>> welcome to al jazeera. i'm stephanie sy. here are the top stories we're following right now. the leader of al-shabab is confirming the armed group was behind the deadly kenya mall attack. 72 people were killed at the mall, and investigators are searching for more bodies. in an audio clip posted on an al-shabab website, it's leader said that it was for kenyan attacks in somali and kenya should be prepared for a long war. secretary of state john

kerry and iran's foreign minister will be discussing th nuclear weapons. and there is a draft resolution to remove chemical weapons from syria. pakistan suffered a 7.7 magnitude quake. it was so strong that it caused a small island in the sea. ♪ ♪

and thank you for joining us. we begin our look at america tonight with a desperate gamble. for immigrants frying to cross the border a search for a better life is a very dangerous feat. they will risk their own lives for that opportunity. america tonight travels to the board tore meet survivors and hear the challenges these immigrants face. some of the images and the stories in this report are disturbing. a corner of the cemetery in texas is lost and left behind. these are the graves of unknown migrants from mexico and central america, who died lonely deaths in the thick bad lands of south texas. >> it's horrible. it is just senseless

deaths. i don't really get it. >> chief deputy sheriff of brooks county, last year he recorded well over 100 dead migrants. this year, the numbers are on trend to exceed that. >> here today we are already up 93% increase. we can see the influx, we can see the volume high. on the pedestrian coming through the brush. >> sol four yous is an impure verbed town, but a u.s. border patrol check point on the highway just south of town is the last burrier from migrants en route to the cities of houston, dallas, and beyond. human smugglers have found a way to evade the check point. about ten miles before the check point, migrants rush out of the vehicles

and head into the bush. they knock down highway fences like this one, that lead them on a long march through miles of country, anyone who can't keep up or gets hurt or sick, is left behind. and many of those simply never make it out of the forest alive. these are corpses found. exhaustion, heat stroke, and thirst can kill a person in a matter of hours. >> you will find them sometimes where they are so deteriorating that it's almost like -- you are missing skin, you are missing limbs or eyeballs, and that's a sad situation. >> recently in an effort to identify the bodies the sheriffs department undersaw the exhumation of dozen graves. >> those remains were taken here, to baylor university

in wako. where they are being examined by a tome of specialists sew now the job beginning opening them, starting to see what information we can put together, to see if we can find case reports and figure out who this individual would have been during life. >> the remains with descriptions of missing persons provided by family members. sometimes he is able to match dna, sometimes the team relies on dental records or other physical characteristics. using hi-tech tools like this laser scanner. this skeleton is in the process of being examined. >> do you know anything about who this person was? >> what i can tell from doing a cursory glance is that it is a male individual. and that they did quite a bit of heavy lifting when they were alive. >> this is someone's obviously someone's son, perhaps someone's husband. someone's. >> father.

>> uh-huh. >> when you hold the remains like that, do you -- do you get a sense of -- >> oh, absolutely. >> the tragedy involved. >> we do. and we talk about that a lot. and it weighs heavily on you. when i first started doing this, after the first i.d. i cried for a week. i knew about the woman. her mother was looking for her, she had two young daughters in mexico that she was raising by herself, and she came to america because she couldn't support them, and she was worned by your family, you will probably be raped and murders this isn't a good idea, and she said this is what i have to do, and she didn't make it. she sprained her ankle the group left her behind. when i would recollected on her case i was pregnant, she was my age. and so i cried and cried at the idea of telling the daughters and the mom, that she wouldn't be back. >> so far, dr. baker has been able to identify about 70 people from the remains found ahonk the border.

