rainforest, where a small berry has become a global hit. how is igrown? in a africa, an ememployment ay is attracting professionals back to the continent, where their skills are desperately needed. and we meet a a very special won who has dramatically changed the lives of hundreds of street kids. worldwide, at least 150 million childrdren live on the street. and not just in poorer countries.

in germany, an estimated 32,000 children and young people have no roof over their heads. in britain, the figure is as high as 120,000. in nigeria, more than 1.2 million childrenen have leleft r homes, many of them fleeing the terror group boko haram. in china, 1.5 million children are homeless. and in one of the world's richest countries, the u.s., that number is more than 2.5 million. in brazil, 10 million street kids fight for survival on a daily basis. in ukraine, we met a woman from ghana, who has dededicated her life to caring for street children. reporter: ten years ago, harriet bruce-annan brought these street kids to an orphanage she'd founded. harriet: this is veronica. here's priscilla. this is derek. and this is ashley. this is abraham.

and this is james brown. reporter: this is james brown today. the 27-year-old is studying agriculture in kyiv. he and the other f former stret children were given the chance to get an education, and they're using it. they have harriet bruce-annan to thank. she helped them get accepted at universities in kyiv. now they're medical students, i.t. majors, law and business students. why in ukraine? because, according to harriet, it's a country like ghana, striving for democracy. harriet: they are learning valuable lessons because the problems here are also happening in most of african countries. and then they can learn that people sued and fought for democracy. richard: the youth don't give up in ukraine. they always stand for their country.y. whilst in ghana, youth are always leaving their leaders to

do whatever they like. it shouldn't be so. reporter: ukrainian law requires the students return to ghana after graduating. harriet is keen for them to bring their skills back to ghana. 15 years ago, she moved to dusseldorf. she worked there as a cleaning lady, and sent her savings to ghana to build an orphanage. she looked for sponsors and donations, and founded the organization african angel. for a long time, the children and students didn't know t tht harriet had to scrub toilets in dusseldorf to finance their education. that came as a surprise. >> what did you feel? james: humility, at the peak. if someone like mommy is this humble and cleans toilets to get money together for, let's say, me -- i have no reason to say

i'm not learning. and that applies to all of us. mary: for me, i didn't know what to say, because i wasn't going to school, and for someone to clean toilets just to take care of me -- i was really happy. i didn't know what to tell her, because i wasn't going to school, i had nowhere to go. so just to have that chance to go to school -- ok for me. reporter: one of the students, mary, comes from bucum, a poor neighborhood in the ghanaian capital accra. her parents were unemployed, and unable to take care of her. to prevent the girls from entering prostitution, and the boys from living on the street, harriet brought them to the orphanage. for a long time, harriet kept silent about her sacrifices.

she just wanted the children to get on in life and contribute to their country's development. harriet: if they are studying in industrial countries and they stay there, who cares about them? but when they take it to where they really need them, that it where they can really have a great impact on the society from where they are coming from. james: my primary aim is to go back to ghana, improve the conditions, assist somebody, help somebody. everybody is complaining, everybody is talking about the system, so if you have the oppoportunity, i think i shouldt be selfish about it. i've got education, i've got knowledge, i have something to do with my hand. so i go back home. i have a couple of businesses in my mind already. yeah, i want to become a big-time entrepreneur. reporter: one of james' business ideas came from the finest chocolatiere in ukraine.

he loves the beautifully packed pralines and dreams of opening a shop like this in his homeland. james: where do they get this chocolate from? where do they get the cocoa from? probably from ghana. yeah, from ghana. so, if you can produce it there, then we can help the country's economy. richard: in ghana, we have cocoa. we e have sugar. we have other fruits. and then you can make this one in other flavors, too. it's cocoa, but you add something like pineapple, something like apple, something like banana, something like poco, to give it different flavors. reporter: the young people have learned a lot in ukraine. they enjoy the market banter. and the vendors, who appreciate their company, are happy to reward their haggling with good prices, and even a present.

