schools in Latin America and the Caribbean were closed longer than any in any other region, according to UNICEF. Martin Zetina/AP hide caption
Resettled villagers sun themselves outside Qixingguan. Many older residents have had a difficult time adjusting to life away from their fields. Emily Feng/NPR hide caption
A sign outside a U.S. Social Security Administration office in Mount Prospect, Ill., in October last year. Closed SSA offices across the country are being blamed for a 30 percent drop in applications for an aid program for the most vulnerable. Nam Y. Huh/AP hide caption
Huge Drop In Federal Aid For The Poorest Is Blamed On Closed Social Security Offices
Eric Dossekpli, 49, is a farmer and father of six in the town of Anfoin Avele,Togo. He says he can no longer sell his crops as a result of the pandemic. Floriane Acouetey hide caption
The Pandemic Pushed This Farmer Into Deep Poverty. Then Something Amazing Happened
Empty wallet Pixabay hide caption
Steve Davis is a longtime advocate for the poor. In his new book, Undercurrents: Channeling Outrage to Spark Practical Activism, he writes about five promising trends that could help lift people out of extreme poverty. Portrait by Stuart Isett. Book by Wiley hide caption
Dina el-Harazy and Adham Bagory were married in a private garden in Cairo, Egypt. Angel Miles teaches 5th graders for a D.C. public school. She worries about her students and herself during the pandemic. Figure skater Gian-Quen Isaacs practices at a rink in Cape Town, South Africa. The 15-year-old skater is holding fast to her Olympic dreams. Sima Diab, Dee Dwyer and Samatha Reinders for NPR hide caption
Demonstrators march in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood in June to demand a lifting of the Illinois rent control ban and a cancellation of rent and mortgage payments. The pandemic's financial pressures are causing many Americans to struggle with rent payments. Max Herman/NurPhoto via Getty Images hide caption
'No One Can Live Off $240 A Week': Many Americans Struggle To Pay Rent, Bills
Median household income rose sharply last year, while poverty declined to 10.5% — the lowest since records began in 1959, according to the Census Bureau. Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images hide caption