Shurentsetseg Ganbold going to visit semi-nomadic reindeer herders. Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

She makes house calls to nomads

Shurentsetseg Ganbold is a health worker in Mongolia who serves the Dukhas, a community of semi-nomadic reindeer herders who follow their animals wherever they roam. Wherever they settle for the season, Shurentsetseg has to find them, sometimes on horseback, across hours of country and forest roads, through mud and sleet.

In one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world, community health workers like Shurentsetseg are the backbone of the health system. Growing up in a nomadic family, she taught herself how to ride a horse at age 5. Riding to patients calms and energizes her, and when horses aren’t available, she rides reindeer.