A Lost Boy Teaches A Lesson For The Pandemic: How To Be Resilient

By Malaka Gharib

Published May 17, 2020 at 4:01 AM PDT

Resilience. It's the word of the hour.

Months into the coronavirus pandemic, many people are wondering: How do you find the strength to keep going when everything seems bleak?

Manyang Reath Kher, a Sudanese refugee now living in the U.S., shares his moment of deepest despair — and how he pulled through.

Malaka Gharib/ NPR /

Malaka Gharib is an NPR editor and the author and illustrator of I Was Their American Dream: A Graphic Memoir, about being first-generation Filipino Egyptian American.

Malaka Gharib

Malaka Gharib is the deputy editor and digital strategist on NPR's global health and development team. She covers topics such as the refugee crisis, gender equality and women's health. Her work as part of NPR's reporting teams has been recognized with two Gracie Awards: in 2019 for How To Raise A Human, a series on global parenting, and in 2015 for #15Girls, a series that profiled teen girls around the world.

See stories by Malaka Gharib