host: welcome to global 3000. coming up, offbeat roadtrip -- a music studio on wheels in the west bank. zero waste hygiene products for eco-friendly periods. and, when a mother is little more than a child herself. every year, more than 12 million adolescents between the

ages of 15 and 19 give birth. that accounts for 9% of all births worldwide. many have to drop out of school or give up their jobs. plus, at this age there are increased health risks for mother and child. but the birth rate among teenagers has been on the decline. in 1960, 86 out of 1000 adolescents worldwide gave birth. in 2021 it was just half that number. most of these early pregnancies happen in poorer areas. like sub-saharan africa, where on average one in 10 teenage girls becomes a mother. the coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the problem of early and unwanted pregnancies, as shown in our next report from south africa. reporter: before she can go to school, leila has to take care of her baby. she's just 17. she wants to look after him herself but doesn't want to

sacrifice her education, and it hurts when she heads off in the morning. leila: it's sad to leave him but i know he's not going anywhere. reporter: leila shares this room with her four siblings and her grandmother. during south africa's months-long lockdown, they couldn't go out. it was shortly after the restrictions were lifted that leila got pregnant, just 16 at the time. nomathamsanqa: when i found out that leila was pregnant, i was very worried. i kept asking her who the father was. where is the baby's father? but she just looked at me, with a shocked expression. once the baby was born, i asked again, who is he? a baby needs both parents. reporter:

is the father a friend, a neighbor, or was leila raped? she refused to say, reluctant to burden her grandmother even further. leila: it was difficult, and i was scared to leave him with my grandmother because she's getting older. it's better now, he's growing and getting used to other people. reporter: leila isn't the only young woman at her school to have a baby. in south africa, one of the less publicized consequences of the pandemic was a 60% jump in teenage pregnancies. bertha: during the covid years, obviously they were trapped in their homes. protective school was unavailable. many homes lost their breadwinners to the disease of covid. many homes lost employment because many companies had to close down. reporter: as director of the african

children's feeding scheme, bertha knew that she had to respond. the organization cooks meals for children from deprived families. this is a new group of 15 girls aged between 12 and 18, all of them young mothers. many of them got pregnant when an older man offered them food, then demanded something in return. here, they get practical advice as well as training in boosting their self-confidence and learning how to make the right decision. leila: i was so angry towards myself. like, sometimes i felt like killing myself was the only solution for me. but ever since i came here, i no longer feel the same. like i said, i feel awesome and strong. i don't feel like before, and now i trust in myself. bertha: research shows us that teenage girls who become pregnant are

much less likely to become gainfully employed in the future. and so, when you think about it, that cycle is easy to repeat itself because the girl doesn't finish school. they don't become well established as an adult in society. their children are likely to repeat what they have gone through because they are also now born into this structural poverty. reporter: the pandemic hit the poorest sections of society hardest. leila gets baby food from a welfare organization. she and her siblings are being raised by their grandmother, who does everything in her power to ensure they go to school. getting an education is the only chance they have of escaping poverty. leila:

i'm working so hard so that my baby and i have a future. my child's future is in my hands. there's so much i can learn. i don't know how long my education will last, but i'll keep studying until they call me dr. leila. by then i'll have learned so much. reporter: leila is a determined young woman. her first priority is to finish school. she wants to defy the statistics. they show that very few girls who become teen mothers go on to complete their high school education. host: menstruation can be expensive. "period poverty" describes a lack of access to suitable hygiene products, which is a common global issue that women face. scotland was the first country in the world to provide tampons

and pads to the public free of charge. products in canada, kenya, and india and several other countries are sold tax-free. but along with the debate on costs, there's also the issue of sustainability. >> tampax compak is so discrete, only you'll know it's a tampon. aditi: menstrual products are such a big secret. wait, men. don't skip this. periods concern all of us, and the environment. and because we hardly ever talk it, this is what has happened. billions of pads and tampons end up in the environment each year. some are made almost entirely of plastic. big companies continue to profit off our silence. the good news is, we have solutions that are both eco-friendly and cheap. but hardly anybody's using them. chances are, you haven't even

heard of some. so why is the solution to such a big problem still so unknown? menstrual products are more than just girly things we don't talk about. placing them at the center actually reveals a lot about the modern world. let's start with the menstrual cup. it seems brand new, but it has actually been around for -- wait for it -- over 100 years. if you didn't know that, that's not on you. we actually know surprisingly little about how women dealt with their “monthly visitor” through history. what we do know is that no society has ever really viewed menstruation very positively. >> peggy, of course i can't go swimming. you know i've got the curse. aditi: most women used what was locally available to them, like old cloths, or even dried plants andleaves, and sometimes even mud. i can't imagine how uncomfortable that must have been. not to mention impractical. around the time the lightbulb was invented, the first ideas

for the modern cup were born. around 200 people filed patents for similar bld-capturing devices, from belts, sacks, to suspenders and aprons and girdles. as women entered the workforce and mass-production began, the more practical inventions -- pads, cups, and tampons -- entered the market. and they were a hit. for the first time, women were able work and swim alongside men at any time of the month. sharra: yeah, i mean, it is liberating in a very sort of physical way. aditi: sharra vostral has written two books on menstruation through the ages. she says, though, that even with such inventions, it was only the rich, western people who had access. and period poverty is still a huge problem worldwide. the pad became the elite's top choice at the time, seen as the

