For the past three years, reporter Peter Aronson has lived in India, where rickshaws are a common sight. He says he recoiled at the idea of using another human being to get around. But after speaking with some drivers, he has a different perspective.

Many people these days are finding they just don't have enough money to pay the bills. Sometimes a medical emergency or car trouble can use up the money meant for the rent. Keith Taylor faced exactly this problem when he was in graduate school. His car had broken down, and after he repaired it, there was nothing left in the bank. But a friend helped him out. Taylor was so touched, he wanted to find a way to keep helping others. So he set up a Web site for people who just need a few hundred dollars worth of help. The first day the Web site was up, he got 1,700 emails -- 80% of them from people wanting to contribute to the fund. The fund has grown dramatically since then. Keith Taylor talks with host Peggy Wehmeyer about his website, called Modest Needs.

Many of the people fleeing Zimbabwe's economic chaos for South Africa are children. When reporter Tendai Maphosa was in the border town of Musina, he saw scores of youngsters roaming the streets there. He spoke with one of them. Here's Kenneth's story, in his own words.

The World Bank announced a few days ago that it will funnel $22 million to Zimbabwe. That's the first injection of World Bank capital there since 2001. The money won't go to the government, but to aid agencies and church groups that help small farmers and the poor. This aid comes too late to help the estimated 3 million people who've already left the country, fleeing the economic meltdown there. Many of them headed south, into South Africa. That's what 31-year-old Joe Moyo (not his real name) did. To get there, he jumped a freight train in Zimbabwe and got off in Musina, just 10 miles over the border. Moyo soon discovered that jobs are hard to come by in South Africa. So, desperate to earn money to send back to his wife and children, Moyo decided to start his own business. Tendai Maphosa brings us the next segment in our Street Vendor series.

The charango is a Bolivian musical instrument that looks a little like a guitar and sounds a bit like a ukulele. But the instrument has its own unique story. Reporter Andrew Reissiger tells the story of a man who’s keeping the spirit of charango alive.

A program in Burkina Faso hopes to give out free birth certificates to five million people there. It's an effort to help fight child labor and underage marriage.

There's a new national hero in India: a 12-year-old girl named Rehka. She lives in a small mud hut in a village a day's journey from Calcutta. The region has one of the highest rates of illiteracy in India, and girls are often married young. At age 12, Rehka's parents told her she had to get married. She said no. Word of her refusal made headlines around the country, and since then, parents in surrounding villages have not forced their young daughters to marry. Ben Arnoldy reported this story for the Christian Science Monitorand discusses it with host Peggy Wehmeyer.

The song Genda Pool is from a very popular Bollywood movie called Delhi Six. It's sung by the cast of the film and was composed by A. R. Rahman, who wrote the music for Slumdog Millionaire.

Many people in the central Indian state of Bihar rely on an old, slow and cheap form of transportation to get around: the bicycle rickshaw. Now, a businessman there has an idea that could turn those three-wheelers into a money-making industry. But will the drivers themselves benefit? We sent reporter Peter Aronson to Patna to find out more.