what does it mean, exactly? is it about having access to essential medical care from birth? or about being able to pursue an acting career if you have down syndrome? one berlin theatre shows us how. or is it about having real chances of social mobility? why is breaking out of the poverty cycle so hard for people living i in slums? one in seven people worldwide live in what are now frequently

called informal settlements. many have left rural areas hoping to find work and a better life in the city. those dreams rarely bear fruit, though. in sub-saharan africa almost 60% of the population lives in slums around major urban centers. and most will stay there. the majority subsist on low-paid, temporary work. the population okenya's capital, nairobi, has almost doubled in the past 30 years to 3.5 million. but more than half its residents live in crowded, ad hoc neighborhoods that make up just 6% of the city's area. reporter: when godwin n ochieg visits one o of nairobi's s shog centers, he doesn't t come hereo shop.. he can browse as long asee was, b but hcould d ner afford to actually buy anything.

dwin: although i'm prey relalaxe i've had a strae fefeeling sinci came ihehere. i fefe that i am visitgg sosomewhere freqequented bya difffferent socialal class. a plplace where i i don't reay belolong. but i ththink even i d deserve e herere. recently, more and me e modern shping m mal have been going up, but hahardly any new s schs or daycarere centers. they invnvest much morore in shoppi malalls tn in hospitals, apartnts, or school reporter: lots of shopping centers have been built by prprivate inveors for kenya's small upper class inececent yeyears. this is a result t te cocountrs powewerf economimi growth.. but normrmal kenyans a arent befifitting. mo don't't he eitherer state pension scheheme or healthth insusurance. almost 40% survive on ssss than $2$2 a d.

the majoririty of nairobobis inhabitants s live in slumums. just like ochieng. s s home idandndora, good d fi kikilometers frorom nairobis centnter. righnext to thcity's larst rbage dump trucks are constantly dumping waste from hotels, restaurants, anand the afflueuent neighborhs here. it s stinks of bururnt plasticd dedecay. like many otrs, ochig collecects reclablbles a sellss them to mimiddlemen. he worksks hard, 10 toto 12 hoa day, even n on sundays.. godwin: if somomeone gets riricd therare e pooreople e who need hehelp, why don'n't the rich p thoswho ararpoor and suffering? it u unfair r some pple toto be wealthy a and to have a a w rich families owning lanand d farmrms while othehers have to p onon the streetsts.

there e are even peoeople who e on the d dump cause e they haveo other home. reporter: ththe state's prprese inin slums like e dandora is non-existent. ev t the pole avavoid e areaea. thosose who want t to escape e drugs anand the crime e have top themselves. the initiative dandora hip hop city t tes to do just that, with mumusic. it's a safafe space for r young people whoho want to makake mu, and to get advice f financi sues.. charle in the rroundin danda, we ha set up ograms wherwe get aists froaround tohampion these prrarams. have prrams, a ble bankinprogram erere arsts

do their savings so th whenever they wa t to doheir new bum or sgle, youan be ableo o acce some e pport through a loan ithe e grp. report: : theyre jusussmall sts, but it's a glimmeof hope for my y young oplele in ththe slum. one man n who has beenen ableo move out of dandora is t h hip p ststar jiani. as the foundnder of dandora ap hop p city, he wanants to sharee of his success. he says s if you want t to ree socicial inequalality in kenyau have to do it t yourse. juliani: y you c't expecec wealalthy people t to do somhig ababout , becacause it benefes them. so if prprivilege benenefits , you u cat do anynything about . but what we expepect to be donos the mamasses to orgaganize, te informeded, and to actctivey paparticipate anand try to makae ththings work. becaususe when laws s are made,n dedecisions are e being made a t certain levels, they hardly participate. they are too busy beining poo. reporter: ththat's true fofr

ochieng, too, who has wiwife and yog daugught to feeded he also o has to pay t the renn their r tiny one-roooom apartm. godwin: itit's hard. we gw w up in ed. of course we don't wt t to be po anymomore. we w want a good l life. but i n't t thinthat t the powewerful will hehelp us. ththey only wantnt to enrich themselves. anwhwhen theve d done at, wewe popoor people hahave to ke o on fifighti for s surval. but if y you don't figight, youl alwaways remain popoor. reporter: godwin ochieng isn't giving up. his most important goal ishahat s dadaughter elianana ll one d d be able to attend school and hahave a better r future thane does..

