Stories of hope and joy

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

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

BBC Delhi’s 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 BBC Hindi.

BBC 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.

BBC Brasil’s Joao Fellet shares the story of the Japanese Brazilian farmers in the Amazonian state of Pará, 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, BBC)