children are learning the importance o of protecting locl wildlife. on the caribbean island of dominica, there's no end of things to do in the aftermath of hurricicane maria. and we check out egypt's future center of government, the new capital. what will life be like in n te desert city? urban centers created on a computer.

rows of uniform houses, all erected in record time. planned cities can be found around the world. the modern prototype is brazil's capital, brasilia. built on a towering plateau, it was a late 1950's architectural mega-project. barcelona, st. petersburg, and manhattan were all also conceived on a drawing board. and now it's egypt's turn. reporter: it's 50 kilometers from cairo's eastern edge, through sandy deserts and blistering heat. on the horizon is the silhouette of a new mosque. it's egypt's biggest, with four massive minarets and a huge dome. a gigantic building at the entrance to the new capital. a city of superlatives. apartment blocks for up to six million people appear as if from nowhere. investors sense big money.

mohamed khamis and his companions want to invest a sizeable sum in the townhouses, villas, and office buildings out on the desert sand. not far away, the new church, the biggest in the middle east. their tour of the new capital leaves them stunned. mohamed khamis: this is really a huge project. it's enormous. very, very big.. reporter: big, smart, clean, and free of traffic jams. the new capital is expected to cost 40 billion euros. going up at its the heart -- the new parliament, the presidential palace, 36 ministries, and embassies. the government is supposed to begin moving in next year.

mohamed khamis: it's clear the project is bigger than we could have i igined. it's hard to c comprehend the dimensionsns of this place. reporter: it's everything the old capital city is not. home to nearly 20 million inhabitants, cairo is bursting at the seams. it has gigantic traffic jams, smog, chaos, and infrastructure ththere is crumbling. not to mention the high unemployment. millions of people without hope live in the grimy megacity. karim fathy is one of them. to live, he collects plastic bottles at this garbage dump. the 28-year-old earns about three euros a day, just barely enough to survive. karim: o of course this work ist good for my health. but who else is supposed to feed my family? i hahave to do somethihing. reporter: : karim lives in ezbt

khair allah, a slum in the middle of cairo. they call the quarter the people's republic of china because it's hopelessly overpopulated and dilapidated. houses here are practically all in need of repair. the sewage system doesn't work right, and the air is polluted. fathy pays 20 euros a month here for two rooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom. it may be cheap, but it's also very basic. there's just enough money left over for a single warm meal a day, but not enough to educate his children. their future prospects look bleak. karim: it would be very nice if we could move away from here, find a cleaner home -- cleaner than here, at least -- a job, a school for the kids, because there's nothing here. reporter: but what to do with the people in cairo's slums? asmarat, another new settlement on the city's eastern outskirts, is one of the government's answers to this burning issue.

in just 18 months, it's sprung up from nothing. the buildings everywhere in the development have the same design and layout. there are apartments here for about 10,000 of the city's poorest families. the housing blocks have names like jewel, jasmine, or paradise. there are three elementary schools, and two supermarkets. but otherwise, there are few shops, and few jobs. mohamed el sayed and his family moved here from central cairo in july. his house was torn down to make way for a sleek new one. the government offered him a cheap apartment in asmarat. now, like most other people here, he has a big mortgage to pay off over the next 30 years. mohamed gave up his job as a cashier. the trip to his old neighborhood takes an houour-and-a-half. now, he just works occasionally

here in asmarat painting houses. mohamed el sayed: we were in the center of town. now we're in a suburb. it certainly makes a huge difference whether you live on the riverside or in the desert. reporter: the new apartment may be clean and modern, but for mohamed's extended family, it's awfully small. they weren't allowed to bring their own furniture. the new decor is more subdued. mohamed el sayed: i used to sit with my friends in cafes around the corner. they don't have that here. people have to fend for themselves. if i want to watch a soccer game in a cafe, i have to leave the district. reporter: the new capital with all its prestigious mega-projects may earn investors like mohamed khamis fantastic returns. but will it also benefit cairo's poorest residents in the long term? mohamed khamis: i don't think that there are apartments for people on a limited budget here in the new capital. but we are helping these people

by re-building their houses. they don't like to move out of the neighborhoods where they live and grew up. you can see that with asmarat. reporter: mohamed el sayed would certainly rather have stayed in the inner city. minor renovation work in his old home would have been e enough r him. but the government wants to tear down and rebuild, and many people will end up paying a price for it. host: worldwide, around a billion people donate their time to volunteer work. organizations like the red cross and greenpeace would be lost without it. volunteers are also indispensible when it comes to rebuilding regions in the wake of natural disasters. a year ago, hurricane maria devastated the small island of dominica. volunteers from around the world are helping heal the wounds.