>> do we have any idea how many people have died and are still unrecovered? >> no, no idea. it's hundreds of individuals each year that were not even counting or seeing and that's happening all along the border. because they are desolate areas. it is an opportunistic, if you talk to an immigrant that has come through these passes just about everybody will tell you they saw at least one body, but usually multiple bodies. >> that's what people did tell us. it's a temporary refuge for undocumented migrants who have been deported from the u.s. many people here are afraid to speak openly about their experiences crossing the border. but one who asked us not to show his face, told us what he saw. >> sometimes i see people who have died in the dessert trying to cross, because they didn't have the water or the things they needed to survive. they are just dead, just laying there dead.

i saw one that was just a skeleton, and another that was a dead body covered with sand. it's frightening. sometimes there's nothing left of them. there was one a woman i think, and she had been eaten by wild coyotes. >> he is fully aware of the dangers involved but he like every other person we spoke to at the hotel, was determined to cross the border again. his wife and children are in the u.s. there is nothing that will keep me from crossing the border. the desire to be with my kids and the love i have for them gives me the strength to keep trying. >> local averager believes the migrants who cross his land to evade the check point include dangerous criminals. >> you always have your cell phone with you. you all have your gun with you. you want to make sure that gun has plenty of bullets in it. >> vickers has form add group called the texas border volunteers. they patrol the year

looking for migrants and alerting the border patrol if they find them. vickers is staunchly opposed to most aspects of immigration reform. >> i'm against amnesty or any path way to citizen ship. most of these people are not going to assimilate. they are going to maintain their own language, their own culture, they own way of doing things. and they are breaking us. they are breaking us. they are coming in here to capitalize on our social services, some of them to find work. there's a lot of them that are coming in here for the crime, and the lucrative business in crime. >> at their ranch house, vickers and his wife linda keep guns and several large dogs for self-protection. >> as time goes on, i feel less secure. it's not -- it's no longer if i am going to be assaulted it is when. >>

the u.s. has tightened border security, but less so in desolate and difficult regions like south texas. the idea was, forcing migrants to cross the most dangerous routs would discouraging them from even making the attempt. be uh the strategy appears to have failed the migrants keep coming. the border patrol declined the request for an interview for this story. deputy martinez says he doesn't follow the debate over immigration reform in washington very closely. but he says attention must be paid to what is happening here. >> these persons are human beings. this is a humanitarian issue, and the fact that there's someone's dad, or someone's mom, cousin, brother, relative, whatever the case may be, they are humans. >> reform, if it comes will have come too late for the nameless ones resting beneath the sand. >> and that report from rob reynolds. coming up here on america tonight.

a secret fundamentalist offshoot, its leaders is behind bars for sexually abusing children. but many say the man who they say they know as the prophet still yields his influence. >> it is a very impressive atmosphere. it is ruled by an iron fest, but controls things from prison. >> how one family turn its back on oppressski influential community. and got away.

[[voiceover]] every day, events sweep across our country. and with them, a storm of views. how can you fully understand the impact unless you've heard angles you hadn't considered? antonio mora brings you smart conversation that challenges the status quo with unexpected opinions and a fresh outlook. including yours.

welcome back. a warning from officials in arizona, what they describe as one of the worst abuses of human rights. young women, children themselves sometimes, forced into polygamist marriages america tonight reports from a small community in that state. where new efforts are underway to strip a radical religious group of its power. >> it is a whole new light nor these young children. sumple pleasures like eating watermelon. even playing for toys they were things forbidden to them until just a few months ago. their mother ruby jees sop was married against her will at the age of 14 to a much older man. in january, she and her six children fled the fundamentalist church that had controlled her life.

>> what was it like when you were driving out of town with the kids in the car in. >> i was really nervous, and over joyed. i felt like that my kids were going to be brainwashed not wanting to go with me at all. the fear of i hate you mom, you have done bad, you know. that's what ran through my head. was are they really going to love me the same as they did. >> i do that? >> they do. >> ruby was raised in the fundment list church of later day saints, or f.l.d.s. members followed this man, warren jeffs. they call him their prophet, a man who had 78 wifes, two dozen under the age of 17. in 2011, he was convicted of child sexual assault, but even though he is serving life in prison, state and federal efficients say he is still running the show in colorado city. >> it is very oppressive atmosphere. it is ruled with an iron fist by warren jeff whose

