♪ host: welcome to "obobal 300" this w wk, we meet unusu seaea creatureres who are offering he m madagasr's s fishermen. in myanmar, we talk to p peope looking toto make their r fore drilliling for oilil. but first we head to iran, which is only now starting to face up to its drug problems. accocording to thehe united nat, arouound 31 millioion people

worldwide regulay y consum harml levevelsf illicit drugs. iran has one of the world's highest numbers of drug addicts relative to population size. 1.25 million people, according to u.nfifigures. the 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 iran. drugs have 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 jujust a few years agogo. shirin was a drug addict. she was hooked on crystal meth for eight t 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 w when i was six,x, he gae 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 e forbidden n thisis theocraratic 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 probm finanallbe made e public. iriranian state tetelevision d then announce e that there wee nearly 3000 drug-related deaths annually. and d shirin was invited to apar on a talk show. this was unthihinkable jusust a shorort time ago.. 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 high. what is known is that thousands of liters of alcohol are coconfiscated and 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 h have reacd mamy ththis way 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 midst of an economic crisis. unemployment lies at nearly 13%. many brazililians have beeeen pd down thehe sial ladderer, and slums continue to expand. according to figures from 20177 around 50 million brazilians, a quararter of the p population,e less than $5.5 a day to live on. that's below the national official poverty line. and approximately 15 million pepeople live inin extreme pov, onon less than $1.90 a day.

and if it weren't for the efforts of more e fortunate members ofof the populatation,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 e day and d go abroad, pers to paris, and work for the best restaurants. that's my dream, but who knows.

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 that became part of my burden, you know. like, i cannot waste o one toma. 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 t that is concernd and it relates to people, to bring opportunities, to fight hunger, to fightht malnutritio,

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. itit has vast natural resourcs 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 becaususe of all e legislation, we are not able to do this. but we hope in the future we c n 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 201016, myanmar's's 50 yearf military dictatorship officially came to an end. the economy is now growing and

foreign invevestment is onon e rise. bubut so far, momost developmt efefforts have b been limitedo urban areas, like the country's largest city, yangon. rural are, meanwhwhile, people live in extre p poverty. 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 mimila. the ell ofofil and diesel hangngs the air. amid the sea of baoooo, mel ds and canvas, t camamp gins to s sti e generars' hum a cotant soutrack he. ma myintnt aye makes a a pasto protect agagainst the susun. it'll be a long day out t in te scching g he.

soon she'l'll join her h husb, who's alalready drilliling for. a fefew more quietet minutes, n it's t time for themem to g. ma: we havave to get outut ine oil fieleld really eararly, bee even by 9:00 a.m. the suisis alrereadunbearable. reporterer: the young g family d out t hererom ththeiparent's's farm with nothing but thee ambitition to succeeeed. ma myi aye's husband moe w jusust 21ears o oldbut he's already been a drill f for four ars nonow. their famililies scraped t togr enough moneyey so the coupuple d buy the nenecessary uiuipment. th've nonow illed fofo wells. moe: we ususe air pressusure top out ththe oil. but the lolonger we're h here,e deep we hahaveo drill l reach the oil.

reporter: amidhehe generorss and d ise, even the youngest of children children.my y myint aye's s daut only y fo years o o. the 25ear-old mitsts is not an ideal placeo o raise children, but she doesn't relyly haveve theuxury y toorry abobo that. the oil l that she pumumps ouf the grouound here is k keepingm out of g grinding poveverty. ma: : if we were at home dllllg in o parenentsfields, , 'd makeke about $1 oror $2 a day. that's's nothing. reporter: it c costs $500 totot the rights t to an oil fieield. that's's far too mucuch for zin oooo. that's why he came he e a year agwith h h wife as a aay laborer. w w he ens abobout $0 a momont

zin: i'm'm here to getet rich. at some popoini want t tlive a happy lifefe without anyny wor. reporter: zin min ooraraws the oifrom a a dth of ararnd 400 meters. no one t thinks about t workpe safetytatandards he.e. thisis is world d ling by itit own rurules. the authoritities just tururn a blind eye,nd h havdone so for cacades. the probm isis t oil is tttting rder andarder to fi. zin: i cannly workor a few hos a a day, becausese aer a while wewe only get wawater ouf the grnd, then we have to wait titill theil d drawsn agaiain. reporter: zin min w works f anotr oil l faer who s sls the blacack gold to rerefineries ne. but the 21-y-year-old woululd e

