♪ ♪ host: welcome to "global 3000." this week, we meet kazakh families desperate to track down relatives detained in chinese "re-education" camps. in india, employment opportunities are helping wowon break out of traditional roles in a male-dominated society. but first, we head to sierra leone, where domestic violence is still common. now some innovative schools are teaching men about gender equality. ♪ host: according to a u.n. study, in 2017, around 50,000 women

worldwide were killed at the hands of intimate partners or family members. that's an average of 137 women nonow some innovatative schoole evy daday, and thosese are ony the reported cases.. it's likely many more suchwomen murders are recorded as suicides or accidents. globally, one in three women have experienced sexual or other forms of physical l violence. more than n half of all countrs have laws against domestic abuse. but in many places, such brutality has a long tradition. in sierra leone, the problem is being tackled through education. >> i used to hit my wife. i would come home e late and bg on the locked door. alimatu: we never sat together and talked. there was no peace between us. hawa: time and time again, he

beat me, for no apparent reason. just because. reporter: once taboo, talking openly about domestic viololene has bebecome commonplace i n yambama lugbgbu ever since mae villagers were sent back to school. almost all of the husbands here regularly battered their wives, just like amara swaray kebby. for many families, life was hell. amara: i grew up with my uncle. and i saw how he beat his wife. so i copied that behavior. and as an adult, i did t t same to my wife. reporter: nowadays, amara treats his wife with respect. he helps with the housework and accompanies her to the doctor, things he never would have dreamt of doing g before. instead, h he regularly got dru, spent time with a girlfrieien, and beat his wife.

alimatu: i lived in fear and i cried a lot. i couldn't leave him because i didn't want my children to suffer. he treated me so poorly and had a mistress. reporter: amara and the others attend "husband school" twice a month. discussions can get heated when teachers like phatmata, a nurse, educate students on the this city of changing their behavior, one that is deeply rooted in sierra leone's male-dominated society. a man is the head of the family. he's the bread-winnner and has all the rights. many see violence against women as a fact of life. and poverty makes the situation worse.

phatmamata: sometimes if men cat bring home any money, then the women ask about food. if the women don't let up after that, then the men get even anangrier. repoporter: musa also didn't he any money or a job and beat his wife. now at "husbanand school," he learns about gender equality and that his wife is his partner, not his property. musa: i drank and smoked and then, i would let my frustrations out on her. if i came home late, and my wife was there, i would kick at the door. and if she asked questions, i would hit her. reporter: musa and his wife hawa are carrying water home together. it looks harmonious, but hawa reamins traumatized by the experience of abuse. musa has been helping out at home ever since he joined the "husband school." still, hawa is wary.

her memories run deep. hawa: when he started beating me, i just used to hide. but then it got so bad that i had to leave for a year. now ththings have got better. he doesn't beat me anymore, and the children can finally attend school. but he still gets in a bad mood and is threatening when he doesn't have money. reporter: gender-based violence isn't confined to husbands beating their partners. every year, thousands of women in sierra leone fall victim to sexual exploitation. 14-year-old hawa sought help at a women's healthcare center in the capital, freetown. she was sexually exploited by a man known to her family. now, she's pregnant. >> there's not enough to eat at home. the man gives me some money if i sleep with him.

reporter: violence and exploitation were a part of life during sierra leone's decade-long, brutal civil war in the 1990's. the country passed a domestic violence law in 2007, punishing abuse by up to two years in jail. but it's difficult to enforce women's rights, even with a special police force designed to assist families, and women, in particular. aiesha: if women are given education better, women are encouraged t to have a better educatioion, because we have fe ededucation, but it's not extended, as far as i know, and, economically, women are not given the power, you know, to do business. they don't have the sources, like getting loans from banks , you know, and being self-reliant and getting something to do for themselves. reporter: totoday, about 1,0000n attend the 15 husband schools in sierra leone. when they're accompanied by their partners, the sessions are called "hamama."

