a few hours. dubai and other emirates have been closed. more thundery weather is forecast for friday. you can kep you up-to-date with all the news on our website at aljazeera.com >> ♪ ♪ >> thanks for joining us on "america tonight." i'm joie chen. we mark this week's international women's day by looking at the achievements of women. women who face their own adversity and succeed in spite of it. case in point.

one of our nation's seemingly intractable problems, homelessness. that's a problem big cities are taking on especially on behalf of veterans and families. and homelessness is not just an urban issue. it lives often unseen in rural path. "america tonight's" producer ryan lockland, traveled to rural arizona and he found a woman whose strength was creating home. >> one night, 2013, 3:36 in the morning, i woke up with a strong voice in my head, you need to take over transitional motels and turn them into transitional housing. what? really? that morning i woke up, wrote the business plan, i found a motel and a year later we opened up.

my name is laurie barlow, i'm the founder and executive director of a new living. i think we have a solution, you know, we have our emergency family room. we took over the motel, the whole entire property and we turned it into a transitional housing facility . >> the motel 66, off route 66. this. it is for homeless individuals who are working or on a fixed income. we figure out what they need to transition into permanent housing and stay there. the mix is very diverse. from veterans to single moms to married couples to younger adults in their 20s, that are recovering from a substance or alcohol induce. there's not just one group of people that are experiencing this issue.

we accept them all to come here. >> you've been here for a little over a year. >> the rent is a little bit -- it's cheaper than what you would find, nowhere else in town would allow you -- it allows me to still go to school and have a job and pay that forward. we've seen a lot of stuff, we used to drink excessively. >> we would stay at a shelter and take off for a week at a time, and post up in places like this. the woods here and under bridges and different places, that's one of the ones of choice. that's got the most alcohol content. we made our life here. we slept in this tube in here, slept in this gully right here, slept in here.

it's a drainage area but close proximity to a store where we would get our alcohol at and try get something to eat once that while. going from living like this to having a roof over our head and be able to cook and shower every day and have a safe place. little different from where we're living now. come a long way in one year. >> monthly rent is $600 for a single room. and that's compared to if you were station in a motel room in the area the cheapest is over $1,000. where 600 may seem high, that's all utilities included. it may be higher than they'd like but if they can't afford $600 a month they are probably not going to afford permanent housing, especially on a subsidized level.

>> my name is dawn, i've been living here for six months. i have a teenager and a five-year-old son. it's difficult, very difficult, we've changed our boundaries a little bit. it's difficult for a teenage are, boundaries are harder with a smaller brother around. you don't get the privacy but we are grateful for what we have. we utilize the microwave and we try to cook in a microwave instead of a stove and we go down to sunshine rescue mission. they've been great down there. they provide family meals at night. my his had left me, we were separated, he left me in the hospital, when the baby was born, never came back to pick us up. six months later i was laid off from teaching. for. this is where we ended up, fell through the cracks.

i miss my home. my children had rooms, beautiful rooms. >> the biggest challenge especially where we took over is create a safe environment for everyone. we are right on route 66. there's a lot of foot traffic. this motel before we took over had a lot of drug and alcohol activity here. one of the families that was living here they had a six-year-old daughter. they were in this room that we're in now and one night a gentleman came to this back window, came through the window and looking for his drug dealer, he stepped on their six-year-old's bed. they chase him out and that was a scare for them. all the residents now, they are their own neighborhood watch. that's where this is a community and the sense of building the community was really important. >> doing my dishes, we don't have a -- two sinks to do them

in so i do them in the bathtub with a couple of tubs. >> if it wasn't for laurie, this program would probably be out in the streets. we wouldn't have a roof over our heads. i'm bipolar, i got ptsd. i had to go out and panhandle. just to survive. be. >> the past motel rooms we didn't have no stove. >> i served my country. my son gave his life for this country. and yes it was embarrassing for me to go out there and ask for help. i was working a part time job but with my health, and stuff, i'm -- i'm not able to do that now. you know, around here, i do a little painting here and there to help with the rent and stuff. my girlfriend she works real hard. she works five days a week at denny's as a server.