to be his own bossnene day. zi an oioil ill is r rlly pensnsiv en a used one cos ababou $10 u.u.s. i'll probably ve to sa for a while.ut the j here isk. it's muceasier tn field wo. reporterlife heris rusti a bilike livg in theild west during t gold rush.. m myint aye makakes due cookig for her small family on a wood-burning stove. althoughgh a proper kikitchen d be nice,e, she says, l like thes on tv. but th's's a dre shehe'll ve toto wait for. ma: wiwith oil, therere are upd wns and no guarantees. somemes weweake losses, but least we have oughgh tlive on and pppport r famimies.

reporter: as ening nea, , the araring he cooools a little e d neneighbors come togetheanand cw bel nutsts, inexpenenve stimulant ththat zin min oo's se ros up i in aves.. ma: i i hope that inin a few ys weill l have saved e enough to t out of here. i would rereally like toto opep my own l little shop.. reporter: at the sidofof the roadad we et mayay c win. atat the end of f the day, shes around witith buckets anand rao soak up ththe spillage.. her r elde childld iin the 9 9 grgrade, so the fafamily needo sqsqueeze out evevery penny toto afford it. may: when i have enough, i boil the liququid to separarate thel from the water. then i canan sell it, whwhich s not brining inuch momone but it's s something. reporter: minhla ia a place ll of drereamers.

there is no runninwateter shows herereso they wash ththemselves anyny way they c. moe win dreams of a real house anan s suv. of a good lilife, away frorome hastily-prprepared mealsls in r little hut.. moe: ourur daughter shshoulde ae toto be whatever she wan t to . maybe a dodoctor, that w woule nice. reporterer: it's the e end ofe day for the fortune-hunters of minhla. tomorrow i is another daday, to work, and d to dream. host: this week in global ideas, we're off to madagascar. fish stocks have long been on the decline in lococal coastal

waters. but in a remote bay in the country's south, people may have founund a solution -- sea cucumbers. they are very popular with chinese gourmets, who are willing to pay high prices for them. our reporter, wiebke feuersenger, headed there to meet local a aquafarmers, , and faced a few w challenges o one way. reporter: it's mididnight, 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 fulull moonr a a new moon that the water is shallolow enough f 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 cucucumbr fetches up to $1000 u.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 a abt 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 d these out with the breeders. for exexample, it's forbidden o enteter the pens o of other fas without out their consent. all fishing isis also forbidde, except for crayfish. you'u' allowed t to catch the, 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. today, thehere is again a wide 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 cucumberer farms, i had no wayo imprprove my 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. kakathryn: it's a pretty specil creature.

it's a holothuria scabra that they're farming here. anand it's really valuable on e 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 animal that's vital for the 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, because it goes along, jusust kd of hoovers up the sand. anthenen it eans o outetrituss and micrcroalgae and b bacterid things l like 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 threatt ghght now cocomes after the sa

cucumbers are sold. that's when there's a lot of money here, in evevery family, every usehehold. that attracts thieves, especially since there are no banks where people can deposit their earnings. that's why people have to hide their money in their homes. there's always the threat of ththieves raiding the village. 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 animal, whicich is 450 grams, o

this final processed product, whh h is aboutut 15 grams, we first gut them, which means we cut them at the bottom here, and we press. and after that we cook them. and nanally would d dry tm. now, theheustomer gege this product with him, bubebefore h n eat t ithe has t trehydrate it. then you can have itit as a sal. when it is pretty soft, you chop it and have it with some salad. 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 other animals s at live in it. host: that's all f from "globl 3000" this week.

we hope you enjoyed the show. for more, check out our facebook papage, dw global 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]

narrrator: on n this episosode f "e"earth focus," how canan we mananage, protecect, and nourisr natural resources while meeting the growing global demand for food? a model of local control along the coast of madagascar provide a blueprint for ocean sustainability and community building, while in san diego, scalability is thehe goal as researchers work to build the first open-ocean fish farm in the united states. [film advance clickingng]