Working. It's what most of us do for half our waking lives. It's how we feed and clothe ourselves and how we support our families. It shapes our sense of who we are, and of where we fit in the scheme of things.

Working is also what connects us. Almost everything around us is the product of human labor—much of it performed in faraway places, by people we will never meet.

Each month, WORKING brings us into the life of a single worker in the global economy. Intimate profiles of real people with real families, real struggles, real dreams, and real jobs.

Fidele Musafiri

Job:

Miner
Location:

Bisiye, Democratic Republic of Congo
Income:

$3-3.50/kg of ore
Daylight:

1-2 hours/day
Wish:

Jackhammer

Your cell phone or your laptop wouldn't work without a mineral called coltan. The Democratic Republic of Congo has about 80 percent of the world's coltan reserves, and that has spawned a corrupt and violent industry. Military factions vie for control of the mines, earning millions of dollars while the miners themselves barely scrape by. One of those miners is Fidele Musafiri, a small man with a hammer, a spike, and a dream of striking it rich. But the soldiers are never far away.

Past Stories

Upcoming Story

Svitlana Svystun's life with The Great Moscow State Circus is nothing if not nomadic. She's a Ukrainian dancer performing an Argentinean "gaucho" act for audiences all over Britain. Most of the year she lives in a six-meter long caravan with her ringmaster husband Andrey and their three-year-old son Maxim. She does two performances a day, six days a week, squeezing them in around her duties as a mom. She likes bringing the storied tradition of Russian circus to the UK. But the roar of the crowd is what really keeps her going.

Do you know a remarkable worker we should profile? The job must be outside the United States, and teach us something about our globalizing world.

Work connects us all. Tell us about yours and we will connect you to other workers around the world.