harriet's days cleaning toilets are long gone. she now manages the african angel organization. she's delighted to see how well the children have turned out. harriet: they're independent. they're confident. they have chances in life. they know exactly what to expect. that makes me happy and proud. no one can push them around. they know exactly what they want. reporter: next year, james and richard are set to be the first in the group to graduate. and they'll always be grateful to harriet for giving them such a great start in life.

host: what can be done when the highly-skilled of a country move abroad, taking their knowledge with them? according to recent statatisti, brain drain robs africa of as many as one-third of its professionals each year -- and their talents are sorely missed. to bridge the skills gap, africa's institutions recruit professionals from abroad, including scientists and engineers. all of which costs the continent $4 billion u.s. . each year. and yet, very few highly-skilled africans are returning home. reporter: sai chalamanda is sometimes amazed by what he's managed to achieve. the architect has just won a contract to design this hospital in his home country of malawi -- one of the world's poorest nations. 16 years ago he left malawi for england.

he couldn't imagine a future for himself here. sai: malawi is quite a challenging country in terms of economy and business. like, when you're dreaeaming b, to do big projects, to rely on a loan from the bank, it's almost like impossible. the interest rates are so high, so huge. so in my case, what i've done is like, to start small. reporter: back in malawi, sai founded his own company in a run-down industrial area of lilongwe. initially he ran a photocopy service. the business was a success despite the fact that half of malawi's population lives on less than a dodollar a day. sai began printing t-shirts and then got his first major contracts. with the profit, he set up his own architecture firm. sai: malawi is still developing, so there are some things that,

like say in u.s. or u.k., they already started doing that maybe for the past seven, 10 years, but if you bring them home, it might be a new thing, and that might be a new business idea. reporter: : this agency in johannesburg, south africa helps africans return after studying abroad. it has a database of highly-qualified africans who've gone overseas. its clients are african companies that are looking for well-qualified employees who know thehe continent welell. nearly three quarters of african graduates work abroad. angel jones says her agency has brought back around 1000 people, though the reason for returning often extends beyond the promise of a good job. >> when i get up -- i'm sorry -- evevy morning when i get u up,i sit under a clear blue skyky. reporter: for both t the candide

and angel, there's a lot more going on here than just business. angel: business on the continent in africa, it's a lot about relationships, relationships, relationships. so they want somebody who might be international, who might have been there for ten years, but they've still got those key people on the continent who've got those relationships, for new business development, for route to market, for all of those different things. reporter: shelton siziba is someone that has these kind of contacts and a good job as an engineer. but when he travels by taxi through zimbabwe's capital harare, he's clear about why he wants to leave the country. zimbabwe is in a financial crisis. and those who get the chance to leave, usually do so. there are potholes everywhere -- even here in the capital. and in the city suburbs, money is exchanged. state debentures are now the new currency, though many shops only

accept u u.s. dollars. shelton: i don't live only for myself, i i live for my childr. when i look atat the education standards s here in zimbmbabwe,y are quitite bad. and d the salary that i get, r t now with thehe situation in zimbabwe, it's almost like hand-to-momouth. reporter: shelton is one of zimbabwe's well-educated, young middle class. he says his country is in a mess. he's been planning to leave for months. many of his former colleagues have already gone. and while he and his wife and their two sons lead a relatively good life here, they dream of more. ideally, they'd like to move to australia, but they have also considered canada or germany. shelton: the salaries are good in my profession. i'm able to save. the fact that i will be able to save, then that means i'll be able to make a certain

investment for my children, and at the same time, i'll be able to -- if there were opportunities, i'll be able to start up my own business. reporter: shelton says he can't see any chance of that happening in zimbabwe. he says no agency in the world could convince him to stay or even return later in life. architect sai chalamanda, on the other hand, says returning to malawi has definitely been worth it for him. and he says he didn't need an agency to convince him to return home. it was his wife joan who gave him the courage to come back. when he left for england, she chose to remain in malawi. joan: people are being helped by what he's doing. so people are getting paid, their families are being supported, because of what he's doing. had he stayed there, i think all these people who are working under him, i don't know what would have happened, yeah.

