3 Female Health Care Heroes: From Iceland's Top Doc To A Village Protector In India

In a remote Indian village, Ranjana Dwivedi goes door to door to educate people about the coronavirus. Once she almost fell into a river on her rounds.

In the halls of power in Iceland, Dr. Alma D. Möller leads the nation's response to the pandemic.

In a mobile testing center in California, Sheeba Shafaq works 12-hour shifts as she also seeks to become certified to practice medicine in the U.S. after fleeing Afghanistan, where the doctor's life was in danger because of her role as an advocate for women.

Here are portraits of these three members of the army of health care advocates around the world. NPR interviewed them as part of a project on how women — who are said to bear a heavier burden at times of crisis because of their many caregiving responsibilities — are playing a key role in the global effort to control the pandemic.

The Chief Of Health Stays Calm In A Storm

It was one of those September days in Reykjavik when you just don't know. The sky was mostly gray and yet the sun shone through. It might start to rain or clear up completely. But it made for a nice view from Dr. Alma D. Möller's glass-encased office. Not that she had time to enjoy it.

At 3 p.m., she breezed into her office, smiling, in a dark