♪ people live with, and from, camels. today they're having to be a bit more creative, too. lelearning via smartphone? we meet a young g man in it might well be hellish, but for those who work here, it's essential. smartphones, washing machines, tv's, air conditioners. those who can afford them,

rarely choose to go without. and indeed, for a few years at least, they can make our lives easier. but then what? this year alone, 48 million tons of electrical waste will be produced worldwide. that sounds like a lot, and it is. in fact, it's 4800 times the weight of the eiffel tower. in just one year. and what happens to all these old, broken machines? well, a significant proportion get shipped to west africa, to scrap yards in countries like ghana. reporter: this is one of africa's largest e-waste scrap yards. situated on the outskirts of ghana's capital accra, it's often been called hell on earth. it's toxic, filthy, and it stinks.

every day, tons of discarded electrical appliances, cars, and scrap metal end up here. much of it from europe. everything here gets dismantled and either broken down into its raw materials, or processed on the spot. joseph kogo has a big job to do. he's making a mould out of sand. then he'll melt down an old engine to pour into it to make a cooking pot. it takes time for the aluminum to melt. joseph kogo is happy with his work here. joseph: i can get the goods here any time i need them. if i see what i want i just run out and buy it, and get to work. that makes the work very easy for me here.

reporter: a short time later, the pot is done. after deducting the cost of the material and rent for the workshop, joseph earns around 20 ghanainan cedis for his medium-sized pot, the equivalent of three euros 50. he can afford to pay two employees. he's doing a thriving business, as are many others here. the scrap yard operates much like an anthill. everyone has a job to dodond they all work hard. anything that can be reused is repaired. agrika ijezie, who came from nigeria, specializes in laptops and performs wonders with them. starting a business like this back home would have been too expensive. agrika: in africa, we use things. we don't use things like

europeans do. in africa we use things until they die. we buy things and bring them to life again. reporter: in this workshop, old air conditioners are brought back to life. some are resurrected as fans. building a tv antenna a here ia snap. everything you n need cane salvaged. these old soda and beer cans are melted down and turned into cooking pots. the scrap yard draws workers from across west africa. no one here complains about the work, at least not to us. >> the moment you come here, you feel proud to work. very proud. everyone here is working hard.

they don't go playing or joking. reporter: joseph kogo is looking for more raw materials for his pots. one of his suppliers has just received a fresh delivery of old engines. he knows that much of this waste comes from europe, but says he isn't bothered by that. joseph: you see other countries that are poor, and it's not because god ignores them, or because he hasn't given them the same amount. it's about deciding what we want to have tomorrow. or what we are planning for our future life. we have enough. it depends on how we use it. how we plan for our future today. reporter: the scrap is sold by the kilo. engines are more expensive than aluminum bars made of soda cans, but joseph says they're much better suited to makaking cookg pots. precious little here goes to waste.

an old boat is now a roof. the cab of a truck is being used as a break room. and this exercise equipment is being used to exercise. at the end of the workday, joseph heads home. he passes by vendors who also sell his pots. like most of people in this part of accra, he's originally from the country's north. it's a region that has been badly hit by drought, and few people have work. joseph didn't either, so he and his wife moved to accra. his neighbors in the slum showed him how to make cooking pots out of scrap metal. now he and his family own their own home, so they no longer need to pay rent. but joseph doesn't want to work in the scrap yard forever.

he dreams of going to university. joseph: it's education. whatever level you're at, you open your mind to the world and you're able to overcome challenges in life. education brightens your life. if you run a business, or anything else you do, you need to educate yourself to a certain level. you learn how to live. your life becomes somehow easier than if you were not educated. reporter: tomorrow, joseph kogo will return to his workshop at the e-waste scrap yard, a place often labeled as hell on earth. host: sticking to a vision and not losing hope -- that's key for the global shapers, too. young people, dedicateted to combining creative ideas and commitment to make lasting change. supported by the world economic forum, so far they've helped kids in colombia's poorest

neighborhoods, campaigned for affordable housing in japan, and fought for the rights of prisoners in brazil. there are aroundnd500 globalal shapers s around the world. today, we e head to indodoness capital,l, jakarta, toto meete young man withth a brilliantnt . mumuhammad: ifif you want to see videos, you need to go to ruangguru, then pick your lesson. reporter: muhammad's smartphone is h teacher.. the nine-year-r-old has alreay ed it to l learn english, with the help o of short videos and question-and-answer games. 10 million young indonesians already log into the ruangguru app's digital lessons. the platform was founded by iman usman. atat just 27, , he now h heads a company withth more than 1000 workers. ruangguru's jakarta headquarters

are at bursting point. the curriculum is constantly being upgradedwiwith eryththing from ercises for nationana schohool exams, to mathshs pros for elementary grade levels. iman: i come from a big family, five sisters, no brother, i am the youngest in the family. yet, i am the first one who graduated from college from my whole family. so, i have seen how whenen you t exposed with quality education, you can completely transform your life. i i have seen it for myself, ani really want to impact others by giving them access that they might not have before. reporterer: the company aims o spark a digital educational revolution in indonesia. iman usmsman and his team launcd their startup in 2014. they want to offer content that's interesting and interactive, things state educatation all too often isn'.