“safe” option by those too squeamish to imagine their wives and daughters inserting things into their bodies. some feared that they would even lose their virginity. this hasn't changed much -- pads are still used more than any other product. they have the greatest environmental impact as well, but more on that later. the old tampons and cups were being quickly outcompeted by the mid-20th century. sharra: especially during world war ii. never quite got off the ground. partly that was due to a rubber shorta and rations put on rubber. so the idea of using rubber for menstrual cups, it just wasn't an economic imperative during world war ii. rubber was supposed to go toward tires and things that soldiers needed, not women's bodies. aditi: the cup had a bigger disadvantage. the way it works is that when you have your period, you insert it and then remove it in six to 12 hours to empty and clean, to sanitize correctly. one cup can be used for up to

10 years. that's sustainable but it means that far fewer cups are sold. the first company to sell mass produced cups soon went out of business. sharra: it wasn't that women didn't want the product. when they closed, they got letters back to them saying, can i get, you know, 10 cups? i need my cups. aditi: so while the cup got elbowed out, pads got better, with adhesive, wings, and plastic absorbents instead of cotton. and with a generational shift and the sexual revolution, tampons gained acceptance in the west, too. by the 1970's, about 70% of u.s. women used them. correspondingly, tampons and pads began filling up bins and landfills. so in the early 2000's, the cup re-launched, with a new environmental agenda. silicone replaced the rubber. >> it's our most breathable top sheet ever. aditi:

but pad and tampon makers had their claws in too deep. and the image of periods had been so sanitized that it was hard to imagine touching, cleaning, and reusing something that had come into contact with the seemingly shameful menstrual blood. sharra: our bodies have a lot of, like, things that we excrete. right? whether it's earwax or, you know, blowing your nose, whatever. but we don't jud it the same way. you're just not going to lose, like, social standing because of your earwax, you know? but if you are leaking places, or not managing your period the way whatever social mores are for it, then there is retribution about that. aditi: thanks to the shame and advertising, countless tons of sanitary products are now thrown away each year, leaking chemicals and microplastics into the air, land, and sea.

this shame may be most apparent in asia's patriarchal cultures, where menstruating women are still seen as “impure.” supriya: it was the pad manufacturers who in mid-1980's realized that lmic's, which is the low- and middle-ince countries, had the biggest market. 85% of the world's menstruators live in low- and middle-income countries. aditi: gender scholar supriya garikipati says about 80% of people who menstruate in india have no access to sanitary products, so the market is very attractive. the government is working to improve access as well and promotes unsustainable pads, which now nearly overwhelm the market. supriya: i think the intention was good, right? the intention was truly to support women from low income

households, manage their menstrual hygiene. so it decided to do the easy thing, and to free ride on existing knowledge, onxisting competenceand on free riding on the advertising marketing machinery of pad manufacturers. aditi: distbuting single-use pads is like giving someone plastic or paper plates for regular meals instead of a dinner plate. using public money, transporting them around the country, using resources, paying for labor, and filling up dumps with plastic and toxins within these products. supriya: the singular narrative around sanitary pads can be broken. the important point is give women the choice. let them decide what is right sanitafor them. aditi:roken. so let's take a look at our options, then, that differ based on budget, accessibility, and their effect on the environment.

first up, the famous sanitary pad. it's the most easily accessible around the world, and the most difficult to get rid of. the pad can be up to 90% plastic, from the permeable surface to the core's superabsorbent polymers that swell with blood. they're easy to use and throw away. but with inadequate waste disposal systems around the world, pads most likely end up in the great outdoors. over an average of 40 years of menstruation, people spend up to $5000 on pads. next uis the tampon. those with applicators have an extra layer of largely single-use plastic. but it's not just the applicator. the tampon itself is made of several layers of plastic. from the layer that holds it all together, to the absorbent core. and often the string is made of

plastic as well. they do contain less plastic than pads overall. tampons can also be organic, which means they are only made of cotton, which is better. but recycling them or disposing of them is really difficult. people can spend around $2000 on tampons over a lifetime. period pants have recently become more popular in the west. they have two layers -- an external, resistant one of plastic or natural fiber to prevent leaks. and a super absorbent fabric one close to the skin. they can be worn for up to two years, but as with any other reusable, washing them takes time and effort. the reusable making a strong comeback is the cup. it can take a lot of getting used to, and access to running