host: according to the world health organization, 15,000 children under the age of five die every single day. newborns are particulalarly at risk. in m mandevelopingng and emergg economies, there's a shortage of hospitals, doctors, and modern medical equipment. devices like life-saving respirators are crucial on neonatal intensive care wards. but they'r're expensive. and a lack of themem means may babies die unnecessarily. like in vietnam. reporter: this little one was born too early. he and many other babies in the premature infant ward at saint paul hospital in hanoi are dependent on medical equipment. but there is not enough to go around. nga trang discusses the probobm with one of the doctors. for years she has been working on boosting the availability of life-saving equipment. nga: the first time when i came

to the hospitatal, i see there s a bed and d a white cloth whih half covered the entire bed. i asked the doctor, why do you cover the baby's face like that? and the doctor said that the baby just passed away because we did not have enough equipment to treat the baby. and i was really, really shocked, andnd i feel really s, and i just cried for the whole day and i just don't know how i feel. because we see this every day. and at that time i felt that i had to do something. reporter: overcrowded hospitals and a lack of equipment and medicine -- that's the realiliy almost everywhere in vietnam. the ward is designed for only 45 premature babies, but almost twice as many are being treated here. a key problem is a lack of money.

special lighting helps newborn infants who have jaundice. but many h hospitals in n viem can't afford equipment from abroad. this is a major problem. the situation at saint paul and other big-city hospitals is, on the whole, much better than in clinics in rural a areas ththey tend to have far less medical equipment. and that means more babies are at risk. nga trang is determined to change that. she founded mtts, together with her husband gregory. the company is located in a central district of hanoi and has one goal -- to make high-quality, affordable medical technology.

mtts develops and builds devices from inexpensive parts that are made i in vietnam. for example, the lights used in therapy for newborns. these units will be sent to east timor. the company's s light therapy devices and warming systems are up to 70% cheaper than products sold b by major foreign manufacturers. the electronics aren't complicated. it has always been their goal to develop simple yet effective sosolutions. but development takes time. it can take two to three years until a new product is brought to market. gregory: this is really the device that warms up the baby, and the baby is being temperature controlled where we connect the sensor -- this is, like, the patient -- connect the sensor. we can open that for the treatment, and open that for the patient. the bed is big, but it is really

for one patient. reporter: mtts was founded in 2003 and now has 25 employees and customers in 40 countries. it works closely with doctors and hospitals. the devices have to be easy to handle. spare parts have to be easy to replace and cheap. greogory: it's very meananingf. it's something that makes me wawaking up on monday morning d keeps me motivated because i know that what we do saves lives, and every time i do something, it has a meaning. i have too many friends that go every day to work and they just say, oh, i wish it was friday already, and just get the weekend. for me, it's opposite. reporter: saint paul hospital in hanoi has the medical devices to save lives. but nga trang and gregory say there should be more. at least they've made a start.

not only here, b but also o in l areaeas. some of thohose devicee financed by ngo's. the couple got to know each other while they were studying economics in denmark. they share the same vision. their company is not about maximizing profits, but about saving lives. that's why they see themselves as social entrepreneurs. nga: you know, i never want to stop. i want to do more and more. because every single life matters. so in the next five years we would like to sell more equipment in africa. reporter: they can only achieve that if they keep costs as low as possible. it's quite a challenge, but one the couple are convinced they can master.