to study. i just said that i was working. but finally i mustered up the courage to tell them. now my parents are really proud of me because i've achieved so much. reporter: : for the users, its also a cost-effective mode of learning. students can call on 150,000 indonesian teachers using the app. one-on-one instruction costs more. the teachers are highly motivated, in part because their students also evaluate them. iman: : previously, qualitiy learning has always been seen as a privilege. only for the rich or maybebe te mimiddle class who could affod that. but the change i want to see is that it becomes a right for every single person. so we want to democratize quality education. reporter: the ruangguru app's success took iman usman and his

team by surprise. nowadays they sometimes have difficulty finding suitable programmers and teachers. this rapid growth is also an organizational challenge, especially because the company wants to branch out. iman: we want to make sure that basic and secondary education becomes a lot more and more affordable. bubut other thanan that, we arae actually also developing other solutions that help them to get employed and get external support as well through an application that we call ruangjar, which is basically providing a lot of short courses and online training not only for students, but also for adults and young professionals. reporter: improving employment prospects is also good business. after all, there's little incentive for a good education if there's no work. but ththe idea of lilife-log learning seems to appeal to many young indonesians, as long as the lessons are varied and fun. host: and now from indonesia to china, where the ever-expanding

wealthier classes are stepping up their spending on products like food and drink, for example. take wine. since the early 2000's, china's wine consumption has jumped d fm 11 million to almost 18 million hectoliters. since the 1980's, per-capita meat consumption has quadrupled to 42 kilos per year. and milk products are in demand, too. the chinese now spend twice as much on yogurt as they did a few years ago. and one brand is proving especially popular. it comes from bulgaria. reporter: gergana and stanka are neighbors. they're from a village in bulgaria called momchilovtsi. together with other locals, they're taking part in a chinese language class. for bulgarians, it's a hard language to learn.

gergana:a: it's prettyty compmplicated. but i'd reallyly like to learn some phrases that i i can imprs the chinese visitors with. stankaka: i'm very interested n chinese culture, and theogogic behind the syllables and the chinese written characters. reporter: chinese visitors? momchilovtsi is in the rhodopes, a mountain range close to the greek border. these days, there are signs scattered about the village in chinese. so, what's going on? the chinese visitors are here for one thing -- lactobacilllls bulgaricus. the bacteria found in the local yogurt.

gergana is visiting stojan shukerov, who was born and bred in here and is now 94. he's also world-famous. he's been on tv in bulgaria, brazil, and china, explaining the secret of his long life. stojan: we're all so healthy here because we eat a lot of yoyogurt. wewe can't live without it. it can be made with cow's milk, sheep's milk, or goat's milk, it doesn't matter. we need yogurt to survive. thatat's why i i've lived so l. reporter: china wants what he's having. momchilovtsi yogurt isis one f chinese companany bright dairys top-p-selling products. the drdrinking yogururt made wa strain of lactobacillus

bulgaricus is s now sold in n at evevery major susupermarket inia and has comeme ayword forr healththy living.. >> i really y like this brbranf yogurt. it c comes from a a place wherl the locals l live to a ripiped age. >> the pacgingng ss it makes yolilive lger. >> it's rereally tasty y yogu. reporter: back in momchilovtsi, dairy farmer ilia atanasov can remember the first time he was visited by a delegation from china, eight years ago. they made careful note of how he made yogurt and quizzed him on the secrets of the bulgarian recipe. ilia: it's a very simple formula. on the one hand our cattle graze on these lovely meadows. and also we have a very special breed of cattle.

they produce less milk, but it's very high quality and has a higher fat content. reporter: : ilia demonstrarates traditional yogurt-making process. he fills glasses with milk that's been heated to 45 degrees celsius, then cooled. then he adds the lactobacillus bulgaricus. the starter culture comes from an existing jar of yogurt, so the bacteria can reproduce indefinitely. it's added to a new batch of milk, which is then left to stand for up to three hours. that's also how the chinese make their yogurt, with a starter culture from momchilovtsi. the brand has now become so popular in china that it's boosted tourism to the region. visitors are eager to visit the places they know from momchilovtsi packaging and commercials, including the path of longevity. there's now even an annual

chinese-bulgarian yogugurt festivalal that drawararound 50 visitors from china. like many here, gergana is learning chinese so that she, too, can benefit from the boom in tourism. gergana: i think we can keep the traditionanal character of the village despite all the visitors. the tourists from china won't spoil anytything. it's more likely that they will be different once they've been here, after they've seen all our beautiful landscapes. reporter: gergana's dream is to open a small hotel. and bulgarian yogurt will definitely be on the breakfast menu.