that's when debate can get heated and loud. but they are dealing with their problems openly and without violence. amamara: if we're a good exampe to our children, then, perhaps, the next generatioion won't bet its women. reporter: it's difficult to change sociaial structures tht have existed for centuries. but t here in the village yamba lugbu, they're trying to do just that. ♪ host: women worldwide regularly campaign against physical and sexual violence, including in india, where thousands of women are killed every year by intimate partners. sometimes, all it takes is not bringing a sufficient dowry to a marriage. the world health organization lists poverty as one of the main reasons for domestic violence. earnrning income c can give a n a higherer social ststatus and,

potentially, save her li. rereporter it's s 8:00 in te : morning. kailash prajapati is making breakfast and getting her children ready for school. her husband is a day laborer at a marble mine in the area. she'll be leaving for work soon as well. unlike most other women in living i in india's rural area, prajapati has a job. kailash: it is very difficult, because my husband had to take care of all of t the bills and expenses. that's why i started working. now, we are fine, because i can help, as well. reporter: delwara is a small town in the western indian province of rajasthan. the streets are filled with men going about their business. women are a rare sight. traditionally, they tend to stay in the background. times are changing, but slowly.

she still feels safer when she covers her face out in the street. before work, she drops off her son. six-year-old khushwant has just started school for a few years now, prajapat i has had a job at sadhna, a cooperative that employs in the region around udaipur. the organization teaches the women all the skills they need for the job. the clothes they sew a are sod online and in a dedicated shop. the profits are split. wages aren't based on working hours, but on output. kailash: if the design is easy, we get the work done fast.

on average, we get three pieces done a day. ♪ reporter: udaipur is about 30 kilometers south of delwara. it is a popular destination for tourists. sadhna's headquarters are located here, as is the shop. it sells a range of accessories and clothing manufactured in the area. the cooperative was set up over 30 years ago, starting with just 15 textile workers. now, over 700 work here. it has enabled women from nearby villages and poor neighborhoods to earn their own income. seema: empmpowerment comes wih financial independence. when the woman is able to earn something on her own, she has a status in the family.

otherwise, the family members were looking d down on her, se didn't have a say inin the fami. some womomen themselves were uneducated. their children are now studying professional courses like medicine. in certain places, we have three generations of women working with us. reporter: in many areas, people still stick rigidly y to old structures. not every woman is allowed to go to work at a factory. to reach as many of them as possible, sadhna also lets women work from at home. the project is bringing change to society here. in the past, women of different castes would never have sat next to each other. but working together has fostered respect. roop: i can get work from the outside and work at home. in our family, we are not allowed to go out and work. so we set up this group of

family members at home. initially, we were nine of us women. nonow we've included others ad expanded to 17 or 18. reporter: the women of sadhna have come a long way. they have health-insurance coverage and are eligible for bank loans and scholarships for their children. kailash wants her daughter, nisa, to have access to opportunities she never had. she hopes the 13-year-old will one day be able to pursue a job of her own. and nisa is also determined to follow her dreams. she wants to become a doctor. ♪ host: the people's republic of china was founded nearly 70 years ago. alongside the han chinese, the country has 55 official minorities. the autonomous province of xinjiang is home to most of the

country's muslim minority, including 10 million uighurs and 1.5 million ethnic kazakhs. but they're banned from practicing most of their religious traditions and conflict in the region is rife. surveillance is also widespread. more than 1 million muslims are currently thought to be in chinese "re-education camps." many ethnic kazakhs have fled across the border. but kazakhstan is economically dependent on china and offers them little protection. reporter: : sophia is an e etc kakazakh and wasas severely traumatized by what she went through at home in china. she was held in a walled-off detention camp for a year. it was like prison.. due to t the danger ininvolved, there are no photos of ndnditionsnsidide. iinstead, she's dwingng illustrations ofhahat shwented, through. she inonow iniding g kazakhstan. she doesot want show hegng ifacen camerabecause e isented,