reporter: joan and sai are sure their future lies in malawi. and they believe that ultimately it's africans themselves who will make a real and lasting difference to their countries' struggling economies. host: in cities like berlin, this is the latest hype -- acai bowlwls. itit's the super-food of the moment, and it's's especially popular with vegans and fitness-focused urbanites. >> we get our acai frozen from brazil, since it's impossible to get acai fresh here in europe. host: in our global ideas series, we went in quest of this miracle berry. acai palms grow mainly in thte amamazon basin. the berries are haharvested between n july and december. only a fraction of them are exported -- mainly to the u.s. and japan. most of them are consumed in brazil. our reporter, bianca kopsch,

went to brazil to find out more about this small but mighty super-berry. bianca: every night, ts s of rrieies chge hanandst the popo of belelem in the azazilian amazon. acai has a attained supeper-fd stat. for itfafansit's a miracle woer -- - fiting wririnkles, obesity, a and some say even cancer demamand is growining worldwidet onlyly as an ingreredient fr cocosmetics and d medicines, t esespecially as s food. the acai b berries are m mashet thveroro-pesmarketet nt door.. the thick k juice has tradititionally servrved as an accompaniment to fried fish rere in t the nthern n brilian stste of para. butut not only ththa- >> acacai suits evererythin. and it tastetes good, too.o.

>>amililiehere intduce their ildrdren tacai a aan early age. >> without acai, my omomach feelempty.y. biananca: three hohours southf belelem, in the mimidd of thee amazon delta, acai palm tree ne t the rerbanknks. para is brazazil's largestst i prucer a andogether r th the state of amazonas, prodedes an estited 8585% global l supply. the village of igarape miri is known as the world capital of acai. beraraca, a sustainable iningredients cocompany, sours beberries to usese in cosmeticis here. erica perereira is respoponsiblr promotining sustainabibilit. she's showowing project t parts how acai can be cuivivat in an eco-iendndlyay. erica: we look for areas whh suainanable ltivatatioand helplp advise grorowers to avoioid ovoverproductionon. whwhen it comes s to the forest shshould be prodoductive, but te

same timime preserve t the natr balae. bianca: some 30 farming famieses haveve joid togegeth to formrm cooperative. the ac g grows, protecected, n the middle of the rainforest. that'snene of thmostst important prerequisisites for gettttig organic certrtification. deforestation, artificial fertilizer, anand insecticides aren't allowowed. rosivaldo: t that's what o orgc looks like here. these leav w work asertitilize bianca: : rosivaldo cocosta uso cut downwn the forest t to growe and cassava and to harvest t hear of f the ai palalm. but t he didn't eaearn much. he'd get abobout 30 euro c centr a a palm heart. r r a clusr ofof orgic acacai, hehe gets five t times as muchc.

rosivaldo: w we only chop down e tallt t palm tes.. you can hardly climb up th - -- ththey can breakak. bibianca: harvesesting requirers staminina and musclele powe. inin the main haharvest seononm auaugusto dececemb, the fafaer's son climbs up to 100 p palms a y to picick acai. the berries need six months to ripen.n. since costa stopd cutting the foforest, e haharveshas increased. the e trees protect t each otr fromom the sun andnd stop the fs dryi out.. rosivaldldo: in the papast this just a hus witithoutuch jujuic todaday, they are e juicier. a protecected area likike thise bringsgs more juice.e. bibianca: but ththe farms hahao be perersuaded to trtry this cultivatioion method. beraca supported the farrsrs and now nefitsts fm their higher yields. for these hi-quality acai, the

company pays a almost double te price e earned from m conventioy farmeded berries. beraca tesested the econonomic impact as papart of the t.t.e.. prproject, whichch stands fore economics ofof ecosystems s and biodiversity. the brazilian minist o of the enenviroent, t theationall industrial a association, , ane german a agency for ininternatl cocooperation, or r g.i.z., aree involveded. luciana:a: the teeapapproach iso look anaturaral sources s economic t terms, becaususe mof them h have had no clear valu. so the projeject tes to o make somethintangibiblend real l that didn't have e a clear valulue l now. otavavio: and how toto integre that valalue into busisiness

