The Nun Rescuing Sex-Trafficked Women

Sister Rita Giaretta is an Italian nun who has dedicated herself to helping women who have been trafficked into the sex industry. She carries out her work in the town of Caserta in the south of the country.

If you look under a tree in a remote part of the Australian state of Queensland, you might come across the composer Hollis Taylor with a collection of microphones. She's originally from the USA, but is captivated by an Australian songbird which inspires her work.

Lee So Yeon joined the North Korean army in the 1990s after famine devastated the country. In September 2017, she told Matthew Bannister how she'd been hoping that joining the army might get her a better diet.

Mei Fong was one of the finalists of the Queen's Commonwealth Essay Prize in the 1980s. She was born in Malaysia but now lives and works as an award-winning journalist in America.

The winner of last year's prize was Nathan Swain. He reads part of his essay about growing up on the world's most remote inhabited island, Tristan da Cunha. The island is volcanic and sits in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean.

(Photo courtesy of Sister Rita Giaretta.)