is now in prison, but controls things from prison. >> arizona attorney general tom horn is a vocal critic of f.l.d.s., he say says the police fore in colorado city is controlled by the church. so he paid for a county sheriffs officer to be stationed in the town, and he is leading an effort to edition band the local force called marshals. >> if a marshal doesn't follow the orders of the church, he would not only lose his job, he would be excommunicated and lose his family. they would take how many wifes they are, and their children and give them to another family. some people say to me if the police are acting badly, why don't you discipline them. we have been doing that, but every time they are decertified they have a clone to take his place. >> last year, the federal department of justice charges the towns police with being an enforcement arm of the church. they sowed the town for multiple on going civil rights violations, including discrimination, and intimidation of nonmembers. ruby jees sop knows that

intimidation first hand. she managed to get custody of her children with the help of the attorney general's office, now she and her children live in phoenix. for the first time, the jeessop children are now in public school. warren jeffs has forbidden children to attend public school since the year 2000. the family lives in this crowded home, with one of ruby's sister's, she fled f.l.d.s. years ago and now she is an anti-polygamy about vest. >> when ruby did leave, she didn't believe she had the right to take her children. because the women are taught that the children belong to the priesthood. i told her, don't leave your babies. trust me, yo i have the right to your chin. ruby says her husband worked as a dispatcher for the town marshals. despite a court order granting her emergency custody of her children, she claims the marshals tried to stop her, even throwing oit the court order. ruby was forced to get

outside help from the county sheriff to get her kids. >> did you fear you may never see them again? >> definitely. because the church up there have a new rule, that if one parent leaves, those kids the church owns those kids. i can't let my kids be owned by someone. >> america tonight traveled to colorado city to see the situation first happened. we met up with gary aniles an investigator for the mojave county attorney. he has been working on these cases for nine years. >> this city is controlled be i the religion. not one of those people that isn't a member in good standing of the f.l.d.s. church. >> that entrance right there goes into the police dispatch. >> the guy that just went into. their cameras all over there, you can see one camera on top of the roof. >> so they know there is a outsider. >> right.

>> and they knew you are here? >> right. they knew i was here the minute i hit town. >> how are you? can we talk to you for a second? okay. have a good day. >> all politely declined. >> engles told thaws the church controls even what members eat, the only grocery store in town was shut down by the f.l.d.s., members receive food rationed from what the church calls the storehouse. it's located behind these high walls. >> it operates just like cults do, the one person is in charge, warren jeffs can take your family away from you. warren jeffs can take your house away, and warren jeffs most of all, can take your salvation away from you. >> have things gotten better or worse since he went to prison? >> i think that since warren is now in prison, and he has all this time to think things up, that they are getting worse for the f.l.d.s. >> more extreme? >> more extreme. >> even though warren jeffs is locked up, the situation in colorado city is worse?

>> oh, definitely. way worse. there's no more marriages up there that's happening right now. because warren is the only man that can perform the marriages. there is no sexual contact between husband and wife. >> they have stopped sexual contact between husbands and wifes. >> within the last year. the only communication that you can have is a hand shake and no longer than three seconds. >> with your spouse? >> with your spouse. he wants to have total human control of everyup there. >> in a rare exchange with a outsider, a colorado city mother, says she experienced discrimination personally. she claims town marshals would not protect her from her husband, whom she says was physically abusive, partly because she is no longer in good standing with the church. >> are you going to get out of here some day? >> i'm working on it. >> how important is it to you?

>> well, i feel like especially since i was like cast out of the meetings, and the church, and i also watched my family be dissolved, i need to put the children around more structure lifestyle. and get them away from this corrupt manipulative lifestyle. >> the problem is that there's no way we can right the wrongs here. all we can try to do is change the future here. to try to get these cities to operate normally like any other city would. a part of that will be controlling how they do business. >> state officials one way the town does business, is by controlling property. the f.l.d.s. church owns nearly all the land here. which allowed them to control church members by threatening to kick them out of their homes.