stilill scared of f the chinesee authoritities. sophia: we were only allowed to shower once a week. after r 15 minutes, , they tud the wateter off, even n if we l had shampoo in o our hair. there were cameras everywhwher, even in the e shower and t the toilets.s. it was total sururveillance. they couldld watch everyry sie ononof us at all times. report: : evenn kazakhstan she is terrifieded they might fd her. rakhima, too, wawas seized and imprisoneded in china, b because haused a kazakh sicardrd. her k over her head. she spena a year in a cacamp. then she mananaged to get t to k kazakhkhstan. rakhim they ca them "re-educion" or raining" tcents, but y are locd in.t to k there iso traini. you e not the of youown chsing.

they p us undepressure theyidn't toure us weere heldaptive a denied our. li in pris. they bbarded uwith comnist rty songand chese. in report: : chinsasays is combatting iamist t rrorism in xinjng, but khkhima ysys mos of the peoplin detenon werer rakhima:veryone the cam fe tererrie, locked away, scared, frigenened obeing mos interrogated, anwowonderg whyy rakhimthey were eveven there. fe tthey hadt t commitd anany imprisononed in china a have relatitives in kazakakhstan, whe organizaonon in maty. it hpsps people ndnd theights relalatives in chihina. its s head is seririkzhan bil.

the organizati collects testimony ouout wh is gogoing in c china's campsps. it is s mainly intelellectuals, writs, teachers, andurseses we camps.s. china has n now officy acknowowledged the e existencf these camps, which it saysererve an eduducational purpopose. sesekzhan bilash estimates that hahalf a mlionon kazhs arere o have b been in chinenese deten. serikzhan: our organizatnn coecteted every day y more thn 1515people, and we add t that ininformatn, a ande thoughght e re-education center is worset. peopople tortured d inside, ki, puncnched, and fororbidden to , forbidden to sleep. report: : becausof h his campaigning g for the righghtf kakazakhs in chihina, he is nonw under house arre i in kazakhststan. in the summer of 2018, he posted this video on youtube.

fifive-year-old d akyol wantso find hisis father, whoho has disappppeared. hehe is a cook w working in ca whwhere the y is better. ♪ rereporter: montnths later, thte father was b back home with hs family in almaty. he's also frightened of thee chinese auauthorities and does t want to be identified. berek: they fed us a constant stream of chinese communist songngs from m morning tnight,ta then thehey tested us s againd again to s see if we had learnd them by heart. reporter: methods that are miliar from the days of mao's . bere we wereot allow to mplain aut the grds. ey tormeed us althe time

theyhouted aus, and ey beats. and we could notayay a wd. ey treated us li aninimals. rerter: sie 2016, ina hasbeen f thkazakh, kyyz, and uygur hnicthey a majoritmuslim. e ofxg rakha isis ang the many zazakhs flee e ina. srakhkhima: we can'n't live in a anymorore. ththey want to d destroy our kh cuculture and ththat of the kyz and d uygurs. ththey want to m make us all chinese.e. but i wawant to keep m my reli, my identntity, and my y roots.

"re-education," surveillance,and dedetention, so-o-called hatrtr. forsoph, totoo,s bitter.ew pl. th are arrant, andheir inese cey are so ld.ves. reporter: soia's's dwings bebear stimimonto her suffering andnd thth of her pepele still in the campmps. ♪ host: this w week in global ide, we discover r how centuries-od traditions are protecting coastal regions from the effects of climate change. our reporter, linda vierecke, travelled to mexico. outside the town of tlacotalpan, an old aztec planting technique is helping prevent flooding

