Traditional miners carry sulphur on the Ijen volcano complex on May 25, 2009 outside Banyuwangi, East Java, Indonesia. Miners carry the solidified yellow sulphur blocks from the crater floor to the rim for as many hours a day as they can tolerate, paid by the kilogram of sulphur they extract. The average wage is USD $.05 per kilogram of sulphur and a worker, depending on his strength and stamina, carry on average 3 baskets of 70-80kg per day, earning him around USD $11. (Photo by Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images)

A man walks in the early morning to start his day picking tea leaves at a plantation in Nandi Hills, in Kenya's highlands region west of capital Nairobi, November 5, 2014. Emerald-coloured tea bushes blanketing the rolling hills of Nandi County have long provided a livelihood for small-scale farmers, helping make Kenya one of the world's biggest tea exporters. But ideal weather and bigger harvests, instead of producing bumper earnings, have led to a glut of Kenya's speciality black tea. (Photo by Noor Khamis/Reuters)

Robot inventor Wu Yulu sits on a rickshaw driven by a robot which he invented in his village in rural Beijing's Tongzhou district, China, 17 November 2016. The 54-year-old Chinese farmer living in rural Beijing's Tongzhou district invented 63 robots in the past 30 years. Wu, who only received primary school education, plans to give up the agricultural work for his robot products. He regularly participates in exhibitions, transfers patent rights and teaches at the university to earn money. (Photo by Wu Hong/EPA)

A dhobi, or a washerman washes cloths on the banks of the River Gomti in Lucknow, India, Saturday, September 12, 2020. Dhobis are traditional laundry workers who wash clothes by hand and dry them in the sun, an occupation which has been in existence for generations. Most cities in India have a Dhobi Ghat, or washermen's area, where the city's pile of clothes is laundered. This practice is still popular in India, despite of modern technology. Around 1,000 families work in Lucknow's Dhobi Ghat. However, in light of the novel coronavirus, their wages have decreased drastically. With each family earning around US$100-200 per month. (Photo by Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP Photo)

Merit Prize Winner: “A Well Earned Rest in the Sahara”. This photo of Moussa Macher, our Tuareg guide, was taken at the summit of Tin-Merzouga, the largest dune (or erg) in the Tadrat region of the Sahara desert in southern Algeria. Moussa rested while waiting for us to finish our 45-minute struggle to the top. It only took ten minutes of rolling, running, and jumping to get back down. The Tadrat is part of the Tassili N'Ajjer National Park World Heritage area, famous for its red sand and engravings and rock paintings of cattle, elephants, giraffes, and rhinos that lived there when the climate was milder. Photo location: Summit of Tin-Merzouga, Tadrat, Tassili N'Ajjer National Park, Algeria. (Photo and caption by Evan Cole/National Geographic Photo Contest)

Tens of thousands of HIV positive prostitutes in the slums of Lagos to ensure a rapid spread of the epidemic. “If you arrive by car, you can smell the HIV virus outside”, joked my driver as we are on track to Badia a criminal slums of Lagos. Badia is a corruption of “Bad Area”. Nigerians have a lack of everything, except black humor. The poor West African country Nigeria, with a population of 140 million people, after India and South Africa the highest number of people with HIV / AIDS. (Photo by Ton Koene/Exclusivepix Media)

A boy walks past boats docked at the entrance gate of the fishermen's village in the El Max area of the Mediterranean city of Alexandria September 12, 2014. El Max, where hundreds of boats dart through the canals, has been called the “Venice of Egypt” for its waterways and relaxed atmosphere. Its fishermen, however, worry about how they will make ends meet on meagre earnings they say are being reduced further by polluted waters that are making fishing more difficult. While the government has tried to fix the state's bloated finances by cutting subsidies and reining in spending, some argue the reforms hurt Egypt's most vulnerable who have long relied on a generous system of fuel and food subsidies to supplement low incomes. (Photo by Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters)