♪ creatus who are ofoffering hope to madagasr's s fishmen. in myanmar, we talk to people looking toto make their r fore drillingng for oil.. but first we head to iran, which is only now starting to face up to its drurug problems. accordrding to the u united nat, aroundnd 31 million n people

worldwide regularly consume harmfulevevels oillicicit ugs. iran has one of the world's highest numbers of drug addicts relative to population size. 1.25 million people, according to u.n. figures. ththe country shares a 900 kilometer-long border with afghanistan, the world's biggest producer of opium and its products. in recent years, large amounts of drugs of all kinds have been confnfiscated in i iran. drughave l long been a taboo subject there. and addicts are only just starting to get some help. reporter: shirin earns her living making handicrafts,s, whh she sells on the streets. this would have been unthinkable just a few yeaears ago. shirinin was a drug addict. she was hooked on crystal meth for eight years. her father was also an addict. he introduced shirin to alcohol when she was a child.

shirin: my father fermented his own wine when i was a child. then when i was six, he gave me a glass of wine for the first time. i became dizzy, and it was very strange. and then i started dancing. so it somehow clicked for me at the time, and that's when my addiction began. reporter: it was easy for shirin to get hold of drugs as an adult, even though, along with alcohol, they are forbidden in thisis theoctic c state. shirin: you can get anything anywhere, drugs and alcohol. our young people start with drinking, and then come the drugs. it's very easy to get drugs and alcohol.

there are a lot of drug dealers, especially in the southern part of tehran, but also in the centre. reporter: the government ignored the problem for decades. and the result? it has never been easier to get hold of addictive substances, and the number of addicts is higher than ever. the figures are so alarming that a former police chief felt compelled to write an open letter, dedemanding thatat the problefinanally made e puic. iranian state e television did then announce that there w wee nearly 3000 drug-related deaths annually. and shirin was invited to appear on a talk show. thisis was unthinkable just aa short time agogo. the moderator probably can't believe that he can talk about this on tv. official figures put the number of drug addicts in iran at one

million. the unofficial figure is said to be much higher. at is knknown is that thousands of liters of alcohol are confiscated and d destroyed evy year. and that the health ministry has opened a detox clinic. but we are told that most often, addicts are simply locked away. the non-governmental activities in tehran are impressive. in the south of the city, aid organizations care for the plentiful addicts living on the street. the volunteers offer more than just a warm meal. safa: it's not our goal just to feed those who are forced to live on the street. the meals are a means to make contact with the drug addicts, to gain their trust. to give them hope that someone is there for them. reporter: they have e reached my this wayay and helpeped them gef

the streets and get clean. those who manage it are celebrated each year. >> i have been clean for ten months and ten days. i never thought i would manage it. reporter: we meet shirin again here. she now wants to share the kind of help she got with others. shirin: there are still a lot of people who need help, especially in the poorer class, but also in the middle class. unfortunately, there are many women, too, and i work especially closely with them. many consume because they don't know any better, many others because they are just curious. reporter: she says that helping other people gives her strength and confidence. and it prevents her from falling back into the jaws of addiction. the people here help her with

that. tonight, the volunteers are going out into the streets again with hundreds of meals, bringing them to those who are seeking help. host: for years, brazil has been in the mididst of an ecoconomic crisis. unemployment lies at nearly 13%. mamany brazilians have been n pd down the s social ladderer, and slums continue to expand. according to figures from 2017, around 50 million brazilians, a quarteter of the popopulation,e less than $5.5 a day to live on. that's below the national official poverty line. and approximately 15 million peoplele live in extxtreme pov, on lesess than $1.9090 a da.