along the coastline. ♪ azael: i see myself as an aztec, and i carry the roots of my culture within me. i've worked in farming since i was a boy. my grandparents once grew vegetables, such as lettuce, on this land. today, the work is done by my father, my brothther, and me. linda: azael is paddling to his chinampa, part of a sustainable farming system established by his aztec forefathers 500 years ago. chinampas are artificial islands made from mud and reeds, and separated by canals. they're typically 300-meters long and 15-meters wide. to this day, the farming is done by hand with no help from tractors or ploughs. azael: we use buckets to take the water and the mud that we need straight from the canals. then, we transport it all in our boats. after drying out the mud, we plant the seeds in the resulting soil. it's a technique used centuries

ago by our ancestors, the aztecs, and it's very efficient. linda: azael harvests the produce from his chinampa up to five times a year. he sells the vegetables to restaurants in downtown mexico city. the historic center is just 20 kilometers away. the chinampas are one of the last remaining oases in the sprawling mega-city. 500 kilometers away, on the coast of the gulf of mexico, flor aronis cruz is hoping chinampas will make her life easier. flor: empty -- again! linda: she catches fish and crabs for a living. but today's catch is modest to -- she's set up 20 traps, which have ensnared just eight crabs. flor: there used to be a lot more crabs here. at this time of year, there wowould already be really bibig ones. but there was nothing today. normally we'd have more crabs when the current comes, but

that's not the case. we are really noticing the change. reporter: for the crabs, finding refuge along the coast is becoming increasingly difficult due to deforestation. mangroves have suffered especially heavy losses and have been depleted by over 30% over the past 40 years. that means the disappearance of a crucial protective habitat for local animals. these people are determined to revive those havens in a regional mangrove-planting scheme. nobody here is bothered about getting their fingers dirty. >> it's actually kind of fun!" linda: the men are building chinampas, just as the aztecs did 500 years ago. the little islands of earth and

reeds will provide homes for the mangroves to thrive in. >> we're using the technique because the land is so deep in the water. the plant wouldn't grow without the support of the chinampa. it would be blown over by the first gustst of wind. linda: the mangrove reforestation scheme is organized by citlalli alhelí and her team from the pro natura conservation group. they initially had difficulty reintroducing mangroves in the coastal regions. they wouldn't grow, because the water level was too high. citlalli: itit's surprising to e this old chinampa technique from central mexico. one that's being used here on the gulf to help replenish mangroves. it's great to be creating a link to our heritage and also that people from the region are involved in the project.

linda: mangroves used to be everywhere here, but they've now been replaced by pasture-land right up to the shore, grazed by cattle, in a traditional fishing region. flor aronis cruz and her family are pinning their hopes on the conservation group and the chinampas. once the mangrove forests have been restored, their haul of fish and crabs should grow again as well. flor and her husband and son took part in the planting project, helping to re-establish the old ecosystem. flor: i was practically born in the water, in the river. i never went to school. but one of the fewew things i o know about the world is how important the mangroves are for us and the entire system. fofor all the species, for everyone, and everything.

♪ [horn honks] linda: back in the center of the country, the suburbs of the capital have been creeping ever closer to the chinampas in rerecent years. azael meléndez and the other farmers are concerned about their fields. the biggest danger for this old method of sustainable farming is humankind itself. azael: wherever people go, they pollute. they leave trash everywhwhere, includuding in the canals. eventually they fill up and dry out, and you can't row down them anymore. the canals become dirty. ♪ linda: azael would like to see his children take over his chinampa one day, passing on a piece of their aztec heritage. ♪ host: that's all from "global 3000" this week.

what did you think of today's show? send your thoughts to global3000@dw.com. and check out our facebook page, dw women. see you next time! [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

narrarator: on ththis episodedef "eaarth focus"... the e race to transition to sustainable solar powower is underway. in zanzibar, rural women are learning solar skills, bucking a tradition of entrenched gender roles, empowering their communities in the process, while i in southernrn californi, it's genererating the e growth f grgreen jobs s and winning over skeptics. [filmlm advance clicking]