>> hello and welcome to "global 3000." education is the key to tackling poverty. the un's world literacy day has been spreading awareness for half a century. today we see how education is transforming people's lives. here's what's coming up. a vision for bangladesh. we meet a man committed to alleviating poverty. mali's speed school. how those who missed out are given a chance to catch up. and endangered delicacy. how pacific island countries want to save the bluefin tuna. sir fazle hasan abed received

his knighthood for helping those with no status at all. the poor of bangladesh. more than 40 years ago by offering microcredits to farmers, many of whom used the money to buy dairy cows. then when the farmers couldn't market the milk, the ngo jumped in again and took care of processing, packaging, and management. today his organization brac is the largest ngo in the world. and it runs schools, too. because after all, they provide opportunities to break the cycle of poverty. >> very good, thank you! education is the key because it leads to the development of a child and then he can think from himself, and he can be more

entrepreneurial, he can look for opportunities. so education is the key to development, growth and prospects and opportunities for every children. my personal vision is to get all bangladeshis out of poverty. we are trying to extricate people from poverty from different angles, not just improving income and employment but also improving their opportunities so that they have access to education, access to health care and access to a more dignified life that is want we want. >> fazle hasan abed is a visionary. his development agency brac is based in the capital dhaka. he studied and worked abroad, but moved back to bangladesh in 1971 to find a country left in ruins by natural disaster and the struggle for independence from pakistan.

the devastation prompted him to sell his apartment in london and change his life completely. >> i used to be a business executive i used to work for shell oil company and i left shell and decided to do this. initially, of course, i thought i will do it for few years but than we found that poverty is so intense in bangladesh, that we had to commit ourselves for the whole life not just few years. few years won't do. so bangladesh used to be the second poorest country in the world after burkina faso. there was a lot of child mortality in bangladesh. 1/4 of our children died before their fifth birthday. so we had to do something about child mortality reduction.

>> reducing child mortality rates in slums is one of his top priorities. the brac project focusing on bettering maternal, neonatal and child mortality in urban areas is called manoshi. >> so we decided to go from house to house, teaching mothers how to make oral dehydration fluid at home and how to administer it. it took us 10 years to go to 13 million households in bangladesh and teach one to one, one woman in every household, how to make dehydration fluid. so that had a big impact in the country in cutting down infant mortality from diarrhea. >> brac's guiding principle is that poverty amelioration can only be sustained through greater equality in gender roles. it therefore advocates women's rights and the improvement of women's welfare.for example, who look after women too poor to afford a doctor.

in intervention areas, neonatal mortality rates have subsequently declined, as have maternal mortality rates. thanks to brac, 25 million women now receive medical attention. >> we work with women a lot in this country. our microfinance clients --- more 6 million clients are all women. we work with women because women in bangladesh has been the managers of poverty. they manage poverty in the households. so we thought, if the managers of poverty are women, why not shouldn't they be the managers of development? that is why we focused our intention on women's development and women's empowerment. every program that we did we

first started small made it , effective, than efficient and than scaled up trough all the nation. so one secret is that most ngos remain small and beautiful, they don't want to grow very much. but we were very ambitious, we wanted to change bangladesh, and that is the reason why we had to become large and effective rather than small and beautiful. >> brac is now the world's largest ngo, operating in 11 countries with a staff of 120,000 and an annual budget of 500 million euros, only part of which comes from donations. the rest is generated by the organization itself -- its many subsidiary companies, investments and bank. , >> i am happy that i have changed my life to another direction, to the direction in which i have come. i would have been otherwise a professional person, i would probably have retired by the age of 65 or 62, and now i am 78 and

i am still working in my organization, and i find a great deal of satisfaction in working in the organization. there are so many things yet to be done, so i can't feel satisfied that i have done everything that i wanted to do. so i still need to do many more things. >> a decision that will continue to help those in need. so far the good news -- illiteracy is on the decline, although it's still mainly women who denied education. and there are still big geographic differences. while most regions no longer perceive illiteracy as a big problem, africa is still experiencing an education gap. there from five people, only three can read and write. in mali it's just one in three. for children left behind it's doubly hard in later life. that's where mali's speed schools come in. their unusual approach offers

kids a chance to catch up. >> physical education class at 7:00 in the morning, here in tiéneké-bougou, a village that's a two-hour drive north of mali's capital, bamako. solomane traoré, known to his friends as solo, attends what's called a "speed school". he's completing an elementary school education. it will take him just 9 months to catch up on three years of normal school. lessons incorporate elements of play, but discipline is also important. 10-year-old solo is one of 25 children in the village who go to this school. he's ambitious and a hard worker. >> i know the alphabet and i can count.

i can do a, i, e und o. >> the first two months aren't easy. when the children first arrive they can't write, they don't even know how to hold a pen. if it weren't for the speed school, solo wouldn't get any education at all. like many children here in mali, he didn't have an opportunity to attend school when he was younger. solo isn't just learning to read and write. his confidence is also growing, plus, he's learning to be punctual and reliable. >> when school's finished for the day, i help out on the farm. i give the animals water every evening and take them back to their stalls. i can only study when that's all done.