now the utah attorney general's office is trying to return those property rights to private citizens. isaac wilier is bart of that effort. >> we are doing an investigation, which may lead to an eviction. >> but f.l.d.s. members have not been cooperative. often moving in and out of homes in the middle of the night. america tonight accompanied wilier while investigating a reports that colorado city's town manager, whom he believes is an f.l.d.s. member, has illegally occupied a vacant home. >> this is the same response we get. nothing. they won't come to the door. >> no one answers the door, but we knew someone was inside. earlier, we witnessed a woman and a boy enter the home. after they spotted us, they never came back outside to close the trunk of their van. wilier says he needs the county sheriffs for protection, since housing conflicts can get heated in this video from 2010, a young couple who left

the church generations ago but wanted to stay in their home, is roughed up by local marshals. >> you understand with her. >> wilier says his role in reporting property violations has made him the target of years of harassment. >> what has happened to your livestock? >> we have had people shoot them, run them down with vehicles. cut the fences turn them lose out on the highway, hoping they would get hit. >> why are they doing this. >> trying to drive us out of town. they felt i was fighting warren jeffs, which i was. >> we wanted to ask warren jeffs but he declined an interview from his texas prison cell. we requested interviews with the colorado city may tor, and the chief martial, but they also declined. a phoenix based attorney for the town agreed to a telephone interview. >> colorado city has been investigated behalf a dozen counties, state, federal agencies the d.o.j. is currently suing the city, why has there been so much interest in what is happening there.

>> it is an easy target. i represent a lot of municipalities in arizona, and i don't see any distinction in how colorado city runs its own, verses any other municipality. the only difference is there's a religion in colorado city, that people find very interesting. >> one of the people we spoke to was the attorney general tom horn of arizona, and he said that prioritiestop priorities is to try to disban the police department, he again, says that it is serving the interests to f.l.d.s. church. >> my response is simple, where's the evidence? rather than make the allegations show the evidence. we have been waiting for the evidence for years and years and years. >> tonya tool and staff from holding out help, a nonprofit that aids people who have left polygamy, are making a covert food delivery to a brother and sister in colorado city.

>> their family has been split up due to some of the members being deemed worthy, and the other members of the family have been deemed unworthy. and so once you are deemed unworthy, you are basically cut off from the food rations that the community gives you. >> tools clients have taken shelter in an unused trailer, after being told by church elders to leave their parents home. >> i am a small town girl from nebraska and had no idea this was happening in the wrights of america. and let me tell you, it is complete injustice. i think both the attorney generals from utah and arizona are doing the very best that they can with the information that they have been given. but you cannot find a lot of people even when they leave that will speak up on behalf of everybody else. they want to leave quietly, they don't want to cause problems for the people that they love that are still in there. and so they don't -- they choose to do nothing. >> tool asked us to stop filming to protect the privacy of her clients but the scene we observes was sobering.

two young people, cut off from they community, now dependent on strangers for food. >> back in phoenix, ruby jeesop and her kids are beginning a new life. >> are you going to let your brother call you a chicken. >> if you had decided to stay in colorado city, what do you think life would have been like for your kids? >> that's what i was trying to get away from. was getting my daughters to be married at such a young age. i had gone through it, and why put my kids through it. i want them to make their own decisions. mothers, have a choice too. it's not just the children. the mommies get a choice too. >> you must be so proud of her. >> i am. i am super proud. >> a lot of happiness in that house now, now earlier this summer, we attend add meeting between the utah attorney general and dozens of people who left that church years ago, but there's still fighting to get their homes back. you have to remember, that all the land in

colorado city was controlled by the church. but now after a long legal battle, the courts are working out a new plan to split up that property to current and ex-members a lot of money at stake here, more than $100 million in assets. and joey, the current thought process if you can take that power away from the church, you will empower the people there to make some independent decisions. >> but stim, very scary for them. tell me about ruby, how is she doing now? >> yeah, the kids are just amazing. you have to remember, that they had not played with toys. they had never everybody had simple pleasures like jumping in a swimming pool, now her in public school. when they first got into school they are way behind on their math and reading but now they are accelerating in school, and starting to catch up. >> what about men within the group? do they have any resistence to continuing to be part of senate. >> there are men who have left that group over the years. i had lunch with a group