decisions. biancaca: one study y compared different ways of rmrming ac. itonclududedhat orgagac forest farming -- like costa does - --s 45% % moreroductctivthan nvnvenonal metethods. is farmemers' collective from igarapmimiri has beeeen supplyg beraca since 2 2009. they've negotiated aururchase guarantee and a fixed icice. ththat provides s security fore families here. e e study ows s incos in t the commununity have incncreased sisignificantly y with the swiwo organic.c. whatat beraca doesesn't bu itt sells to other customers. bubut theye nonot rey to p payhe orgaganic premium.m. the acai wilill be deliverereda branch o of beraca jusust oute belem. first, the briries areoakeked, and ththen dried. as a r result, the t thin fruit

layer crumbles. it's then removed from the core in t the next stepep. ththe result is s a kind of p. >> this peat stillonontains about 20% oioil. biananca: it takes almost kilogrgrams acai i toroduce aa lilir of oil. becaca alsprocesess other primarforest fits in inedients for natural cosmetics and exports them too morere than 40 couountries. the dedemand for natural procts isis grong. ica:a:he companies that yy r products nowayays fe a lotot of pressure from the endnd customers r momoreatural products biancacathe coanany ai to bebe as sustainable as possle. wanants tsafeguguarsupplieses from the amazon rainfore, , and thatncludedes azil's sought-after super-berry. host: don't forget to check out our facebook page -- dw global society. there, you'll also meet our berlin globals -- people frorm

all over the world who live in berlin. what do they like about their city? today we talk to hamid sulaiman. ♪ hamid: when i left syria, i was like, i needed to start a new project. i've always wanted to do a comic book or an animation before, and then i moved more to comics. this wasas also helping me psychologically, as some sort of therapy, some sort of cathartic work to express yourself. it's like some sort of writing, it's like getting healed. i came here for the first time to participate in this exhibition, and since this moment, i said, ok, this city seems to be interesting. i like the art scene here in

berlin. i like this new contemporary culture everywhere. the freedom of speech, it's basic for any artist. in syria, we're not allowed to touch subjects like sex, politics or religion, and this is like, what should you work about if you can't speak about any sensitive subjects? so here, it's really amazing to have this freedom of speech, of expressing yourself in all kind of forms and media. today, we are here in the gallery to see the work of the french artist, emmanuel tussore. and today we are having a talk here about architecture and how the destruction affected cities like aleppo and homs. i left syria early, like the end

of 2011, i went to paris. and like, i was touched of course when i saw photos coming from homs in the b beginning, daraa, a and then aleppo more d more. and with time, i started also to fifind conflict started to g t more close to damascus. when it happens to you, to your memories, to where you come from, the effect is way much harder to deal with. syrian cultural life here in berlin is getting more productive even than how it used to be in damascus, because it's mostly syrian people who havae this syrian experience, damascus experience -- they move to berlin, here they are taking

advantages from learning about other cultures somehow and taking the best of both cultures. each city, i learn the culture of the city. since i'm here in berlin, there's tattoo, graffiti, techno music, a lot of thiningshat ti wasn that mumuch into. but like, i played basketball in all of those cities, that's something that never changed. i cook syrian food wherever i go at my home. and now i'm starting to mix it with more plates from all over the world, having the advantage of this. so, this is how it gets always, to mixture. mixture is, like, richness? how you say, richness? mixture is richness. host: that's all for today. thanks for joining us. we love hearing from you, so do drop us a a line

global303000@dw.com or on facebook. see you next time. bye for now. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

narrator: in the 1980s, biologists working in the southwestern deserts of the united states began finding something very disturbing-- the remains of young tortoises that had been attacked and eaten by ravens. man: ravens are like the ideal survivalists. woman: they're eating everything. second man: some raven nests have been found to have the carcasses of hundreds of juvenile tortoises underneath. narrator: tortoises in the southwest have been under pressure for decades. much of their habitat has been damaged or destroyed. diseases, predators, and other factors have also taken their toll. third man: there have been massive declines--80%, 90%. woman: it's pretty ugly. it is.