>> i see it, i found it. >> we scrape by, but we get by now, it's a lot better now. i have my good days and my bad days but just knowing we have a place over our heads now and we don't have to worry about being homeless, we got food in the refrigerator, it's a big relief for me. but a normal person might not look like much. but it's home for us. >> we all have a different story. i mean they all have a commonality where they were homeless, working poor homeless, they all have different reasons why they got there and what their background is. and they all are just looking for just a little bit better life. >> next here, we meet a young woman whose search for racial justice took her far there her baltimore home and taught her how difficult it is to get away

from discrimination. and later, a spirited future a young woman's choice and what it means to the next generation of the catholic church.

♪ ♪ >> a lesson now about racism at home and far away. we often assume that the kind of clashes we've seen between police and communities of color takes place only in our country.

but that is not the case. in fact, brazil, which has a much higher rate of homicide than the united states, also faces serious allegation of minorities. in fact police have killed more black brazilians in the last five years than african americans by u.s. police in the last three decades. a young baltimore woman became our guide about the truth to living black in brazil. >> my name is mia hampton. i live in brazil. being black in brazil makes believe your life last no value. i never believed that. i knew my people built this country. i became obsessed with comparing systems. once i got the chance

to actually come here. being here is to be connected to african in some way whether it's the food you eat, the music you play, the no things come directly from your culture from west africa. brazil is home to the second largest group of , 90% of the population in salvador is black. the celebration of african culture is everywhere here, is really important to salvador. i'm really able to be myself in salvador. the level of freedom i have here is huge. i've developed an ease in my skin just living here. here everyone looks up to me.

we're the majority. the connection between salvador and baltimore is very strong. salvador is a city full of black folk, poor folk, neglected by the government and gentrification is happening very fast here, just like happened in baltimore, ferguson. terrifying situation. right now we are in kabula, a site where 13 young black men were last akerred during carnival. the police lined them up against the wall and shot them.

in salvador nobody talks about the police. we don't deal with the police because everyone is afraid of the police. police can kill you. police will come to the marches and take pictures of the people. like we're coming for you. and police have military type guns and they come through in tanks. this kind of violence is so common in south america it's normal. abuse from police, the crazy thing is, many police officers are black themselves but it doesn't matter.

they will still kim you for no reason. dying, like you might watch it, you're at a carnival event, you tell the police, you could get shot on sight. i came to brazil the month that michael brown was killed. i grew up next to where the rights were occurring in baltimore. we're with you, we feel you, we know exactly what's going on. that was great, that michael brown is on the wall here, that's great, i wasn't here for

this but i get to see the black people honor the struggle in the states. the fact that i was here during the incident, and to be watching, you know, somebody commemorated here is really cool. and to inthat initially i thought a lot of people didn't know but people walking past, i know him, i know them from the tv. it's really nice, a good memorial and all that stuff. it's not nice to know that ferguson and baltimore are known in salvador as a place where they were killed. still very sad. today i'm getting a tattoo. f of of a quote. which is a portuguese translation of, but some of us are brave. i

felt like that really summed up my strength here in terms of what it means to be black and to be female, that's what i really learned here in salvador, is how to be a black woman. my whole journey here has been about being brave. salvador will always be here. i'm not looking forward to being thrust back into all of the anger and hate that's in the states right now. i've been living in one of the most dangerous cities in the world with one of the most violent police force he, where people still live. even in their misery and suffering and samba, they smile at each other. they haven't lost sight of their own humanity. they are survivors. >> next here we get a prayer for

future, the new sister hood and why a young woman would choose it today. >> the only live national news show at 11:00 eastern. >> we start with breaking news. >> let's take a closer look.

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comcast business. built for business. when it comes to the fithings you love,. you want more. love romance? get lost in every embrace. into sports? follow every pitch, every play and every win. change the way you experience tv with x1 from xfinity. al jazeera america. is. >> now about an act of faith. last year's visit by the pope sparked conversation by young people.

research says it's still a little early to determine whether a francis effect brings a new generation into religious life. but "america tonight's" lori jane gliha found at least one community, a surge in the sisterhood. >> society portrays religious life as giving up things. we always portray is it as no sex no money, you have to do what the superior says. who would do that? that added to my terror going into it. >> reporter: as a teenage are in catholic school, tracy never imagined she might become a nun or a sister in the church. >> i'm like nobody does that anymore, right? like young people don't do that anymore. it wasn't something i had considered. >> reporter: in her early

