often far fewer physicians around. a lack of doctors also has an impact on health education from disease prevention to family planning. in kenya, for example. women there have 4 children on average. but in rural areas, it's not uncommon for a woman to have 10 or more. and getting medical care to them can be a challenge. the sun is rising as these camel-keeprs prepare for the next 4 weeks of hard work. they're loading tents, food and medical supplies onto the backs of their fifteen animals. this one here, this one doesn't feel like carrying a heavy load. its its first time, it's still training. it will get the hang of it in the next few days. >> the animals might be half-hearted about the upcoming trip, but the other members of this mobile camel clinic are looking forward to it. godwin ruto is a doctor and pauline kopiki is a nurse. they've given up their holiday to do this. >> it makes a difference because these are people who do not even have any education. they can't access family planning. people who are near the roads. >> the team first have to head into the rift valley. the area is inaccessible to cars. even the camels are digging in their heels. >> they're used to it, but camels love to complain. they complain when they're being trained, in the morning, in the evening, even if you just touch it. camels love to grumble, that's what they're like. >> as they pass by, pauline the nurse approaches women and invites them to a consultation. family planning and birth control are top of the mobile camel clinic's agenda. after five hours on the road, everyone's exhausted by the time they reach their first station in the rift valley. local children greet the camels as though they were circus attractions. pauline and godwin ruto set up their clinic in the open air. their first patient would like an hiv test. he asks if he could have become infected by contaminated food. patiently, pauline explains that hiv is spread by unprotected sex with an infected person, and shows him how to use a condom. he's never seen one before. it seems that the women don't dare come to the mobile clinic. so pauline goes up to them and tries to talk to them about birth control. they're not really interested. pauline finally gets through to someone. phillis is 36 and has 9 children. she agrees to get a hormonal implant, which will stop her getting pregnant for the next 3 years. godwin ruto treats her out of sight of everyone else. >> they believe that if some women use this thing they will get infertile, because they have no education. they also believe that people who use family planning are prostitutes. >> phyllis believes her husband wants more children. he won't know that she's using contraception. >> i want to make sure that the children i have get a proper eductaion. >> nine children isn't even that many, she explains. some of her neighbours have ten, eleven, twelve. pauline visits the local school. it's crowded, considering waseges is such a small place. but most families round here have about ten children. in rural kenya, sex education classes are very basic. for as long as they go to school, says pauline, the girls have to keep their legs crossed to men. she's also broughrt along some reusable cloth sanitary pads. usually, when a young girl gets her period, she doesn't go to school. they don't have any sanitary pads or tampons so they stay at home until their period's finished. pauline hopes that by giving them these cloth sanitary pads she'll stop them missing school. unfortunately, she only has enough for half the class. meanwhile, doctor ruto is seeing patient after patient. this elderly woman has a number of complaints. it would take a day of travelling to get to the nearest hospital and hardly anyone could afford the trip anyway. few people in this remote part of the country benefit from healthcare. >> this one is so difficult. first of all the sensitization, the mobilization. and then the procedure sometimes you have to improvise. to use a bit of shortcuts. and the carrying of drugs. it's so difficult compared to working in a facility. correspondent: that's where godwin ruton normally works. but for the last two years, instead of taking an annual holiday, he volunteers with the mobile camel clinic. he calls it giving something back to society. even if it's hard work and often frustrating, the team enjoy their trip to remote parts of kenya. and by the time night falls and they gather around the campfire, even the camels look happy. ♪ >> now in global brains, we look at a brilliantly simple invention that is also saving lives. these babies are receiving good care. most newborns in india with special medical needs do not. especially in rural areas, hospitals that can look after preterm or low-weight newborns are few and far between. >> about one in three babies born in india are born clinically low birth weight. and they are at high risk for a number of complications, two of which are hypothermia and infections. >> and they are born in places where healthcare is not adequate. infrastructure is poor, the doctors may not have the expertice to treat them, and they often go home earlier then we want them to, because of financial constrains. correspondent: according to official figures, more than 20% of india's population live in extreme poverty. and many parents cannot read, or make sense of a thermometer. >> hypothermia is often considered a silent killer. it's not easily detected, especially by parents who are not aware and educated about the importance of temperature in their new borns. >> temperature maintenance is the most critical and unless you get that right and what ever efforts you do later may not help much. correspondent: the founders of bempu have come up with a hypothermia monitoring device in the form of a bracelet. its battery can last for more than a month. the first few weeks of a baby's life are the most critical. if a baby's temperature falls below 36.5 degrees celsius, the device issues an alarm. >> so mothers are being proactive in the care of their newborns as soon as they are getting this change by taking