reporter: it's said that if christopher columbus were to return to the caribbean, the one island he'd still recognize would be dominica. its unspoiled landscape, thanks to an environmentally friendly approach to tourism, has given dominica the name the nature island. a a peaceful place, then? not for these women. their day begins at 5:30 in the morning. maddie: i slept really good. reporter: maddie simmonds, a student from britain, is spending her vacation with a group of international volunteers. maddie: it can sometimes be quite busy. there's one little stove, so everyone is trying to make their eggs and stuff. it's often quite busy. reporter: a little over an hour later. taylor from the u.s. is considered the group's late riser. >> your shoes are wet? maddie: yeah. look i've got this huge hole. reporter: 20 volunteers are helping rebuild a day-care

center and a primary school destroyed by hurricane maria in september, 2017. driven by warm ocean waters, the tropical storm left devastation bend here. for dodominica, it seems a terrible irony that the island that has been so committed to sustainability was hit so hard by climate change. reconstruction has been slow. more helping hands are needed. but not in paix bouche. volunteers and locals here are working eight hours a day, six days a week. building is coming along quickly. patrick: this is my school. this was my first classroom when i was, like, seven years old. and the building really got damaged badly, and there was no help coming from the government. all the volunteers are really doing a marvelous job. reporter: doing work like this, the prospective engineers,

pensioners, and english teachers like taylor leararn a lot abot construction. taylor: cement burns, things like that. reporter: cement burns? taylor: yeah, maddie has quite a few, she could show you. reporter: did you know this before? taylor: no. reporter: minor injuries are par for the course. maddie paid for her own plane ticket, but other costs are covered. maddie: i have the opportunity right now in my life to be able to help other people, so it's a nice thing to be able to do, to know that i'm spending my time doing something like building a school that's going to have a lasting impact on this village. reporter: alison john lives next door. unexpectedly, she's become the cook for the hungry crew. alison: you must put some extra love into it. that's why it's so tasty. reporter: alison learned how to cook from her aunt, who's also helping out. they're doing their best for the group. alison: volunteering is something that you do out of your heart. you do not have to do it, but they chose to come and help my community. if they did not come, this school would not be built as

yet, you know? reporter: the rains are starting, and this year's hurricane season is fast approaching. zahra warner is another volunteer. the psychologist from jamaica is spending her three weeks of holiday treating people here for trauma. she says they don't just need new roofs. their psyches also need to heal. zahra: melt into your chair. let it go, let it go, yes. how about we give it a little shake? yes. i believe that we all have the same reach of emotions. and i just feel like certain circumstances may force you to keep going, even though you may feel devastated,d, right aftera hurricane, after an earthquake. allowing some spaces for that is key. reporter: the women and girls start out shy and skeptical, but slowly they start to open up and find room to express their feelings.

just a few meters away there's a 500-year-old tree that withstood the storm. zahra sees it as an allegory of strength, the ability to reach down to your own roots. >> but in spite of all the scars, it's still standing strong. zahra: i don't see it as charity, but i feel like there is a reason that i studied what i studied, and that i feel like there's something that i had to offer. reporter: the last hammer has driven in the last nail at the construction site. time to clean up for tomorrow. another long but satisfying day of volunteer work on dominica draws to a close. maddie: i think that's something

that a lot of people who come here want to try and incorporate into their normal lives back home, find a job where it's more like this where you're inspired to get up every single day and you want to make a difference. it kind of inspires you that there is still good in the world. host: a better world. that's a dream shared by many in africa, too. niger is where the main migrant routes out of nigeria and west africa meet, a gateway for many people hoping to start a new life in europe. and until recently, migration provided legal business opportunities for many in niger. reporter: since a botched opereration left basashir amma unable t to walk propeperly, s been devotining most of hihis e to his fooootball club, , nasa agagadez. he used totoarn his living by transptiting huneds s of mimigrts acrososthe desert.