and if it weren't for the efforts of more fortunate members of t the populatioion,t would have no chance to escape the poverty trap. reporter: david hertz and his crew are preparing a buffet for a special event at a hotel in sao paulo. they have taken over the kitchen for the day. hertz is a social entrepreneur and pioneer of social gastronomy. the team members are all graduates of the vocational training program run by his non-profit organization gastromotiva. it trains young people from poor families to become kitchen assistants and cooks. some weren't able to finish high school. leonardo caio had to look after his younger brothers and sisters. leonardo: i want to be a chef one day and go abroad, perhaps to paris, and work for the best restaurants. ththat's my dream, but who kno.

reporter: today they are showing what they can do. most are just starting out on their careers. natasha: gastronomy schools are very expensive in brazil. i live in a poor neighborhood at the edge of sao paulo, so i can't afford it. but gastromotiva helps us poor people and has helped me get an education. reporter: they are whipping up quite a spread out of rejects, produce that has been deemed not good enough for a top-notch establishment. some of the vegetables are getting a bit soft. david: we are wasting as well. so t tt became p part of my burden, you know. like, i cannot waste one tomata. and we brought this to our educational program. so now food waste, to fight food waste, it's essential for us when we train cooks.

reporter: gastromotiva's students learn how to make the most of the materials they work with. for many, it probably makes intuitive sense not to waste food. david: here we have some leftovers of the yellow pepper. you can see that it's only the top part. so we're going to make a caponata. we have potato peel. you can make also, like, a good saute with some garlic, some seasoning, fresh, you know, some fresh herbs. and you can serve this either as a paste to eat as well, or just like a salad. we have been cooking these a lot. we are becoming experts how not to waste food. my mission in life is to lead by example, make social gastronomy the norm. a gastronomy that is concernedd and it relates t to people, to bring opopportunities, to figt hunger, to fight malnutrition,

and to fight especially these inequalities that we live in brazil and latin america, and so many places in the world. reporter: poverty in brazil has risen sharply. three years ago the country plummeted into recession and unemployment soared. it is now at about 13%. many pensioners struggle to get by. yet, brazil could be so rich. it has vast natural resources and fertile land. still, many people can't afford fresh produce. the gap between poor and rich is vast. the buffet david hertz and his crew prepared was for a meeting of the world economic forum on latin america earlier this year. 700 politicians and business leaders munched on finger food made of scraps and rejects, prepared by the young cooks from poor families. they made culinary treats fit for the rich and powerful.

the message is, good food does not have to be expensive. david hertz also wants to provide direct aid to people in need, to the homeless. david: one of our dreams was to be able to send food to shelters. but because of allll e legislation, we are not able to do this. but we hope in the future we can also change the laws. reporter: these young people show that social gastronomy is a movement that is gaining momentum. host: and now we head from brazil to southeast asia. in 2016,6, myanmar's 5 50 yearf military d dictatorship officiay came to an end. the economy is now growing and

foforeign investmement is on e risese. but t so far, mostst developmt effoforts have beeeen limitedo urban areas, like the country's largest city, yangon. in rural areasmeanwhile, pepeople live inin extreme pov. and many are willing to pin their hopes on anything that might offer them a way out of it. reporter: it's early morning in minhla. the smell oilil a diesel hanginin their. amid the sea of bamb, , meta roro and canvas, theamp p bens totir.r. the neratorshum is a consta soundtrk here. ma myint a aye makes a p pasto protect agaiainst the sun.n. it'll be a long day out t the scscorching heatat.

sosoon she'll jojoin her husb, who's alreadady drilling f for. a few w more quiet m minutes, n it's timime for them t to g. ma: wewe have to getet out ine oil l field reallyly early, bee even by 9:00 a.m. the sun readady unarablele reporter: : the young fafamily d t hehere fm theieir rent's farm with nothing but the ambitionon to succeed. ma myint a aye's husba moe win is jt t 21 years oldld, but hes alreadady been a d driller forr years now. theieir families s scraped togr enouough money so o the couple d bubuy the necessssary equipme. ththey'vnow drdrild four w wls. moe: we use e air pressurere top out the e oil. bubut the longerer we're here,e deepeper we have t to ill to r h the oil.

