These Photographs Show What Life Is Like on $1 a Day

  • Four-year-old Ana-Maria Tudor, above, stands in the light of her doorway in Bucharest, Romania, hoping for a miracle as her family faces eviction from the only home they have ever had. Her father recently had a gall bladder surgery that resulted in an infection and left him unable to work. The one room they live in has no bathroom or running water.
    Renée C. Byer
    1 of 12
  • In an e-waste dump that kills nearly everything that it touches, Fati, 8, works with other children searching through hazardous waste in hopes of finding whatever she can to exchange for pennies in order to survive. While balancing a bucket on her head with the little metal she has found, tears stream down her face as the result of the pain that comes with the malaria she contracted some years ago. This is work she must do to survive.
    Renée C. Byer
    2 of 12
  • A sea of people passes by Hunupa Begum, 13, who has been blind for the past 10 years and lives close to the Nizamudin Bangala Masjid (Mosque) in New Delhi, India. She begs as the only source of income for her family that consist of a brother Hajimudin Sheikh, 6, center, who suffers fluids that accumulate in his head and her mother Manora Begum, 35, right, who suffers from Asthma, and she has a womb ailment and can't do manual labor. Their father Nizam Ali Sheikh died ten years ago of Tuberculosis. Her wheelchair was donated by a passerby.
    Renée C. Byer
    3 of 12
  • Phay Phanna, 60, lost his leg when he stepped on a land mine in 1988 near the Cambodian-Thai border. He is a widower and is the sole head of his family, caring for 11 children in a home he does not own. It has been scheduled for demolition since being purchased by a private developer in 2008 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
    Renée C. Byer
    4 of 12
  • In the Charan slum settlement of northern India, Kalpana, 20, starves one of her children Sangeeta, 2, while her sister Sarita, 5-months-old, right, sleeps in comfort, above right, in her mother's arms. Sangeeta only weighs 9 pounds. Children are more likely to appeal to the sympathy of those inclined to give to beggars, so those who beg use children for this purpose. Worse, sometimes as in this case a child is staved and carried about by the child’s parent while she begs on the streets or rented out to another beggar to be used as an object of sympathy in the hope of generating more income over the course of a given day. Sometimes these “extra funds” are used to feed other children, thus, in practice, one child is sacrificed for he sake of others. Sangeeta has since been helped by the Tong-Len Charitable Trust’s mobile medical clinic at the Charan slum settlement, Dharamsala, India. But according to the World Bank 19,000 children die a day from preventable causes.
    Renée C. Byer
    5 of 12
  • At the Krousa Thmey Center in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, five brothers sleep together on the floor. This is a temporary orphanage or, in reality, safe house for children who have been found abandoned and wandering the streets. Because space is limited, they cannot stay for long, but for now at least they are given some refuge from the influences of the streets of the city. These brothers range in age from 5 to 12.
    Renée C. Byer
    6 of 12
  • Jestina Koko, 25, with her daughter Satta Quaye, 5. Crippled since the age of three, she depends on her arms to lift and drag herself. She survives by doing laundry for others, selling cookies on the street, and begging in Monrovia, Liberia. Both of them suffer from malaria. She wishes for a wheel chair, a private room to live in and for her daughter to go to school. They sleep in the hallway of a home that has no electric, toilet or running water and own nothing. August 29, 2010.
    Renée C. Byer
    7 of 12
  • Following the death of his father, Alvaro Kalancha Quispe, 9, helps his family survive by herding. He opens the gate to the stone pen that holds the family's alpacas and llamas each morning so they can graze throughout the hillsides during the day. He then heads off to school, but must round them up again in the evening in the Akamani mountain range of Bolivia in an area called Caluyo, about an hour from the city of Qutapampa. In this part of the world, the highlands of Bolivia, approximately 13,000 feet above sea level, residents live in homes with no insulation, no electricity, and no beds. Their water comes from streams that run off the snow-covered mountains. Their livelihood lies with their animals, for each animal produces about three pounds of fur each year, and each pound of fur is sold for 18 bolivianos, which amounts to about $2.50 U.S. All in all, this family may earn about $200 of income each year from the herd they watch over.
    Renée C. Byer
    8 of 12
  • Complaining of stomach pains Viorica Gulie, 31, takes a break from cooking soup for her family as her mother-in-law Constanta Gulie, 58, looks on at left. She suffers from Gastitis of her stomach. With no money for medication or to go to the hospital she has to live in pain. Their house which has no running water or a bathroom is built on state land and they don't have title deeds so they are in fear of being evicted in Slatina, Romania.
    Renée C. Byer
    9 of 12
  • Dominga Illari, 70, left, and Manuela Quispe Avile, 70, right, dance after harvesting potatoes. Avile is the owner of the land and Illari works for her in exchange for food to eat, not money in Santiago de Okola, Bolivia.
    Renée C. Byer
    10 of 12
  • Labone, 27, takes a moment to hold her young daughter Nupur, 1, who was fathered by a client, before she has to return to her evening’s work in a brothel in Jessore, Bangladesh.
    Renée C. Byer
    11 of 12
  • Rudra, 5, and his sister Suhani, 3, search for tea to drink at the Charan slum Settlement in Dharamsala, India, where they live with their family. They survive although two of their siblings recently died of malnutrition.
    Renée C. Byer
    12 of 12
By Justin Worland

More than a billion people live on a dollar a day, but their lives can seem worlds apart for the more fortunate among us. In a new work of photojournalism, poverty activist Thomas A. Nazario and Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Renée Byer document the lives of the world’s most impoverished in a series of profiles, charts and photographs.

In ten chapters, Living on a Dollar a Day moves across four continents each with a focus on different issues facing those living in extreme poverty. One chapter focuses on subsistence living, another on slums. We get a bit of a respite in the chapters “And Yet the Children Play” and “Hope.” It’s at times a sad experience, though moving nonetheless.

The book also serves as a call to action. Each chapter ends with information about how readers can get involved in the fight on poverty.

“I was humbled by the grace, generosity, fortitude and bravery of the hardworking men, women, and children who allowed me into their lives,” said Byer, who is the recipient of the prestigious International Photography Award, in a press release. “I hope you’ll look deeply into these photographs and let them change your life too.”

Read next: Motor City Revival: Detroit’s Stunning Evolution in 19 GIFs

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Write to Justin Worland at justin.worland@time.com.

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