Raft to Freedom: US man lives on a raft to defend the rights of the homeless

They serve a prison sentence, but they committed no crime. They are born behind barbed wire and all they can hope for is their mothers' love. But love is not a regular guest in jail. Are they atoning their mothers' sins or standing on a path to new ones?

Some call it, “The Mine”, to others, it’s “the beast”, an infamous rubbish dump in Guatemala City, Central America’s biggest capital. For thousands of poor people it provides a livelihood. Raw sewage flows through the massive landfill and twice a year, floods cause deadly landslides.

Paracale in the Philippines’ is also known as “Goldtown”. RTD visits its illegal goldmines where child labour is rife and health and safety virtually non-existent. To extract gold, miners dive into a mud-filled shaft, sometimes never to come back. 

RT takes an exclusive look at North Korea, the world’s most closed-off country. Life here is isolated from the outside world and every aspect of existence is regulated by order of the "Great Leader", from the art you’re allowed to see, the books you can read, even to your hairstyle.

For 100 years, Jharia town in India has lived on top of a perpetually burning coal field. Once green and beautiful, the region is now scorched and barren, while its people are suffering from respiratory diseases. Despite the danger, most families daren’t relocate because coal provides their only means of income.

Child prostitution in Kenya has reached a shocking level. Extreme poverty and sex tourism lead to the sexual exploitation of children on a massive scale. RT Doc investigates what is being done about the problem and who profits from it.

According to a medieval Albanian tradition, a woman can take a man’s place as the head of a family if she renounces her womanhood, following strict rules laid down by a centuries-old code. Surprisingly, a few women, known as "sworn virgins" still observe the custom.

Scott Neeson was a president at 20th Century Fox International and was bent on continuing his career with Sony Pictures. But a trip to Cambodia and what he saw on the Steung Meanchey garbage dump turned his life upside down. Scott returned to Phnom Penh and set up the Cambodian Children’s Fund. Now he supports over 2,000 families by sending kids to school, providing parents with employment, paying hospital bills, and feeding those unable to earn money.

“Geological scandal” is a phrase often used to describe The Democratic Republic of Congo.  It is one of the world’s most resource-rich countries with extensive deposits of gold, diamonds, tungsten and uranium amongst many others. The abundance of internationally valued minerals has however failed to bring any kind of prosperity. It began with colonial exploitation of the land and its people and continued in bloody civil war, the Congolese have harvested nothing from their country’s natural riches but misery and poverty.   

The old saying, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” has a very literal meaning for the residents of one small town on the outskirts of Cairo in Egypt.  Zabbaleen is home to a large community of rubbish collectors who gather and sort all of the capital’s waste. The process provides work for whole families.

The Favelas of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, are slums made up of self-built houses. Life here is largely controlled by criminal gangs. It’s the poorest members of society who live in the Favelas; they simply try to survive amid violent gunfights between drug lords and law enforcement.

Karina, who calls herself a living Barbie doll, enjoys a glamorous, carefree lifestyle. She believes she is envied and looked up to by most young women. And her whole life is coloured pink.

Jurij Kofner is an investigative journalist.  As a German, he’s worried about how relations have developed between his homeland and the US. His goal now is to reveal the extent to which his country is influenced by America’s global agenda. 

When people are released from jail they have nowhere to live, no jobs and no opportunities to start over, so they are in danger of ending up behind bars again. Having been in their shoes once, Yury Potapenko knows just how much they need another chance and gives them one.

Award-winning director Aleksey Andronov makes movies about love, disappointment and philosophy. But he does it inside prison as he’s sentenced to 10 years. His actors, cameramen and crew are all fellow inmates. Hear his story only on RTDoc.

In one of the most poverty-stricken slums in Kenya’s capital, elderly women are increasingly preyed upon by young men who believe that raping them can cure HIV. Things are starting to change, however. With the launch of self-defence courses, women are learning physical and psychological techniques to thwart predators, empowering victims to venture outside again.

They joined the army driven by a desire to serve their country and its people. However, the wars they were sent to made them re-evaluate everything they believed in. Now, US veterans are trying to come to terms with their past and learn how to live among civilians again.  It turns out, they’ve no one to rely on but each other.