Children of the World

Kemboi, a 15-year-old boy in Kenya, loves to run. He dreams of winning an Olympic gold medal in the marathon.

Elane Jessica, a 12-year-old girl from the poorest Brazilian slums, loves to dance. She dreams of becoming a ballerina.

Tashi Rapten is a 14-year-old boy studying to become a Buddhist monk in the remote Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan.

Jahara, a 9-year-old refugee from war-torn Iraq, is now living in Syria, where she has a chance to go to school and, she hopes, make friends.

Sienna, 10, lives on the coast in western Australia, where she feeds her friends the dolphins who swim right up to people in the shallow waters of the bay.

Every year hundreds of trekkers come to Nepal to climb in the Himalayas. Robin Thresta, age 12, works as a porter, carrying heavy loads, to help support his poor farming family.

Artyum, 13, lives in a tiny village near Lake Baikal, in southern Siberia, where winter temperatures dip to more than 20 degrees below zero (F). Catching fish through the ice is the only way his family can support themselves, but it's also against the law.

Sandeep Shahani, 12, is a boatman in the holy city of Varanasi, India, where, despite his youth and small size, he rows people from all over India who come to spread the cremated ashes of their family members on the sacred Ganges River.