of them while we were in colorado city. there's only one restaurant in town, it's called the mary wife's cafe. >> a little irony. >> right. >> we ran into a couple of guys there that left the group years ago, and they have been fighting to get their own property back. one of them is successful and he has moved into the home that he helped build and on both sides of him he has neighbors that are current members of f.l.d.s. >> so he is willing to remain? i think you would want to get as far as way. >> it is complicated because even though people may not want to be members of the church, they still have these familiesended families and the family roots run deep. people have lives there for decades now. >> and they are willing to go back. >> yep. >> and be at least part of it. let us know how things develop for all the families out there, next up here, a mother losing her only son, the result

of a doctors deadly mistake. >> he leaned over and he said it is going black. and then he arced into cardiac arrest. and that was the last thing he ever said. >> highway missing a diagnosis is symptomatic, of some of today's physicians. millions who need assistance now. we appreciate you spending time with us tonight. up next is the golden age of hollywood going golden but elsewhere. why l.a.'s mayor has declared a state of emergency for the entertainment industry there. next.

on august 20th, al jazeera america introduced

deadly. and as american tonight reports, they happen far more often than we would like to think. >> in many ways tara is your typical 20 something. she leads an active life keeping fit. in fact, busy training for a half marathon. and she gets out and about. but not that long ago, the 23-year-old found herself in the emergency room, almost unable to move and about to learn a lesson in diagnosis. on a tuesday i had chest pain.

i work for summer camp, and i said this is exhausting. so it got worse. he said you are a little bit congesting. you probably just pulled your big muscle that goes from your should err toe your chest, and he asked if i wanted muscle relaxers. that night i couldn't sleep still, go back to work the next day, i am still miserable, i remember calling my fiance. i was bawling my eyed out, but it hurt to cry, because i couldn't sniff my nose without it hurting. >> tara was convinced this was much more, so she headed to the emergency room for a second opinion. >> a cat scan offered a shocking new diagnosis. little did i know, what he saw in the picture, what did he see. >> he saw 21 blood clots in my lungs.

11 on one side and ten on the other side. >> tara learned she has a hereditary blood clotting disorder. the national institutes of health say about 30% of americans with untreated blood clots will die. most will die within hours of the clots forming. >> it scares me the most, was that it could have been gone. that i wouldn't have been here to be with my fiance, what would he have done. my mom and dad, i am the only child, what would they have done. all my stuff still here. everything is still there, but i'm not. and that is scary. >> what is also scary is just how common misdoingses are. >> i am pretty confident that this is the diagnosis -- >> a physician at the v.a. medical center in houston texas.

he leads a team of researchers, one of just a few of its kind, studying misdiagnosis. his latest study show that in review of 190 cases in primary care settings more than a third had errors. >> no matter how you look at it, it is a substantially large number. that is more than what we expect. there was not one disease that stood out. but there was so many that were about 68 types of different diagnosis that we found that were missed in the primary care setting. >> one of the main reasons doctors get it wrong, is how little time they spend with a patient. and the pressure to see even more, is fueled by our medical system. where doctors are paid by the visit. >> helen has call is someone who spend as lot of time thinking about a physician's time, and attention. ever since she

admitted her 15-year-old son, lewis, to a south carolina hospital for elective surgery to breastbone. >> we were very nervous waiting for the surgery to finish. we thought that that was the moment of highest risk. so when he came out, and everything seems to have gone already, we were relieved. it was the third morning after surgery. a few minutes after he had been given an insection. >> it is a powerful pain kill we known risks that include perp rated ussers and internal bleeding. >> he suddenly developed this excruciating pain, in his upper abdomen. he started sweating just beads of sweat popping out, and he got these big black circles under his eyes. i kept asking for the doctor. so this young doctor comes in and he examined

lewis, and he says, this is just constipation. >> lewis was in serious condition, no matter where the cause was. and they weren't taking that condition seriously. >> the boy has developed a serious perp perp rated iter. his attending physician never came to examine him. >> he leaned over and he said it is going black. and i said what? and he said it again. and his words were slurred, he said "it's going black." and then he arced into cardiac arrest. just all at odd angles. and that was the last thing he ever said. this was a gigantic hospital. that was supposed to be

