>> education is perceived to be the precondition to peacefully resolve the challenges of globalization. this is one of the issues currently being debated at dw's global media forum. welcome to global 3000. today we look at ways to make access to education easier, especially in regions where it is still perceived to be a luxury. and here's what we have coming up: african inspiration -- a kenyan businesswomen shares her experience of applying german know-how. equal access -- a social entrepreneur in colombia invests in the education of disadvantaged students and mongolian modernization -- making prefabricated buildings fit for extreme conditions

when companies talk about going global, they also mean the global transfer of knowledge and know-how. modern communication plays a large role in this. but it's the investment in individuals that allows ideas to develop in the first place. the exchange program afrika kommt, africa is coming, picks up on this. here german companies like daimler, commerzbank and siemens foster the development of engineers, managers or marketing experts with high potential from africa. lucy murina was one of the first twenty participants. three years after taking part in the program, she tells us how she has been able to make use of this experience back home. lucy mutinda works out every morning for 40 minutes. she never misses a day. when she lived in germany, she regularly went to the gym. but now she's got a job in

management and doesn't have much time. >> the days i don't do the work out, i feel like my head is clogged up. but once i do it in the morning, i shower and get ready for work i feel fresh to face >> these cd's are souvenirs of her time in germany. hannover for one year. after securing an educational scholarship, she completed an internship at the german auto parts company continental. lucy says she appreciated the value placed on order and punctuality in germany -- she could depend on things. at least most of the time. >> one day, i had trouble with the water in my apartment. i couldn't believe that could happen in germany.

usually everything works great. but that one day, there was no water on my apartment. >> one thing the 32-year-old engineer has a hard time understanding is why so few young mothers in germany work. her own daughter, atara, has a babysitter. lucy was offered a job in germany, but she wanted to return home. she's been back in the kenyan capital nairobi for three years now. she's a department head at a company on the outskirts of the city. it's the first company in kenya that specializes in portable toilets, for large events or family reunions. the company is now looking to expand, and lucy and her team are working to develop a new branch of business: waste water treatment plants. it's a rapidly growing sector in kenya.

she says it's a challenge -- but her international experience has helped. >> the first thing i noticed was how we do our meetings and the minutes. so i changed the meeting minutes template from this generous stories to task, item, responsible, target date. and it really helped us. because in every meeting, we've closed an item then we need to move to the next. >> lucy's boss says her fondness for order irritates her colleagues at times. but he values employees who are efficient and have international experience like lucy. >> we need to start looking at people that have longer-term projections and plans for their life. it is very often that you find employees staying only one year at a job and moving to the next job for a 5% increment in salary or one percent increment. so they are not looking at building careers.

>> his company competes with many international firms in nairobi, which is east africa's most important economic hub. the city's five universities there boast a growing class of elite students. >> it's sad that we rely on 80% imports, yet we have very sharp people here. we study technical subjects. but we have to keep on importing. >> like the way i am doing wastewater right now. it is a simple mechanism we shouldn't be importing it. we can design it here and manufacture it. but you find that in our country the support like the financial support to fund r&d or people with innovations is not very set in place very well. >> lucy and her friends belong to kenya's steadily growing middle class. they have good jobs and earn up to 3,000 euros a month. their goal is to strengthen kenya's economy and help bring about political change. >> i would wish that the gap between the haves and the have nots not so big.

because you find the rich extremely rich, richer than the rich in europe, and the poor are really poor. so i would love to live in a place where i don't see slums anymore. >> for that, international investors will have to get on board -- not just development agencies. lucy mutinda represents the new kenya -- a country with confidence as well as know-how. >> given the global shift towards more knowledge-based economies, it is no surprise that more and more students see their studies in a global context. unesco figures show: around three quarters of students spend time abroad as part of their studies. so lecture halls are becoming increasingly international, creating a new global education elite. here's our global count on studying abroad. africa's diverse countries have a lot more to offer than beautiful landscapes and rich cultural heritage.

after decades of isolation during apartheid, south africa's universities branched out and connected with educational institutes around the world. the country's best university is in cape town. cardiac surgeon christiaan barnard studied here -- he performed the first successful human heart transplant in 1967. around 20 percent of the university of cape town's students are international. many come from neighboring countries, but there are a number from europe, asia and north america, too. not too long ago, it was unthinkable for chinese parents to send their children abroad to study. but after the chinese economic reform started in the late 1970's, foreign exchanges became more common. now, around 1.3 million chinese students attend university abroad. international students used to be offered generous scholarships -- but not anymore. now, it's mostly the wealthy chinese families who send their children to study in europe,

