In Morocco, households that find themselves without a man often face financial difficulties. Fatima Zahara knows that only too well. After her father died, her mother could barely feed her children. So Fatima quit school to help support her family.

Despite the lack of natural snow due to climate change, Nico Brinkmann is determined to draw more visitors to Winterberg to ski. He runs several ski-lifts and a hostel in the small town up in the mountains. Artificial snow is his solution.

Richie is only 12, but already he is his family’s main breadwinner. He collects garbage at the Dandora dump site in Kenya’s capital Nairobi. It’s a dangerous job, not least because the dump – one of the largest in Africa – is ruled by local gangs.

In Nepal, ophthalmologist Sanduk Ruit has developed a method for treating cataracts, an eye disease that leads to blindness. The operation is quick and inexpensive, so that even the poorest can afford it. It's set an example for the world.

In the Australian village of Cobargo, Sara Tilling and her husband Gary had created a kind of paradise: a wildlife sanctuary for kangaroos. Then came the bushfires. Do they have the strength to start over again?

Markus Behrendt and Christine Wagner-Behrendt from Kassel have been taking care of their son Jascha for 13 years. He broke his neck in a bicycle accident when he was five years old, and he's paralyzed and given artificial respiration ever since.

In 1999, three prominent Belarusian opposition figures vanished without a trace. Immediately, rumors circulated that a death squad might have abducted and murdered the men. Now, key witness Yuri G. sheds light on the case.

Each December, like many families, the Scherms go out and chop down their own Christmas tree. It's a holiday tradition. But what makes for a perfect Christmas tree?

The fashion designer Diamantina Arcoiris knowingly relocated her studio to Santa Fé, one of the most dangerous districts of Bogota. Crack, glue and alcohol abound; prostitution is rife. She gives them a chance to embroider her dresses and strut their stuff on the catwalk.

Christina is a student demonstrating against the old men who've run Lebanon into the ground. She's demanding reforms, but wants the protests to remain peaceful. So she and other women are positioning themselves between demonstrators and the police.