the bempu band along with them. the bempu band is going to remind them to say that my follow up is next tuesday, and i'm gonna meet not only the doctors but also meet people from the bempu band. they feel more important, they feel more cared for. correspondent: about eight million babies are born with a low birth-weight in india every year. very many of them are affected by hypothermia. if they get cold, they expend so much energy trying to maintain their temperature that they can't thrive and grow. even in hospitals, hypothermia is often not detected, staff shortages are usually to blame. >> the work we do here at bempu really aims at empowering doctors, nurses, fathers and mothers to be able to take better care of their new-borns. correspondent: the bempu bracelet has already helped thousands of newborns in india. the plan is to introduce it soon in african and southeast asian countries. >> nearly 40 years ago, the first child was conceived through in-vitro fertilization. since then a lot has changed. since 1978, around 6.5 million children have been conceived in this way. ivf has become more common as the technology has matured, but it's still controversial. the world's main religions take different stances on the procedure. it's been a source of debate for decades. buddhism and hinduism don't have a problem with it. ivf is viewed critically within judaism, but it's not banned, as long as the egg and the sperm come from the parents. the catholic church, however, is opposed to it. protestants are also not uncritical, but leave the decision up to the parents' conscience. islam on the other hand takes a tolerant approach to in vitro fertilisation, if the couple are married. and that's even in arch-conservative iran. correspondent: every year, sakineh and akbar hosseinpour come to this mosque to mark the death of the second imam, hassan. people gather here to give thanks and to ask god to answer their prayers. sakineh has had the same wish for the past 20 years. >> if i am honest, i pray to god for a child. correspondent: it's clear that akbar is uncomfortable talking about the subject in public. he worries that if he and his wife remain childless, they will be scorned by their community. >> i don't like to talk about it. i want it to stay between god and myself, until a miracle happens. yes, i went to the doctor, i won't say that i didn't. i just really wish we could have a child. correspondent: the couple live in the small town of astaneh ashrafieh in the north of iran, situated in the province of gilan on the caspian sea. it's an area where religion and tradition still play and important role. -- an important role. the hosseinpours have invited their entire family for a visit. none of them know that the couple have undergone ivf, far away from home, in the capital tehran. faith in god is one thing, faith in modern medicine another. the large sign on the facade of the avicenna infertility clinic belies the fact that ivf is not widely talked about in the islamic republic, even though supreme leader ayatollah ali khamenei issued a fatwa providing religious sanction for the process a few years ago. the clinic serves around 12,000 couples every year. there are such 70 clinics throughout the islamic republic. for more and more iranians, ivf is the only way to have a child. professor mehdi akhondi is the director of the institute. it's estimated that around 12 to 15% of couples worldwide are unable to have children. in iran, it's more than 20%. >> unfortunately, infertility is very high in iran. there are several reasons for this, environmental pollution, lifestyle, poor nutrition. and of course there has been a increase in the number of people marrying later and deciding to have children later in life and that also affects fertility. correspondent: of all the couples we spoke to, not one had told their families about their attempt to concieve through ivf , either with the husband's sperm or with donated sperm from a sperm bank. >> many couples hide the fact they've undergone ivf even after they've done it. including couples who have used their own sperm. 90% of patients are inseminated with their own sperm. even then, they keep it secret and pretend the pregnancy happened naturally. we actually advise them to do that, because if the registry office learns that the child was conceived through insemination, it can be problematic. then the couple has to prove the child is really theirs. correspondent: although iran is highly-advanced when it comes to research into ivf, the topic is still taboo. and that's despite the fact that the country's religious authorities have given their approval for the procedure as a way of increasing the birth rate. but there is still legal uncertainty once the child is born, especially if the baby was conceived using donated sperm. >> islam does not forbid ivf. even surrogate mothers have been allowed since 2002. the question is whether the child was conceived using the father's own sperm or someone else's. if the father was not the sperm donor, then the question is whether he would be allowed to see his daughter without a headscarf. such a child would not inherit from the father, but could inherit from the mother. correspondent: the food prepared by the hosseinpours today is a sacrificial offering. they hope that this will help their wish finally come . -- come true. the couple goes back and forth between putting their trust in god alone and trusting also in medical professionals. they don't have much time. sakineh is already 41-years-old. and they have not yet managed to save up the money for the next ivf procedure. it's the equivalent of 1200 euros, a whole year's salary, and a huge sum for the poor farmers. it's a battle against nature, time and a conservative society, which looks down on those without a child. ♪ >> where do you stand on different topics? join us on facebook and take part in our discussions dw global society. you'll also find moving stories there from around the world. so follow us. ♪ >> and now to our global ideas series. this is when we meet people committed