host: aroundnd a billion p pee worldwide have a physical or mental disability. that's 15% of the global population. four in five live in developing countries. inequality is a problem everywhere, though. disasabled people are less l ly to finish school. they're more likely to be unemployed, and are therefore often at greater risk of poverty. one disability is down syndromo. people born with the condition have an extra chromososome in theieir cells. instead of two copies of the 21st chromosome, thehave three. that causes a range ofogogniti and ysical dabilities. but that doesn't mean people with down syndrome can't play an in berlin. actors with and without down

syndrome bring herman melville's novel to the stage. it dealsls with death, insanan, and an elusive white whale. jakob hohne is the theater's director. his brother moritz, who has down syndrome, is among the stars of the theater, which was founded in 1990. down syndrome is a congenital condition, which comes with varying degrees of physical and cognitive effects. jakob: the main point is that people with downwn syndrome hae their own forms of artistic expression. the way they convey a character is different from the way i might t do it. theyey have different titimingd different ideas. i might use language to convey something, while actors with a disability do it with movement. reporter: what begins as an ordinary whaling expedition turns into a fatal quest for revenge.

jonas sippel has been with the group since 2015. jonas: acting is a strength that's very important to people with down syndrome. there are people in the theater that have difficulties speaking and are speech-impaired. they can only communicate by acting it out. reporter: in germany, there are few opportunities for people with down syndrome to lilive le other young adults. there aren't many shared living options. jonas sippel was lucky. jonas: i'm the type of person who reaches out to people, enjoys talking, doing things with them.

i'm a very sociable person, who likes writing poetry. i'm also interested in acting and art. we definitely have to fight to make it clear that not everybody's the same. otherwisise there won't be any diversity. we also have rights. reporter: rambazamba has been bringing together people with from other ensembles. boris: i figured i'd drop by and watch a rehearsal. in the morning i watched and in the afternoon i joined in. what really drew me in was the amazing energy.

it feels unmediated, free of self-reflection. choreographers from spain. they say they can learn quite a lot from their colleagues with disabilities. sara: they didn't have some filters that we have. like we have so many, like, i cannot do this, because it's like -- and they are like, more free. they feel so much freedom. ananit really y gives you that freedom m of trying things or getting a little bit more deeper into some things. like, it's much easier, actually, but yeah, they are so professional. reporter: the theater has gained international acclaim. a japanese television netwtworks filming a documentary about rambazamba.

jakob: we see ourselves as an ensemble of the future, as a city theater of the future. we bring in other kinds of people. the minority becomes the majority. reporter: the path to o a more inclususive sociciety is a long, but rambazamamba is staying te course. host: today in global ideas, we're off to mexico's caribbean coast. in 2011, vast quantities of sargassum -- a kind of brown seaweed -- washed up on beaches there. in 2015, it happened again. then this year, things got considerably worse. the marine plantnt began washig up o on the south coasast of e u.s., the dominican republic, and mexico. our repoporter katja d dohne weo leararn more aboutut the plaguf seaweed, and talked to people determined t to fi solutution.

rereporter: the dede str off mumurky own inin the water, ,d alalong the beacach, is seawe. more p precisely, sasargassuma genus s of large brorown algae. it's b burgeoning inin many parf ththe caribbean.n. brigigitta: it grorows incredy fafast. this is s a ally hugug potentially huge ecologicacal disasterer. rereporter: but t some people w the e abundant seaeaweed asa business opportunity. dadavid: we are e going to crea whole indudustry and expxport. ultitimately, we will even cultate e sargsum bebecause ththere won't bebe enough. omar: we are rea t to jo the balele ando our bebest reporter: sargassum normallyly floaoats in large e mats out ie atlantntic around bebermuda. bubut in recent t years, vat amounts have been washinupup on strehes ofof the caribbebean coast.t. all l that sargassssum is impag

the ecosystem. ieientistsave e comeo puererto morelos on mexico's yucatan coast to investigate the phenomenenon. brigitta: we don't know a lo out t thislant y y, becausee the basic c biology is n not ry well k known, but wewe know war temperatatures, it grorows fas. more nutririents, it grorows fa, becaususe that's jusust basic t biologogy. if we wowould know morore we cd predicict a lot betttter. reporterer: once beachched, sargasm ststartso rot t an ink, releang hydroge suide, whihich smells lilike rotten eggs. this year is the worst on record. barbados even declared a nationonal emergencycy. ribbean untries e worrie ey'll lo a valalble sour of income. in playa delarmen,n,0 kilometete south of puerto morelo t they arsayiying tre hahave been fewewer holidaymas this year. the auauthorities arare tryino tackckle the problblem. one approachch involves ininstag long floloating barriers to kep