reporter: amid the generator d nonoise,ven ththyoungestff children. childreny mymyint aye's dadaughr is oy fofour yrs oldld. the 25-year-old admits it's not an ideal p place to raisise children, but she doesn't real ve t the lury toto wry aboutut that. the oil l that she pumumps ouf the groundnd here is keeeepingm out of gririnding povertrty. ma: ifif we were at t home drig inin ourarentsts' elds, wewe make about $1 or $ $2 a day. that's n nothing. reportrter: it costs $500 to gt the e rights to anan oil field.. that's f far too much h for zin oo.. that's why he came here yeyear agago wi his w wifas a day labore now he earnsns about $120 0 a m.

zin: i'm h here to get r rich. at some poinint i want to o lia happy life w without any w wor. reporter: zin min oo dra t the oioil fr a depepthf aroundnd00 memeters. no one thihinks about woworkpe safety standards here. this is a rld lilivi by itss own ruleles. ththe authoritieies just turn na blind eye, andave e do so for decas.s. the problem t the o is getting hard andnd hder to find. zi i can oy work f a few houra daday,ecause a after a while we o only get wateter ouf the ground, then we ve to wait ti t the oilrawsws in ain. reporter: zin min ooororks for ananotheoil fafarm who selel the black gogold to refineneries ne. but t the 21-year-r-old would e

to be his own boss o d day. zin:n oil l drl is reaeay expeivive. evev a used e costs ouout $1000 s.s. ll prorobly have to saveor a while. b the jobere is o 's much sier thafield work. rerter: li here isustic, a bit li living the wilwest during theold rush. mayiyint aye makeses due cookig for her small family on a wood-burning stove. although a a proper kitctchen d be nice, s she says, likike thes on tv. but that's d dream s'll l have to waiait for. ma: with o oil, there arare upd downs and no grantntees. somemetimewe makake loes, bubuat least we h have enough t to lin and supporort our famililie.

reporter: as evening nears, the sesearing heat coolsls a littld neighbors come t together and cw betel ts, , an ixpensisive ststimulant atat zin min oo'o'se rolls up in leaves. ma: i hohope that in a a few ya we wl hahave saved enonough to t out of h here. i would d really like to o opep my own litittle shop. reporter: at the side ofhehe ro we e meetay choho w. at thehe end of the e day, shes araround with bubuckets and rao soak up the e spillage. her eleldest child i is the 9h grade, so the famimily needs o squeezeze out every y penny to afford it. may: when i have enough, i boil the liquidid to separatete thel from thehe water. then i canell it, whicich does not bring g in much moneney,ut it's somomething. porter: minhla is a place full ofreamamers.

there is no running wateoror showows here, soso ty wash themseselves any wayay they c. mowin dreaea of a real house and anuvuv. of a a good life, , away frome hahastily-preparared meals in r littttle hut. moe: our dauaughter shouldld bee to be e whatever shehe wants t. mamaybe a doctor, that wouldle nice. reporter: : it's the endnd ofe day for the fortune-hunters of minhla. totomorrow is ananother day, t o wowork, and to d dream. host: this week in global ideas, we're off to madagascar. fish stocks have long been on the decline in local coastal

waters. but in a remote bay in the country's south, people may have found a solution - -- sea cucumbers. they are very popular with chinese gourmets, who are willing to pay high prices for them. our reporter, wiebke feuersenger,r, headed there to meetet local aquafafarmers, andd faceced a few chalallenges one way. reporterer: it's mninight, one kilometer off the coast of madagascar. the aquafarmers of tampolove are signing in as they head out to their sea cucumber pens. it's only during a full moon or a new moon that t the water is shallow enough for the aquafarmers to go and count their stocks and harvest mature specimens. sea cucumbers are found in all the world's oceans. it's estimated that they comprise 1200 species. in china, they are considered a delicacy.