australia or the united states. according to unesco, 1 in every 7 exchange students is chinese. many even attend boarding schools abroad before college -- where they become accustomed to living and studying in a foreign language. germany is growing in popularity as a destination for international students. shanghai university's academic ranking of world universities includes 5 german institutions in the top 100. ludwig-maximilians university munich, or lmu, is considered the country's best -- especially for medicine and economics. there are currently around 250 thousand international students in germany. but very few of them stay in the country after finishing their degree -- and that's especially problematic because germany has a shortage of skilled professionals. that's why the government is trying to find ways to convince foreign students to stay. it's the richest and not necessarily the brightest who

get access to all these opportunities. a hindrance to the personal development of disadvantaged students. but also a loss to us all, when smart minds are stopped from contributing to our societies. the colombian entrepreneur felipe vergara has set out to break this glass ceiling for poor students. his organization lumni targets underprivileged youths all across south america and helps them through stipends. we meet the man who invests in educating young minds to create a brighter future. >> colombia's bustling capital bogota is a city full of contrasts. felipe vergara highly familiar with the yawning gap between the rich and the poor. poor families here usually can't afford to provide their children with an education. that is why felipe started his organization lumni -- to invest in education for colombia's youth.

>> one of our main objectives with lumni is to improve colombia's human capital. we believe that if we develop human capital in our country, we can really strengthen colombia -- and we will generate so many more opportunities for everyone. >> felipe is constantly on the go, looking for investors to throw their weight behind lumni. if they invest in the organization's funds, they can help students pay for an education. today he's meeting with representatives from one of colombia's biggest breweries. the bavaria brewery is using its own foundation to help lumni. >> the private sector has a major responsibility to contribute to alleviating poverty, working in hand with the government and with organizations like lumni whose

objective and whose mission is to benefit the communities most in need in the country. >> the bosa neighborhood is one of the poorest in bogota. for most families here, sending their children to school and university is too much of a financial burden. francisco forero runs a small store, giving him just enough money to feed and support his family. but it's not nearly nough to send his daughter to college. the family's small apartment is nearby. studying is a luxury for most, but paula has been given the opportunity. the 20-year-old student earned high marks and got a scholarship from lumni. now, she's studying accounting. >> my plans for the future are to be able to achieve a lot professionally.

i don't just want to focus on getting a job at one company and working there as an accountant. i want to work for various companies and be independent so the job market is open to me -- and i want to have a lot of experience. >> and lumni made that possible. feilpe vergara founded the organization 10 years ago. he now has about a dozen co- workers who help him. they work in a small office complex in bogota and do everything from looking after students to drawing up financing structures and acquiring investors. lumni is growing fast and now has offices in several latin american countries. >> i think i expect a lot from myself. i always thought that when we reached 25 hundred students, i would be satisfied. now i am satisfied, but i always think we can do more and support more people. what i want most is to get to the day where we reach hundreds of thousands of students around the world.

>> after they've completed their degrees, lumni's students pay a percentage of their scholarship back -- if they have a job and are financially capable. at this university in bogota, many of the courses take place in the evening because so many of the students have to work during the day -- including paula. her degree will end up costing 45 hundred us dollars -- a sum her parents could never afford. after she graduates, she wants to work and help improve conditions in colombia. educated, skilled professionals are in sorely needed here. felipe travels a lot, so while he's in bogota, he's taking the opportunity to visit a friend -- a top banker who supports lumni.

>> i think education is absolutely fundamental to developing latin america -- not just improving the education but improving how young people are trained. so that they believe that through studying and striving, they can have a better future. >> felipe and his friend are working together to achieve that goal. he's hoping to expand his organization further, and he's looking for investors to help support foreign exchange programs. his mission: to make education accessible to all. and some of you have contacted us on this very issue. braulio paul vasquez aguero sent us an email from peru. he tells us the topics that interest him most about globalization are industrialization, urbanization, and the environment, but also human resources, health, education and society. that's because these affect everyone in the world. in his opinion, these are the issues everyone needs to know all the facts about, in this world full of abstract terms.

thank you for getting in touch, and if you, too would like to contact us, just send us an email at hyperlink "mailto:global3000@dw.de" global3000@dw.de. and soon your message might appear right here. now we often ask you for your views and insights, but we also want your recipes. whenever our reporters travel we ask them to bring back the local no-fuss foods people enjoy on the go. in today's global snack we learn about som tam, a spicy salad enjoyed by countless workers on their lunch breaks in bangkok. see for yourself. >> bustling and vibrant -- this is bangkok, thailand's capital and international metropolis. on the streets, throngs of street vendors have tasty snacks for sale.

on this corner, fish and meat are prepared on a grill...but here you also find a particularly fresh and delicious thai speciality: som tam. it's a sweet and sour salad that's served up across the country, and eaten at any time of day. but what exactly is in it? >> the most important ingredient in som tam is papaya. but only green papaya -only those are crisp enough. >> you also need cherry tomatos, a lot of chili which combines well with the strips of papaya, garlic and various fermented fish sauces that are all homemade. then, a bit of palm sugar and, of course, fresh crab.