he was one of the local bosses. but now people s smuggling has been outlawed. nowawadays, bashirir is intered in getettingoung m men to join h football team. bashir: ththe routes nororth thh the dedesert are mucuch too dadangerous now.w. i trtry persuadadthe boys t o stay here. maybe that will mean our team will g get promoted d to the ft divisionon. repoporter: currenently, the cls just about b breaking evenen, s babashir. he pays ththeir modest w wagesm his savings or on occasion fmm trsferer revue. there are six migrants in bashir's squadad. but t despite his s efforts, nol plan to stayay. jeremy from nigerihas his heart set on europe. he dreamams of becomining a professionalal footballer r in italaly. jejeremy: here i i get about $a month. so when i'm ninished, en i i'll

take o off. reporter: inin the past, a agz would have been the ideal jumping-off point for the trek across thehe desert. the city was long a a hub for migrants h heading for e euro. migration was s big business. thousands here earned their livevelihoods fromom it. bashir has also made his fai are.e. but ththose days a o over, he says. now unemplployment is bebecomia proble he blames the european uni. bashir: the eu is respsponsibl. it pressssured the govovernmenf niger to introduce an titi-people smugugglinlaw in 2015. europepe has to swswer for allf the pepeople who werere abandonr dieded in the desesert. reporter: sisince the law w was passed, the authorits s have arreed dozozenof driveve and impounded ththeir vehiclese. bashir tells us many pepeople-sgglelers n risk k mo dangerous s routes to dododgee checkpoioints. he introroduces us to o someone who's still l in business.s.

momemed: we no lgeger takehe officialoutes,s, bute haveve lots of other roeses that avdd the e patrols and d the milit. reporter: : the journey y to e medirrananean coast isis hellih enough as s it is. many fail m make it throuough t desert, whether inigiger, in algea, o or libya.. ththey're abandodoned, abused,d, kidndnappe those who do survive often end herere in an immimigrt transit center in agagadez. whenen t young men spot thtv cameras, ty y flock oundnd us, wanting to show us veoeos of whathey hahaveeen throroh. mohamed bagaga: thalgeriris haveent usus back to nigiger again. when we were in thdesesert, ey robbed us of everying we had our ney, o o cell phonon, even our water. we had to walkoror kilomers.s.

they treat us black opople lik anims. reporter: political activist ibrahihim manzo dialallo is thed of radio s sahara in agagadez. as beshe c can, trieses t cument whahas going on out i the desertrtand writ disturbing reportsts. his information cocomes fromtaff in the field. ibrahim also blames s the eu. ibrahim: europe is funngng this blant didisrard of human righghts -- the mumurdering, e rapepes, the slaveve tde -- ase have seen n in libya. reporter: wewe meet the eueu ey in niger, in the capital nmemey. hehe rejts thehe ausationsns. raul: our p prprioty of th eueupean uni was to avoioid aths. pele dying a victimsf the traffiining. reporter: peoplele-smugglers he repeatedly b been accused d of brbrutality. bashir denies that was te e in hihis ca, evenen ithe workrkas provideded him with a certain degree of prosperity. a tv now statands where mimigrs us to slslp.

but he says that he did everything by the book beforee the people-smuggliling law bned ththe activity.. babashir: we registered withthe authoritie we gotot official papers for te routute. wewe were even a accompanied b y sosoldie as fafar as the libin bordrder. rerter: to bst the e enomy in a agadez and crcreate alterne emplployment, the e eu is nw funding such things as srtrt catal l for w ventntur launched b by former pepeople-smugggglers. bashirir has receiveved some my to set up a small restaunt, but many haven't received any support yet. bashir says s it's too litittled possiblyly too late. but he's ryiying othe restauauranto be a s scess. who knows etether s foototball am will ever tura prprof.