expert in its field, and nobody could recognize that a patient was dying. >> the medical university of south carolina in charleston took steps to make amends, starting with an award of almost $1 million to lewis' family. in addition, the hospital built a hi-tech simulation lab, to better diagnosis and treat people in their care. the simulation lab is a step forward as is the lewis blackman patient safety act, a 2005 south carolina state law that she lobbied for, which mandates that a hospital doctor has to come when a patient's family called. but for helen, it's a small victory. she is kiss mayed by how off mistakes happen. >> there is a small part of me that things some day it will change, but i'm not sure what it will take. >> lewis' story is so heartbreaking.

so it leaves us to wonder what do you do to protect yourselves. >> one of the first things is pay attention to your own body. you saw at the beginning of the story, she wouldn't take anything for an answer, she kept knowing that something was wrong, and going to different doctors just to find out what was wrong. you know your body better than any doctor does. the other thing to do is have a primary physician. have a doctor that is consistent. keep going back to that person. because that person will get to know your body and go through the process and see if something is wrong, and also with your medical records, if you do go to a new doctor, don't just assume that that doctor knows everything about you. often times you are taking medication, or you have a family history, or had an encount we a disease, don't just assume that because the doctor is there, that they know everything about you. be vocal about it, because often times the doctor does haven't a lot

of time to spend with a patient. >> although lewis' mother clearly tried to advocate, but it was sort of lost in the communication, is there acknowledgement that lei, we are not infallible, that there are mistakes and we need to hear? >> definitely. that is a big part of this. doctors acknowledge that. and it is important for the patient to be proactive. but there's a lot of things, the simulation lab, doctors are getting a better chance at vocalizing what kinds of things are going wrong. there were 80% of the problems that were found in this study happened in the initial doctor patient encounter. and the way that they communicated with each other. another part of the problem was doctors are not documents how they go about the diagnostic process. they put it in their head, and think about it, i think it is this, it is important to get it down on pape sore if you go to another doctor, or later

on in the episode you can go back and look and see okay, what else could it have been. so a lot of the big issues does come back to communication and that first encounter. >> the first time, could be all important. >> and still to come here on mention tonight, a civil war's youngest and often forgotten victims. >> so many women have been raped in syria. children have been raped as well. a two-year-old girl was raped in a nearby town. her parents couldn't deal with it, so they slaughtered and buried her. >> how syrian refugees are recovering from afar after experiencing tragedy beyond their years.

on inside story, we bring together unexpected voices closest to the story, invite hard-hitting debate and desenting views and always explore issues relevant to you.

faultlines investigates the epidemic of overcrowding in women's prisons. >> the system is setup to do exactly what it's doing - to break people and to keep them broken. hi, my name is jonathan betz, and i'm from dallas, texas, and i'm an anchor for al jazeera america. i started in a small television station in rural arkansas.

it's a part of the country that often gets overlooked. but there are a lot of fascinating people there, a lot of fascinating stories there. i like that al jazeera will pay attention to those kinds of places. what drew me to journalism is i like the idea that we are documenting history. al jazeera documents it like none other. and to be a journalist, and to be part of a team like that? that's an incredible blessing. looking across the globe now, the youngest witnesses of war, battling heartbreaking memories. a recent study found that many children already displaced by the syrian conflict face grave coping issues. to understand how organizers are helping kids scope with the impact of war. >> the united nations, says half of the refugees are under the age of 18. after witnesses violence and surviving multiple displacements some young refugees are now dealing with depression, fear,

and anger at their situation according to aid agencies. armed conflicts are known to cause significant psychological and social suffering to young people. this is mirrian, she is scared to use her real name or show her face, because she has family in syria. she is 16 and is now taking a youth empowerment training course. where she wrote a short story about her sadness. >> when i lost my village, sadness and depression appeared on my face. i could hear nothing, but the wind and trees and the children crying from the shells and rockets that fell on us. every minute, and every second. who am i? i don't know who i am any more. >> she feels her grief is the reason she is confused about her identity. >> i am a girl who used to be happy. and now i am sad. because of what happened in syria. to me, my country was heaven on earth.

