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Stories of hope and joy

Seagull neighbours, forest regeneration and a visit home: Faranak Amidi asks colleagues from the language services to share stories that inspired them in 2023.

麻豆社 language service journalists share stories and experiences that lifted their spirits in a year with more than its fair share of tragic news.

麻豆社 Russian's Nataliya Zotova explains how an imperious seagull named Agamemnon helped her settle in her new home in Riga, after leaving Russia.

麻豆社 Delhi鈥檚 Divya Arya tells us about helping an interviewee who had shared her story of surviving domestic violence and living with significant facial burns, to become a guest presenter for 麻豆社 Hindi.

麻豆社 Afghan's Aalia Farzan tells us about presenting a schools programme for Afghan children, and being able to return home and see her mother again for the first time since she was forced to leave in 2021.

麻豆社 Brasil鈥檚 Joao Fellet shares the story of the Japanese Brazilian farmers in the Amazonian state of Par谩, who have switched from mono-cropping to agroforestry, regrowing a forest of sorts and providing a profitable model for land cleared by logging.

And Ethiopian-based journalist Kalkidan Yibeltal shares the experience of travelling to the Simien Mountains in northern Ethiopia and experiencing the therapeutic quiet and stillness of the national park, in a year otherwise devoted to covering conflict.

(Photo: Seagull on windowsill in Riga. Credit: Nataliya Zotova, 麻豆社)

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41 minutes

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