host: and now from yogurt to milk. or rather, to indian camel milk. this week in global ideas, we visit the raika, who rely on camels to make a living. but thatat's becoming inincreasy challelenging. our reporter cornelia borrmann travelled to the pali district of the state of rajastan to find out more. she spent several days with camel herders, befriended their animals, and decided along the way that their milk is pretty tasty, too. reporter: the raika people have been herding camels here in rajasthan for centuries. raika tradition holds that lord shiva created their caste specifically so they could look after camels. but times have changed. their traditional way of life is now under threat.

mechanized farming has long been able to do much of the work that camels once did, so their market value has dropped sharply. the last 30 years have seen the camel population in rajasthan shrink dramatically. bhanwarlal raika says his father used to have twice as many camels as he does. bhanwarlal: our traditions have been handed down for generations. they mean a lot to us. but how can we uphold our traditions when we have no income and young people have to leave for the cities to make a living? my children go to school. that costs me a lot every month. ifif we can no longer make a a living with our camels, how are we going to survive? reporter: ilse kohler-rollefson is an ethnologist and veterinarian. together with hanwant singh

rathore, she set up an organization that helps camel herders sustain their livelihood. it's an advocacy group for raika and their camels, and also raises awareness that the animals play a crucial role protecting the environment. ilse: camel grazing helps tree conservation, in many ways. a lot of trees can only germinate with the help of ruminants that chew their cud. it's a natural cycle -- humans, camels, the biotope, and the production of quality foodstuffs. reporter: cacamels are the ony animals that eat indian globe thistle. these short, spiky plants are a nightmare for farmers. without the camels, the plant would proliferate all over the fields and choke the crops. camels graze by breaking off a few branches, chewing a few

leaves, and moving on. it's a grazing practice that encourages regeneration. the camels need large browsing areas and can cover 10 kilometers a day. but changes to agriculture mean that pasture land is i in shot supply. hanwant singh rathore has been working with camel herders for nearly three decades. in the past, anji-ki-dhani was a thriving village. locals owned some 3000 camels between them. but now many locals have since switched to buffalo heherding. it's more profitable. hanwant: the young generation, they also don't want camels. it is looking very bad for the camels. i feel like in the next five years you can't see any camels on the road or anywhere. because nobody wants them. reporter: if camels disappear from the roads of rajasthan, traditional raika culture could

also disappear. and with it, their expertise in agro-pastoral herding practices. once a year, bull cacalves are sold at camel markets. for centuries, this has been raikas' main source of income. they keep the cows for breeding. camel milk is highly nutritious and a staple of the raika diet. they used to say selling camel milk is like selling y your children. but ththat is changing, too. now, every morning bhanwarlal raika takes camel milk to a dairy founded three years ago by ilse kohler-rollefson's ngo. bhanwarlal: i was about to give up. i'd sold my camels. but then the organization began selling camel milk. so i got my herd back. now i can feed my family with

what i earn selling camel milk. if the organization stopped selling milk tomorrow, i'd have to sell the herd again. reporter: last year he even bought more camels, doubling his herd's milk production. the dairy has also turned around tolaram raika's fortunes. when he was a boy, his family sent him to the city to earn a living. he spent 15 years toiling in restaurants, hotels, and teashops. tolaram: i worked in the city for years, and for less money than i'm earning here. i started in the dairy twowo months ago. i know a lot about camel milk. i'm very happy working here. i hope the dairy continues to do well. reporter: camels have a varied diet, eating 36 different types of plants known for their medicinal properties.

so their milk is believed to haha many healalth benefits. but t for now, the camel charia micro-dairy still isn't selling as much as it could. it's operating at just a third of its capacity. it needs more buyers. ilse: at the moment we have only about six families supplying us. but ththere's a huge amount of interest. we get calls every day from raika asking i iwe can buyuy thr milk. so it's s a big concern. we've seen that raika who can earn a living selling their milk are able to keep their camels. reporter: surplus milk is turned into soap, a product that sells well. another step towards ensuring the raika an income. further products that have been developed include textiles made from camel hair.

this paper is made from camel dung. but the biggggest challenge is finding customers. tourists sometimes visit and samplele the local camel milk. ilse kohler-rollefson takes the opportunity y to raise awarenes of raika culture and the threat it faces. ilse: on a global level, the u.n. has recognized the importance of nomadic agro-pastoralism. so we're moving in the right direction. but the question is, can we help before time runs out? reporter: to preserve their herds, the raika need to make a living. 30 years ago, there were one million camels in rajasthan. today, it's just a fifth that. nearly all the herders are now old. if they aren't joined by a younger generation, this traditional way of life will soon be lost.

host: that's all for this week. as always, we love hearing from you, so write to us at global3000@dw.com, or visit us on facebook, dw global society. bye for now. ♪

>> today on "earth focus," everyday chemicals and how theyy mayay be harming us, coming up o on "earth focus." [captioning made possible by kcet public television] they are everywhere in our environment. in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat. they are in everyday products we use for personal care and cleaning. they are in our furniture, our children's toys, and the products we use in gardening and agriculture. and almost all of us have them inside our bodies. >> chemicals, right now, according to the best evidence