Laura Spero

The World

Laura Spero is an independent producer, and founder of Jevaia International (www.jevaia.org). She has spent more than a decade in rural Nepal, where she has reported numerous radio stories and maintains a multimedia blog, www.allthepiecesof.com, which features many — many — unreasonable accounts of her trying to help out as a subsistence farmer. Laura’s blog series Between Worlds looks at how labor migration is changing ritual mourning in Nepal, and explores the role of culture in grief and loss.

Harimaya Subedi

Widowhood hard to transcend in tradition-bound Nepal

Traditionally, widows can be shunned or deprived of basic rights in Nepal, consigned to a life of ritual mourning. But as more young men in Nepal die while working abroad, some of those restrictions are loosening.

Widowhood hard to transcend in tradition-bound Nepal
Bishnu Pande with Ayusha

Just like that: As number of widows grow, widowhood is changing in Nepal

Just like that: As number of widows grow, widowhood is changing in Nepal
This buffalo in the village of Kaskikot, Nepal, survived last April's magnitude 7.8 earthquake, but an estimated 55,000 farm animals and nearly half a million domesticated birds did not. The losses were deeply felt in a place where livestock are often tho

For animals and their humans, love speeds the post-quake recovery in Nepal

For animals and their humans, love speeds the post-quake recovery in Nepal
Rubble stones organized for building.

In Nepal, one problem is the earthquake didn't knock down enough houses

In Nepal, one problem is the earthquake didn't knock down enough houses

Slideshow: Rebuilding Kabul

Slideshow: Rebuilding Kabul