host: and now it's timime for globobal ideas. this week we head to mexico. the country has been doggeged y poor rainfall in recent years, creating huge problems for local biodiversity. our reporter, alexa meyer, visited the selva maya tropical forest in calakmul, where scientists are working to get a handle on ththe effects of clime change. reporter: night has fallen. it's the hour of the bat. two million of them fly out of their cave at dusk, hunting for food and water. but that's becoming more difficult by the year. the same is true for many of the other animals that inhabit the selva maya, including spider monkeys. the 1010 million hectare tropil rainforest stretches across three countries -- belize, guatemala, and mexico. the 723,000 hectare calakmul biosphere reserve is part of it.

and in the middle of the reserve is the mayan archaeological site of the same name, one of the largest sites in mexico. but the rainforest is critically threatened. jose: we've had to cope with less and less rainfall for a while now. and that means there's too little water in the watering holes, so the animals have less to drink. the drought began back in 2015. 2016 and 2017 were the driest years ever recorded, and records go back 50 years. reporter: this watering hole in the middle of the calakmul biosphere reserve still provides the vital resource. researcher rafael reina has set up motion-triggered cameras at ten sites like this. he wants to know exactly which animals -- whether bird species,

tapirs, or jaguars -- come to drink, and how often, and how their numbers change from year to year. there are only 450 jaguars left here. rafael: many endangered species depend on these watering holes, which are e impermanent and unpredictable. some years they're full, in others they dry up. every time we investigate, it's clear how important they are for wild and threatened d animals. reporter: reina has the support of the g.i.z., a german development agency. g.i.z. provides cross-border financing of various long-term

studies, and coordinates projects in guatemala, belize, and mexico. florian: data has to be made more freely available, including across bororders. that's where we have a lot of potential to affect change with our project. reporter: the goal -- providing cross-border biodiversity conservation in the selva maya. in mexico, the g.i.z. has equipped park rangers with digital smart technology. the software works even in the most remote areas. today, the rangers have discovered an area in the woods that has been burned illegally. they can send pictures of it directly to a database. fridida: it used to take a log time before we could pass on the

information, at the end of a five-day patrol. now things are totally different. we can record the information in two minutes. the location, what we've already examined, which illegal activities we fofound. reporter: just being watchful and observing what happens in the forest, that's something youngsters can do, too. in their free time, 17 girls and boys from the village of mancolona are learning how to recognize and categorize birds. g.i.z. supports the training of groups like this, and supplies binoculars and field guides. on days like these, the group is out for several hours. they have to be very patient. it's pretty rare to actually see the rainforest's dazzling birds.

but sometimes they do get lucky and catch sight of a toucan or parrot. claudio: apart from learning that t the birds contribute to plant diversity and keep pests in check, the idea behind this project is that the chilildren will later become ornithologists or biologists. >> it's important to protect the birds, and the environment. reporter: claudio lopepez recos which of the approximately 350 species of bird the schoolchildren have seen on their field trips in an international datababank calld e-bird. the platform helps clarify where in the world which species exist, and how often they're spotted. and, most importantly, where they are under threat.

researchers like rafael reina have grown increasingly worried that larger tracts in the biosphere reserve will soon be cleared for farming. and there's always the looming threat of climimate change. stilill, his work has alalreadd an effect. rafael: because we keep talking about the watering holes and the animals, the people are slowly growing more aware of the problems. and they a ask tmselves, foror example, h how they could more effectively use water resources, and preserve them. i believe that we are helping change perceptions among locals, researchers, and decision-makers. reporter: and their work has drawn attention. the e government now wantsts tt up a new p protected area. and efforts are underway to help animals get through the drought with additional watering holes. the first steps towards

we're back next week. and don't forget to send us your views and comments. write to us at global3000@dw.com or via facebook, dw global society. see you next time. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

09/28/18 09/28/18 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! ford: i believed he was going to rape me. i tried to yell for help. when i did, brett put his hand over my mouth and stopped me from yelling. this is what terrified me the most and has had the most lasting impact on my life. amy: dr. christine blasey ford, testifies publicly for the first time at in his stork senate

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