>> staff from a local ngo visit families in the region, encouraging parents to send their children to school. solo's parents realized it made sense. >> he didn't know the alphabet. he was difficult at home and uncooperative. now he helps out with our animals. >> solo's mother prepares a candle so when night falls solo can do his homework. one day he might follow in the footsteps of fousseyni diarra. now 22, he's a student at the university in bamako. fousseyni diarra is the only one in his year to have received his education at a speed school. >> i'm studying education. lots of young people would like

to go to university but there's a shortage of qualified teachers and lecturers in mali. i'd like to become a teacher and be a role model for young people. >> the speed schools project has been launched in a number of african countries, allowing some young people, like fuseeyni 10,000 diarra, to get an elementary school education and prepare them for secondary schools. in his free time, fousseyni diarra now volunteers at village schools. today he's visiting solo's class. he hopes he can motivate and inspire them. he also came from a small village, so he understands the challenges they face. >> it's unbelievable to be here

. it reminds me of the years i spent studying in a hut like this, looking at my teacher at the blackboard and admiring him. >> solo still has enough time to let off steam and enjoy himself. today a football tournament is taking place in the village. he scores the winning goal. success breeds success. solo hopes to match his performance on the pitch with academic achievement. >> students at earth university thousands of miles from mali are also highly motivated. and they've set themselves ambitious goals. their campus in san jose is already climate neutral. and costa rica has vowed to become the first country in the world to achieve that on a national level. but first it will have to undo a few major mistakes of the past. decades ago, most of the country's rainforests were cleared for cattle farming. now scientists are cautiously hopeful that they will recover thanks to intelligent

reforestation methods. now the students are looking to turn the climate-friendly techniques they are developing into successful exports. >> these howling monkeys are native to the costa rica rainforest. these students are visiting with their professor. the earth university students are here to learn about the rainforest first-hand, instead of from a textbook. >> the palm tree is known for its large leaves, as we can see. they're the world's largest leaves -- a botanical record. >> the earth university campus is a two hour drive northeast of

the capital san josé. here the students learn about agricultural and environmental technology and they get plenty , of hands-on experience here, too. bert kohlmann heads the center for research and development of renewable energy. in less than ten years, costa rica plans to meet all its electricity needs with renewables. >> costa rica has many excellent options when it comes renewable energy. we have solar energy, geothermal energy, biomass, water power, and wind power. we have all of that here in costa rica. >> the lectures are in english. around 2/3 of the students come from abroad. >> i come from nicaragua. my name is francisco leiva, and i think with this course i can use all the knowledge to use in

my region, because we have a lot of wind energy and also solar energy. >> the students go wherever there's environmental technology -- even on top of a roof. this solar energy unit heats water. >> what i have here is a here is a hand-held infrared thermometer. so if you hold that to the collector and press the button, than you can read, what the temperature of the collector is at the moment. >> it's registering 35 degrees celcius. the entire campus maintains high environmental standards. every newcomer, from students to professors, spends at least one day here sorting waste. >> cans and plastic bottles are all recycled. that's good for the environment, because incinerating them would

generate harmful co2. organic waste is also important. when it's returned to the soil as compost, it binds co2. these simple techniques help the university operate in a sustainable and climate-neutral way. >> if you want to become carbon neutral, something very important to look at when you are doing your carbon balances is what kind of waste are you producing and what are you doing with it. >> about a quarter of costa rica's population lives in san josé. and only about 25% of the plastic bottles used here are recycled. a lot of waste ends up in the river. costa rica has ambitious environmental and climate protection goals, but there's still a long way to go. some students are their way to lomas de l'alegria, south of earth university, for some more hands on experience.

they are going to build a simple biogas plant. most of the plant will be built out of used parts. old buckets will be used to make large pipes. >> this works well in small communities. >> it's a way to build biogas plants cheaply. >> and this is what the plant looks like when it's finsihed. the waste water generated by this household will be transported through the containers, and bacteria removed. that will generate methane. >> we're saving about 10,000 colones of gas each month. >> that works out to a savings of about 15 euros. the waste water has been converted into energy. back at the campus. the university also runs a banana plantation.

