Anu Joshi Shrestha

A female former medical doctor who defected from North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea, DPRK) is hidden behind her own painted self-portrait and shares first-hand insights into the country's health-care system and challenges. Anonymised for security, defectors rarely reveal their faces, as reprisals can impact relatives in North Korea. Her artwork is a tale of two cities, conveying that trauma does not disappear with escape; it transforms but endures.

The Covid-19 pandemic can be an opportunity to transform Nepal’s waste management sector right from the household level to ensure long-term safety of all concerned. Kathmandu produces approximately 1020 metric tonnes of municipal waste every day. Although 56 percent of this waste is organic and can be easily segregated at source for composting, most of it ends up in landfills, dumped in the open or burnt at household level.