finally, the ingredients are ground up in a mortar and mixed together. sampron chuanchit has been running this stand in a busy area of bangkok for 4 years. her recipe for success? >> my food just tastes great. otherwise i wouldn't have so many customers. >> one serving of som tam costs 30 baht's, or around 75 euro cents. you can buy it to go -- but most people who work in offices nearby prefer to hang out in sampron's shop. they share fish and chat. it's the kind of food that you

grow up with. so you don't really get bored of it. this is the real way the sam tam tastes. and it's cheap and it's good." >>do you also eat it because there are vitamins in it and stuff like that? >> no we don't really care. we like it because it's good. >> good and healthy. a win-win for the customers. >> ulanbator is one of the coldest capitals in the world. minus 25 degrees celsius is about the average temperature in winter. even minus forty barely raises an eyebrow. while the yürt, the traditional nomad tent, has proved its worth over the centuries, many relatively modern buildings struggle to meet the extreme requirements. current heating with brown coal is inefficient and adds to winter smog. with some international support city authorities are now trying to make buildings fit for the next winter season.

>> 12-year-old temmuulen loves to be out on the step with his grandmother, tending to the goats. not too long ago, most mongolians lived like this, in yurts out on the open plains. temmuulen enjoys coming to visit. his grandmother burns dried cow manure to cook and heat their home -- even in the depths of winter. but just 10 kilometers away, the picture changes dramatically. this is the country's bustling live in ulan bator -- and more than half in humble conditions, without basic necessities like running water.

house in one of the city's newer neighborhoods. like all of her neighbors, temmulen's mother uses a primitive oven for heat. but instead of relying on cow manure, most here use lignite, or brown coal -- and not without consequence. ulan bator is one of the most polluted cities in the world. >> it was better 2 years ago. but now, the air pollution has gotten really bad, especially in winter. the children constantly have colds or a cough. >> even temmulen's school is heated with coal. good morning students... >> mongolia places great emphasis on education. but winter is a challenge for the school -- despite the coal- fired heater, the students sometimes have to wear thick winter coats. the poorly fitted windows and

badly-insulated walls let in icy drafts. the principal says it's one of his biggest problems. the decaying pre-fab school buildings weren't built to withstand mongolia's extreme temperatures. in winter, it's often minus 40 degrees celsius. he points out mold growing on the ceilings and paint peeling off the walls. he says they installed new windows, but it didn't help. >> we need to renovate from the ground up. in the winter, they took measurements along the walls while the heat was on. it should be plus 5 degrees up by the ceiling, but it was minus 15. you can see that a massive amount of heat is lost. >> germany and the us are now providing support and help for renovation. three elementary schools are being overhauled in ulan bator, and they're supposed to serve as models of energy-efficient

construction. the work is already underway. >> the old roof cladding has been removed. after everything is cleaned up, we'll install a vapor barrier and thermal insulation. after that's done, we'll put on the new roof cover. >> there's new insulation for the roof and the facade. the heaters are getting a thorough cleaning, and later, a new boiler will be installed. for most of the workers, energy- efficient construction is a new experience. and their boss hopes that he, too, can learn something. >> it's really interesting work for us. insulating a building from top to bottom is new to us. i think there's a great need for that in mongolia. >> the workers get a hands-on tutorial.

they learn that the insulation panels have to be fastened securely to the facade. if the wall isn't completely covered with panels, the effect of the insulation is lost. there shouldn't be any gaps between the panels, either. in ulan bator, it's not just renovating that's become a focus. there's also a boom in new construction. 100,000 new apartments are planned for the capital -- a chance to make the city more eco-friendly. the german agency for international cooperation, or g- i-z, wants to help mongolia on its way to a more environmentally sound future. with support from the german development ministry, they invite young architects and engineers to visit an eco- friendly model home. good insulation is crucial for the harsh mongolian winters. and solar panels on the roof provide enough energy for hot

water -- for showering and heating. it might be hard to believe that solar power is an option here in the dark, cold winter -- but it's been proven to work. wiring runs through the whole house. heat sensors attached to the hot water pipes are fitted with , windows and window panes take temperature measurements every 4 seconds -- so heat loss can be measured precisely. and it works: the house only consumes one third the energy of a conventional new home. that concept is going to be used to build schools, and even a completely new neighborhood. but development agencies depend on local construction companies -- and that's why the g-i-z is trying to spark enthusiasm among architects and engineers. >> we've reached a point where these new, innovative technologies can be brought out onto the market, even here in mongolia. we've seen a lot of interest and demand for it here.

>> and that demand is taking shape. this barren stretch of land is set to become a new eco-city, home to 16,000 people -- proof that ulan bator's landscape and image are slowly starting to change. >> so a green lining on the horizon there. and that was global 3000 this week. if you would like to find out more about the role of the media in educating the world, please go online. at hyperlink globalmediaforum.de, you can find plenty of background information on how media can help create more sustainable living conditions. but for now from me and the entire global team, thanks for watching and bye bye! captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org--