e sargassum away from beaches answimimmingreas.. david: this is the barrier we have designed and produce here in mexico. wealall it t antnti-saassumm barrier. reportrter: the lowewer part s holes for fish a and turtles o papass through.. sargazo solutions ststarted producing ththe barriers j jua few months ago. a lot t of other comompanies e being set up to join i in the efforts toto beat the seseawe. david: mexico doesn't have any experience in dealing with this. all the firms that are getting involved and are trying to tackle the problem come from other sectors just like us. reporterer: it is not clcler whether the e floating barries wiwill be able t to withstd de nextxt massive sururge of sarga. one has already sunk uerer the weig of ththe ed. flfloating boomsms are at besa tetemporary prototective meas,

though. the sargasm m is probly y set comegain a a again. othecompmpans say the solution is to gather it upn boboat while thseseaweeisis sti outut atea.. david: ware alsoorking o e final age of the process namely, what to do wh h the sargsum. that is what everybody is thking about. reporterer: 300 kilometersrs te we, in a a lab near r merida, ty are e working on p producing bs out t of sargassumum. generati gas with gae is noing nene at they are doing here i rening the processy y addi a specifif fungus. raulthe fungus breaks down t cecellalls of the seawd,d, and th makes the sourcof carbon more aesessibl it speeds up therocecessnd it incrcreas the yield of bgagas by %. reporter: the susults far a a prpromisg.

now the sesearchs wantnto scale proroduion. but firsthey neeto get me fuing. other projojects want toto use sargassum toto help people i in need. omar v vazquez hasuiuilt a houe out t of adobe, anand seaweed. omar: every y brick coaiains a highercentntagof sargagaum. there is also me in n e mortar tweeeen e bricks. all-l-in-all, the e house is % sargrgassum. reporterer: the house e hit the headlinenes. there had never been anying li i it. consucuctionompanini have coacteted vauez and wa to ild on h work. it inot yet clear whether the house will withstandaiain and windthough, or h long its lifespan might be. it has two rooms and a toilet and is said to be earthqua a and huhurrice resisistt.

if it proves its worth and goes intoto mass producuction, it cd make a sigignificant dififfere here. omar: i i am interesteted in e social i impact. generating jobs, providing heses for r peop of fefew ans, very pooreople. i dot see th as a buness. vertheless, we a s startg to prode e houses in rerespse to the dema. ere is a lot of mamand. so we are going to set up a number of mpanies to manufacture theshouses as soon as possible. reporter: byby the end of f the year, the sasargassum shououle gone along the yucat c coast. bubut ne may i it will probabaye back. that's b been the pattttern se the deluge b began a few y yes ago.he reseseahers sayaycean warmrming resultining from clie chchange is boososting its gro. brigitta: onone ton of sarargam being put in the caribbean sea,

for examplple, near trinidad r barbadosos, which was ononly e ton. at theimime it arrivives here, this one tonon has become 12 to. it's in n the systemit's in the ocean, it's found its ideal enviroent,t, it'going g totay. repoer: popoer counteses in the e gion are lookingo mexico, , with its grereater econic andnd scientifific resources, for solutions to the problem. announcer: who cares about the flower industry's destructiv impapacts? >> i do. announcer: whoho cares about global lgbt rights? >> i do. announcer: who cares about homelessss people liviving one streets of l.a.? >> i do. announcer: who supports sustainable farming in the amazon? >> i do.o. annonouncer: who cares about equality for women in africa? > i do.

we're back next week. and until then, drop us a line, global3000@dw.com, or check out our facebook page, dw global society. see you next week. ♪ [captioning performed by the