20s she had a serious boyfriend and plans to eventually walk down the aisle but when she pictured herself growing old with him, something wasn't quite right. >> i was so in love with him. but when i thought about marrying him, it felt like a door closing. and when i thought about religious life even though every ounce of me did not want to feel this way, it felt like a big blue sky opening up. >> she had been volunteering in ecuador and teaching english to underprivileged children. it was very different from where she grew up in a middle classed cincinnati neighborhood. >> i wanted to make the world a better place and that's where the seed started to grow. >> at 22 she said she had her first call from god. >> what does god's call sound like? >> i wish it was a phone call on a cell phone, that would make it a lot easier. i was sitting on a beach in ecuador whether i was praying

and i was thinking about the boyfriend i had just broken up with and i was repliesing my family and just kind of asking god, god, what is this all about? i felt from somewhere, it wasn't a voice from somewhere but just, you should be a nun. i was thinking, where is that voice from? and prayer senses in the next few weeks, that god wanted me for something. >> she is one of six women in the last few years to join the sisters of clarity, six more than that group has had in the last decade. though she doesn't wear a traditional habit she has taken a vow of celibacy, obedience and poverty. reinforcing her commitment to god and commitment to others. and now, part of her poverty vow, sharing her possessions with her roommates.

two of whom are more than twice her age. >> have a good day. >> it was good. >> what is it like living in a house together, four weeks in? >> it's discovery. >> reporter: what have you discovered so far? >> discovered people's interests, people's izios. >> like in their 20s and 30s and 40s and 50s and 60s. who would think this is a group of roommates? >> so much more than roommates. that we're in this for life. >> it's a gift in a lot of ways and it's a struggle in a lot of ways. >> we're going to use the gospel this morning. >> the beauty of it is living with women who have all different experiences, different kinds of wisdom from the age

that they are and being able to share that together in prayer in the morning. >> what has been the most difficult part of the process for you? >> being a younger sister in a world of older sisters. there are very few 28-year-olds who are surrounded all the time by people in their 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. there is a lot of sickness and death, people coming to the end of their life where i'm just coming into mine, full steam ahead. >> i wonder you know how they do it but three do it well. they seem to fit in easily. i think because there's something different than just the companion ship. >> 91 year old john miriam jones, things are so different than whether she became a sister at age 19. >> now the young people are actually much older than that.

>> that's right. >> what do you think of that? >> well, i think it's a sign that -- of the change and the evolution that has come about in religious life. you know, that you're not ready, as young as we were. >> why do you think you were ready so young? >> you ask hard questions. >> what has changed? what have you seen change for the way that women are? >> well, involvement in ministry i think would be a huge one. time was when we were assigned school, hospital, whatever. and you did as you were asked to do. now we choose. the ministry that appeals to us . >> kemme spends her days now

doing outreach in cincinnati's latino community. she sees her new role as a gift. >> at the end of the day, there is such a deep sense of joy. not like happiness, like i ate ice cream happy. but a sense of abiding joy that lasts. >> some might argue you can still have the things that you have to give up without having >> yeah. i have a lot of people ask me that. and that was a question i discerned for myself. i think i would compare it to someone who feels very, very incredibly called to be a mother. and someone could say to them well you don't have to have your own kids, you could become a babysitter, have kids over to your house all the time. you could have this as a part of your life. this number one was the only way it felt like fluff. my number 1 relationship and commitment in life is with god and the congregation.

>> for kemme's parents who once saw their daughter play maria, a woman who considered becoming a nun, in a musical, growing accustomed to her new life is an welcome. >> are you happy she made the decision she did? >> answer honestly. >> i'm happy she's doing what she wants to do. when you were talking to patty, she is used to it, i've gotten used to it. i'm happy for her. >> do you have any regrets? >> i don't have any regrets. i feel like i had a really good discernment process. i had a lot of good people who helped me along the way and i feel like i've found life that i'm meant to live. >> reporter: lori jane gliha, al jazeera, cincinnati. >> a real act of faith. that's "america tonight." please come back. we'll have more of "america tonight," tomorrow.

"on target" tonight. hitting the brakes. red light cameras set up to make intersections safer, also make a cities. it is a combination of quick yellow lights and fast money that make it hard to stop in more ways than one. i'm talking flit about two subjects that don't usually end up in the same conversation. one is the number of people killed or injured in traffic accidents in american cities and