one kilo of dried sea cucumber fetches up to $1000 u.s. during the day, the leathery echinoderms bury themselves in the sand. the farmers have to come out every two weeks, because the stocks are vulnerable to disease and theft. the ngo blueventures helped the village set up their farms about 10 years ago. its employees weigh the sea cucumbers to make sure they meet the 400 gram threshold required to send them to market. >> one kilo, 270 grams. yeah, the biggest. mahery: there are rules safeguarding the hatcheries. we worked these out with t the breeders. for examample, it's foforbiddeo enter the pens of f other farms without out their consent. all fishing is also forbidden, except for crayfish. you're allowed to catch them, because they feed on the sea cucumbers.

these rules are designed to protect the sea. reporter: before the aquafarms were set up, overfishing had depleted stocks in the bay of assassins. totoday, thehere is again a ae variety of fish, along with snails and crabs. although 70% of people in the country live below the poverty line, this village is experiencing a certain degree of prosperity. madame seraphine was one of the first to start farming in 2009. seraphine: before the sea cucumber farms, i had d no wayo improve mymy standard of livin. by setting up my own pen, i've earned enough to send my two children to school.

and i've been able to buy some nice and useful things for my house. i also have a herd of goats now. reporter: those who really want to show off their wealth here own pigs. there are many in tampolove. the animals are only slaughtered at christmas time. during the day, when the sea cucumbers have buried themselves deep in the sand, the farmers come out to clean the enclosures. there's a lot they don't know about the shy creatures, but they've learned that they tend to grow better when water is allowed to flow unhindered through the pens. kathryn taylor is one of only a small number of scientists who study sea cucumbers. kathryn:n: it's a a pretty spel creature.

it's a holothuria scabra that they're farming here. and d it's really y valuable oe international market. and so, bringing it into a community like this in a sustainable agriculture kind of way makes a huge difference for the people here. but at the same time it's also an aninimal that's vital for te ecosystem in this area, and it's been very, very overfished in most of its territories around the world. and so, bringing it in here, it's really good for the sea grass. it's kind of a natural filtration system for the area, becaususe it goes along, just kd of hoovers up the sand. and en i it clns outut dritus and microaoalgae and bacacterid things likike that. reporter: with part of the profits from their haul, the farmers pay for security staff to keep watch over the enclosures day and night.

mahery: the greatest threat right now comes after the sesa cucumbmbers are soldld. ththat's when ththere's a lotf momoney here, in every famami, every household. that attracts thieieves, especially since there are no banks where pepeople can depost their earnings. that's why people have to hide their money in their homes. there's always the threat of thieveves raiding g the villa. reporter: a trading partner, iot, in the provincial capital tulear is also concerned about security. this is where they breed the animals to be raised in the bay at tampolove. later, iot will process the mature sea cucumbers once they've been harvested. thibault: to get from the adult animimal, which is 450 gramsmso

this final processed product, which is about 1grgrams, wee first gut them, which means we cut them at the bottom here, and we press. and after that we cook them. and finally we wou dryry tm. no the cususmer gets this product with him, but berere he can t it, , heas to reredrate it. then you can havitit as a salad. when it is pretty soft, you chcp it and have it with some s sal. another way would be to have it as sushi. reporter: each young sea cucumber costs the farmers in tampolove $0.16. after being harvested nine months later, it's worth $1.30 on average. the aquaculture here not only pays off for the farmers, but also benefits the entire bay and the otheheanimals ththat live n

we hope you enjoyed the show. for more, check out our facebook page, dw global l society. and do drop us a line, global3000@dw.com. see you next time. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

narrator: amid blocky apartment structures s and rigid urban development, two groups strive to reinvigorate public spaces. an artist collective from spain travels the globe to create muralalthat draw w life back ino the dwindling public centers, and in medelellin, colombia, urn gardeners create green spaces that beautify the community and empower its citizens.