water is absolutely essential for convenience and hygiene. but interest is growing. reusables can cost more up front, which is a big problem for people without disposable income, but add up to a fraction over a lifetime. environmentally speaking, one cup can replace around 20 single-use pads or tampons per cycle. that's about 250 a year, and over a lifetime just four cups can replace up to 10,000 single-use products. sharra: just even destigmatizing menstruation and making it normal, just having it be a regular part of conversation, is a different way of being. and i think that can be radical in its own way. aditi: relying on companies for information has led to the reinforcement of the stigma and shame around periods. and pollution. so what we need now is less shame and more awareness and access to choices that are better on the pocket and the environment. host:

terror and attacks -- the relationship between israel and the palestinian territories is still extremely tense. peace negotiations are at a stalemate. still, there are projects like the one in our next report from the west bank that aim to bring a little joy to people's lives. reporter: morning in ramallah. this van is so new, the seats are still covered in plastic. it's a mobile recording studio. allaa will use it to visit and record palestinian musicians -- hip-hop, folklore, pop. allaa: today we're going to jericho. we want to record two rappers there who wouldn't otherwise have the chance to do so in the desert. i can already see the joy in their eyes. reporter: from ramallah to jericho, right across the west bank. it's not a normal road trip because of israeli military checkpoints and numerous barriers.

simply driving around is not that easy for palestinians, says allaa. they often have to factor in long detours. allaa: these here are all walls between neighbors, neighbors who can no longer see or meet each other without permission. reporter: today it's 40 kilometers into the desert to jericho. there, two 17-year-olds are waiting who are new to the music business, qusai and obada. they are impressed with the bus. up until now they have only recorded songs with their mobile phones. qusai: my music is about everything that happens here. we criticize a lot of things that happen in everyday life. reporter: the first take with lyrics on his phone. "i'll come to you," sings qusai over and over until allaa is satisfied. after just a few clicks, it sounds like this. roadside hip-hop. qusai and obada are excited.

allaa: of course they get a copy of the new track. they can release it online. we also publish it and we archive everything. reporter: the next recording is at a bedouin camp in the desert. we are only allowed to accompany this bedouin man on the bus after much persuasion. he doesn't want to be recognized. it is his first time in front of a microphone and he is afraid others might laugh. allaa reassures him that everyone will be impressed when they hear it. again, the bus starts off from ramallah. its goal today, a quiet place outside the ty. dina and ebaa want to record their pop, freestyle music there. the two palestinian women already have experience performing in front of an audience. dina: i love this bus.

i've been in it before. it's just a very nice, comfortable space that can go anywhere. reporter: just going places is one of the big issues for young palestinians. dina: so the media shows just parts of the occupation. and i feel like there is more to that struggle. as well as living in, let's say, a male-dominated society, especially as women, ebaa and i. ebaa: peace -- the peace to do whatever you want without anyone stopping you. and here, you can do anything. all the time the occupation stops you, society stops you. reporter:

the eu and the goethe institute provided grants for the project. it is organized directly from an office in ramallah, says katharina hey. the security situation in the west bank often makes it difficult. katharina: we want to work with the artists because we know that moving around in the palestinian territories is very arduous. reporter: “i'm caught in a loop,” they sing. then it's back to ramallah, past military checkpoints. still, the recording bus will go out again tomorrow. >> i am -- >> -- a global teen. host:

our global teens this week come from armenia. sophie: i'm sophie khachatryan. syuzie: and my name is syuzie khachatryan. sophie: i live in armenia. i have a twin sister, syuzie, and a brother, who's four years younger than me. syuzie: my mother is a history teacher at a school. sophie: my father works at haypost.

i really love going to school. my teachers are so caring. they take such good care of us, and they're really nice. syuzie: besides my classes, i like spending time with my friends at school, who are also very nice. sophie: i hope we get the education we dream of and that one day we'll be some of the best programming professionals. we want to be able to grow as programmers, and to help people in armenia and the world, too. we want to help make peoples' lives better.

one of my greatest fears is that i won't be able to achieve my goals. i'm afraid that i'll get close but have to stop a few steps before reaching them, before getting to my destination. syuzie: yes, life is better now than it was for our ancestors. and i believe life will keep getting better with every new generation, because it evolves. it will be better for our children and grandchildren. we'll help make life better in the future.

host: that's all from us at“global 3000.” get in touch at global3000@dw.com. and visit on facebook too, dw global ideas. see you next week. take care. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

♪ brent: this is "ukraine hit by more russian airstrikes. having struck the capital of the targets in the odessa regions, leaving some areas completely without power. also on the program, the niece of the iranian supreme leader condemns his regime as nationwide antigovernment