>> the teenager like maria suffer from witnessing the horrors of war. >> so many women have been raced in syria. children have been raped as well. a two-year-old girl was raped in a nearby town. her wants couldn't deal with it so they slaughtered and buried her. >> these young girls have seen everything from death of family members and friends, to the wholesale destruction of their homes and neighborhoods. here special play areas monitors by coaches have been set up to help children heal. >> aid agencies believe one of the best ways to help children recover from the effects of war and displacement is by providing group activities and vocational training. these programs a imto make life as normal as possible for them. and give them a safe environment to express their feelings openly. >> syrian children have also witnessed fighting, car bombings and

heavy air tillry. such experiences make every place feel unsafe. >> many children have been exposed to awful things that have effected them psychologically. so their mental health is worsened. >> most children here don't feel at home in this harsh camp environment. so the goal of these activities is to make them feel included and give them a say in improving the quality of life here. many syrian children have a strong connection to their homes and town even after such a young age. >> we see more syrians arriving here and the camp polllation growing i feel there's no way we will return to syria. but the teachers here always tell us we will return soon, so i try to be positive. >> education is available for all ages in the catch, but

roughly 80% of children are not in school. the reasons are numerous. many families consider the camp unsafe, so they limit their children's movement, especially the girls to protect them from harassment. this has effected the education of young women in the camp. displacement has also changed family dynamics for many syrians in exile. children and teenagers have been charged with new responsibilities. including tremendous pressure to care for their families. here most male teenagers have to earn a living and contribute to household income. but there aren't enough jobbing for everyone, that's why depression and hopelessness are becoming widespread among young male refugees. with some becoming increasingly aggressive in their behavior. so aid agencies are providing vocational training to make their time more useful and to teach them skills they can take back with them to syria. >> manic is 18 and he is

from the province. his education was interrupted in syria, so he said this welding class makes his life here more meaningful. >> we rawls hoped the r a good future. we never expected to become refugees one day. so a lot of our hopes and aspirations have evaporated and we have lost so much. >> this is a class to teach young women how to apply makeup. >> we want these kids to go back to syria, with some hope for the future. because they are going to rebuild at the end of the day, the country, and we want them to be able to engage in activity that will be constructive within their communities at home. >> there's fear that the war will scar the younger generation. even if they could return to syria soon, they say their dreams and aspirations have been crushed because their

homes are gone. and still ahead here, how one woman is fashioning an employment plan for the homeless in detroit. >> because we don't need coats. we need jobs. she was angry about it. i am not going to let you get off the hook with creating a band eight. >> yep, for more than a band aid, the plan that is getting single moms out of the shelter is into single homes of that's all i have an real money. victoria azarenko

that's all i have an real money. victoria azarenko

finally here on america tonight, what works. for that we travel

tonight to detroit, a bankrupt city where a young woman with a big idea is helping other women stitch together a future. >> downtown detroit on a warm and beautiful summer day. for the sunseekers here the biting chill off of a michigan winter seems very far away. was in a warehouse about two miles from the city center, that's exactly what they are focused on. nine seamstresses working eight hour as day to turn out versatile winter coats for a particularly vulnerable population, the homeless. >> this is the empowerment plan, it is a nonprofit that employs women who have been homeless or living in women's shelters. their job here is to sew winter coats. >> what convinced you there was a real need for this. >> it's founder is 24-year-old vironica scott, a graduate of college for creative studies. the idea grew out of a design class project.