to protecting our environment. jordan is a small country with limited access to water and fertile soil. climate change and over-use of the country's green areas are playing havoc with the natural world. our reporter mabel gundlach travelled there and found herself in some pretty risky situations. conservation work is certainly not for the faint-hearted. or at least that's what jordanian princesses say. correspondent: these sheep get milked twice a day. there are 300 of them, so it's hard work. in total, the herd numbers around 700 animals. in spring and summer they graze here in the pasture area near al jizah, east of the city of madaba. the land is leased by abu mohamed. he's the head of a huge bedouin family that has traditionally lived from livestock farming. >> we originally came from jemen. we emigrated to jordan over 300 years ago. a number of tribes came together here, and today we share the main region. correspondent: he and many other livestock farmers in jordan are now struggling with problems caused by desertification and overgrazing. in order to ensure that his herd survives, abu mohamed relies on another grazing area ain ghazal. in a car, it's an hour's drive away. getting the sheep there takes two days. in the winter months his livestock graze here near the dead sea. boundary stones demarcate the pasture area. moving from one pasture area to another is the nomadic tradition. >> i let them graze here for a month, then i send them down there, so that the grass can grow back. correspondent: but it no longer grows back as much as it should. more sustainable practices than simply changing the pasture area from time to time are now called for. mahmoud ahmed al-bdour from the german development agency giz is researching ways to improve traditional management of pasture areas. they're interested in seeing how varying intensities of grazing affects growth of vegetation. >> we would like to repeat the experiment we're conducting in ain ghazal in other regions in jordan. the project will last 4 to five years. the first results show that when you compare the areas inside the conservation zone with those outside it, then you can observe differences in the vegetation cover. correspondent: vegetation flourishes in the conservation zone. and with it, biodiversity. we head further north. the royal botanic garden is close to tal al-rumman. it was founded by princess basma bint ali. >> they actually crawl in the sand. beautiful trees. correspondent: the initiative aims to promote awareness of jordan's diverse and abundant flora to collect and cultivate rare and threatened species, and, here in the national herbarium, to develop an inventory of all the species that grow in jordan. visitors should learn to more fully appreciate the natural world around them. >> the ecosystem services that these habitats and ecosystems provide, are essential to our livelihood if we want to live a life of dignity. correspondent: princess basma says she thinks politicians need to do more to protect the ecosystem. >> they will start to realize when the impacts are going to get stronger. we felt this most recently in the last 5 years with the advance of the huge number of refugees that has placed a huge impact on our natural resources, mainly water. they are going to realize that, if you protect our forest for example, we actually can harvest more water by increasing the bank ability of the water in our soils. so it is really a whole full circle. correspondent: fragile ecosystems in a politically unstable region mean big problems. but the budget to solve them is small, says raed bani hani of the ministry of environment. however, he does say there has been some progress. >> in the past, the old law said nothing directly about the protection of biodiversity. the new one, passed just recently, is very concerned with precisely that. it also includes sanctions to protect biodiversity. correspondent: that is good news for wadi karak, a canyon south of the capital amman, an oasis of biodiversity in an often arid desert landscape. a lot of water is channeled to farms and the towns in the area, but at this time of year, there is still water flowing in the river. local men have got together to look after wadi karak. some used to hunt, until they realised that there were fewer and fewer animals to kill. now they seek to protect the plants and the animals of the area. >> the men are doing important work. the most important thing is keeping the canyon clean. they go down there and pick up all the trash. they also tell visitors about the environmental issues and work as tour guides to earn some money. correspondent: a trip along the canyon can lead right through a waterfall. the guides have been trained to keep the tourists safe. the canyon is more than twelve kilometers long. much of the terrain is beautiful. but not the part near a sewage works. ten days earlier waste water was released here. the stones still stink. >> we say this impacts tourism here. groups we accompany hiking along the valley are fine and happy until they reach this point. then they get disgusted, because the water is so dirty. correspondent: the cooperative along with other ngos and the state water authority are trying to find a solution to the problem. the men still have their work cut out trying to persuade tourists not to discard garbage in this beautiful place. ♪ >> that's all for today. but we love hearing from you. so visit us on facebook at dw global society or write to us at global3000@dw.com. see you next time. - [female voice over]: this program is made possible in part by the town of marion, home of the wayne henderson school of appalachian arts, celebrating 21 years as a certified virginia main street community. the historic general francis marion hotel and the speak easy restaurant and lounge, providing accommodations and casual fine dining in downtown marion, virginia. the bank of marion. technology powered, service driven. wbrf 98.1 fm. and bryant label, a proud supporter of our region's musical heritage. 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