it's also being managed sustainably. the campus plantation will serve as a model for costa rica's large commercial operations. the insects and other small creatures are also important. they help loosen the soil. the campus plantation also uses as little chemical fertilizer and pesticides as possible. >> most commercial farms would put pesticides within this to kill any insects within the bunches. we, however, use a combination of chile and hot pepper. >> the workers also benefit. they earn more than the local minimum wage, which is equivalent to about 400 euros per month. the bananas are sold abroad. the profits go to fund scholarships for 20 students. it costs about 17,000 euros a year to attend earth university, but only a few students pay the full cost on their own.

>> over the years, we have been able to convince friends, donors, companies, governments, including the german government, to support an institution like this. to support these kids to come and have this kind of education so that we can break that circle of poverty. we can improve the conditions and they can improve their family, their community, their countries. >> in return, they're now recording a video message -- a message of thanks from 400 students and professors from 30 different countries. >> the bluefin tuna seems to be too tasty to survive. a ban on fishing it is simply unrealistic. too many sides have too much to lose in this business. demand for tuna has risen tenfold in the past five decades. if tuna were a company it would

be a global player with a 7 billion euro turnover. this fish is paying a high price for its popularity. 90% of the once enormous swarms have disappeared. worrying news, too, for those who want to stay in business. we head to the pacific where several countries have been forging an alliance to help save the tuna. >> tuna are predators. but as one of the world's most popular seafoods, they're also prey. tuna's a staple of menus everywhere. as a pizza topping, as sushi. tuna, sometimes up to 5 meters long, used to be found in abundance in all the world's oceans. schools of tuna can travel at speeds of up to 80 kilometers per hour. but they're still helpless against industrial fishing vessels. five of eight species of tuna are now endangered.

if tuna become extinct, the economy of entire countries will suffer acutely. the population of the solomon islands in the pacific, for example, depends on tuna fishing for their livelihoods. 60 tons of tuna are processed in the coastal town of noro every day. about 2000 islanders earn their living with tuna, including hearty matamaru. he's in charge of quality control at sol tuna. >> this cannery is really important to the people here. to their lives, to their families and to the surrounding communities as well. we are worried if the tuna stock is gone, because the job here depends very much on the fish that we have in our waters. >> the solomon islands' commercial fishing fleets net

55,000 tons of tuna a year. >> solomon emerald. solomon emerald. coming. >> captain petaia delaverata and his crew are all local. but they use fishing methods their ancestors wouldn't recognise. >> it's quite easier now when there is a school of fish 100 meters away. the sonar can tell you the density of the fish, how many tons there is, how deep it is and how far it is away from the boat. once the school of fish has been located, it's doomed. the crew get the nets in position, the trawler starts to circle, and moments later the tuna are netted. it's so easy that it makes the captain uncomfortable. >> as a pacific islander myself, i would ask one question. will the next generation enjoy this industry as we do now? it's so very easy to catch fish. thats the worrying part, the

more boats, more fish harvested from the sea. >> the solomon islands belong to the pacific islands forum fisheries agency, established to protect fish stocks. other members include australia as well as many small island developing states. countries that don't belong to the alliance aren't allowed to cast their nets within a 200 kilometer radius of the ffa zone. the ffa monitors an area spanning 40 million square kilometers. >> oh, that's an interesting track. it's not licensed, so it should not be doing those tracks. this is definitely not an innocent passage. >> much like airplanes, the vessels send signals, making it possible for the ffa to identify illegal trawlers.

but this alone doesn't solve the problem of over-fishing. revised fishing quotas for locals as well as greater expertise are also crucial. the ffa has therefore set up a research program to study tuna in-depth. direction-finding transmitters show what sort of distances they cover in their lifetimes; what they feed on and how fast they grow. >> this one was here in 2011 and where is it now? >> ocean knowledge is to andrew hudson says the data will help protect tuna stocks. >> the good news is that the pacific island countries have taken concrete steps toward improving their understanding of the fisheries, improving and putting in place management regimes, that if they carry them

forward in full which i think they are capable of doing, could lead to true sustainability for those fisheries going forward. >> in order to secure the livelihoods of their own descendants, the pacific states need to ready their oceans for future challenges. >> and that's all for this edition of "global 3000." if you'd like to watch any of today's reports again, just look for us online. there you can also join our global debates. or you can start your own on the issues that matter to you most. for now, from me and the whole global team, thanks for watching and bye-bye. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

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