>> we were given an assignment to fill actual needs rather than design something for a trend. and this coat came out of that. it came out of that class project. >> her research took her to the city's homeless shelters. she tried to figure out what people really need to survive, she concluded that some kind of heavy duty garment is what they could use the most. she eventually came up with a hand sown prototype, which she displayed for the folks tat shelter. >> they all tried it on, and they were excited to them it was their first prototype, not just mine. the reaction to that first one is it is a grade idea, but it looks like a body bag. >> so she took that initial idea and kept improving it, working on the coat, and returning to the shelter, for feedback. >> i think this is what makes the coat different is the fact that i did the research with the people. the community that i was trying to reach out, and

did it with them in a way that at the end of the five months i was known as the crazy coat girl. or the crazy coat lady, or the crazy white coat girl, any mixture of those words that was my street name. >> but one night she got into an angry confrontation with a woman at the shelter. >> she said we don't need coats, we don't need coats we need jobs and she was angry about it. i am not going to let you get off the hook with creating a band aid. >> she was forced to think beyond the immediate effect of a product, just giving things to people. >> a coat on its own is not going to change anything. but if go in and hire the people that are in the shelters that would be possibly on the receiving end of these, instead of just giving them the coat, and hiring them. >> the empowerment plan was born. >> below zero temperatures. >> after making up a rough business plan, her college dean introduced her to the ce oh, of the clothing giant, car heart. that meeting went well,

remarkably well for a 21-year-old who lived at her grandparent's basement. >> the next day i get called fromn't mr.s in tennessee, and kentucky, and mexico, saying lei, we have two tons worth of equipment three industrial suing machines hundreds of yards of fabric, zippers, everything, being shipped and we have them for this home address, is that okay. they were all being shipped to my grandparents house, on two freight trucks. >> after that initial treasure drove from car heart including these water resistent outer shells and plenty of good advice, vironica got a surprise call from general motors. the giant auto maker offered her another key ingredient for her design. >> inside and in between the red and the black, is this insulation. it is from g.m., it is recycled from their scrap, it is made from the stuff that is put inside the g.m. door panels. to insulate and sound deaden the whole car. >> and this is the

result. a transportable walter resistent heavy duty coat. it closes usesville row. it has a sleeping bag built in that can be enters without even taking the coat off, and it is big. allowing for laters or clothing to be kept underneath. and to sow it all together, that's where the ladies enter the picture. all single moms all formerly homeless, all desperate to work. none with seamstress experience. >> we do a month of just basic you are sitting in front of a machine that is a car motor attach today a needle i know it is intimidating let's just get you comfortable. >> they earn between eight and $12 an hour. s that abuild their confident, many are able to leave the street life and afford places of their own. already, 15 have works in the program. >> they transition from

being homeless, being in a shelter, to their home for the first time in a long time. a stable home that they know they can pay for. >> one of the newest hires is tia sames. she has been at the shop for four months. a 21-year-old mother of two, she lived in a shelter, she was separated from her children, and desperate to reunite with them, when a social worker mentioned the empowerment plan, she went for an interview. >> when i walked in i seen vironica, i seen something different. like okay, this maybe be a possible good job. so i filled out the application, and i told her, don't forget my face, because you will see me again. tia got the job. when i walked in here, all i thought about was my kids. i'm going to have a job andly be able to get my kids back, so that got me excited. >> since starting with the empowerment plan, tia has moved out of the shelter is into an apartment with her kids. her life is very different now. and

even three-year-old tamia understands. my daughter tells me all the time, mommy, i am proud of you. she told me on the 4th of july, almost made me cry, i am so proud of you, mommy. i said why. she said because you love us, and you are always taking care of us. i said how old are you. >> detroit may be bankrupt, bouvier can scott is determined to show it has a heart. knowing that those out on the street will struggle and suffer, this winter, just like the last. so the ladies of the empowerment plan will cut, and backstitch, and hem every day. and deliver at least 4,000 of these sturdy coats to the people that need them most. it's their way of helping the homeless, and helping themselves out of poverty, along the way. that terrific report from chris burry. and that is it for us here on america tonight. please remember if you would like to comment or anything you have seen here tonight join the

>> a struggle to reach victims of an earthquake in pakistan's remote southwest. 350 people are reported dead. >> i'm kamal in the district worst affected where hundreds of people have been killed. the fear is the casualty figures may rise. >> you're watching al jazeera live from doha. also ahead investigation