:00:26. > :00:30.Welcome to Reporters. From here, we send out correspondence to bring you
:00:30. > :00:36.the best stories from across the globe. This week, a blight on young
:00:36. > :00:42.lives, we report from northern Nigeria on the toxic legacy of gold
:00:42. > :00:47.mining. We meet the teenage Syrian graffiti artist whose slogan is
:00:47. > :00:57.helped ignite the revolution. And revving up the crowds in South
:00:57. > :01:02.
:01:02. > :01:06.Africa, we find ourselves going round in circles in Johannesburg. In
:01:06. > :01:09.northern Nigeria, hundreds of children's have -- of them have died
:01:09. > :01:14.and thousands have been infected in one of the worst cases of lead
:01:14. > :01:23.poisoning in the world. 460 children under the age of five have died
:01:23. > :01:26.recently in one province where gold is being illegally mined. This
:01:26. > :01:31.report from one of the most worst affected -- from one of the worst
:01:31. > :01:35.affected villages. Some of the worst affected victims of the lead
:01:35. > :01:45.poisoning crisis. Symptoms include paralysis and even
:01:45. > :01:46.
:01:46. > :01:49.brain damage. In this village, this girl can neither here nor speak. Her
:01:49. > :01:57.mother says that they used to process goalscorer at home and this
:01:57. > :02:01.is how her daughter was contaminated. -- gold ore. There are
:02:01. > :02:05.rich gold deposits here. These miners take incredible risks. They
:02:05. > :02:08.spend days on the ground, trying to dig themselves out of poverty. They
:02:08. > :02:14.bring the rocks here for processing but there is a high concentration of
:02:14. > :02:19.toxic lead in the dust that is released. Experts say the levels are
:02:19. > :02:23.the highest in the world. A lot of the processing used to happen in the
:02:23. > :02:30.village year. Even now, the men are bringing the dust back home on tools
:02:30. > :02:33.and clothes. For the children, this creates a poisonous playground. At
:02:34. > :02:38.least eight villages in the area have been contaminated. It is one of
:02:38. > :02:40.the world 's worst cases of lead poisoning. Hundreds of children have
:02:40. > :02:45.died and thousands more have been left needing urgent medical
:02:45. > :02:51.attention. Here, that includes more than half of all children under the
:02:51. > :02:57.age of six. This treatment centre is run by Doctors without Borders.
:02:57. > :03:02.Children receive medication to clear the lead from their bodies. This can
:03:02. > :03:09.take up to 15 years. Aid workers worry that the government might not
:03:09. > :03:15.have the capacity to take over this treatment. The federal ministry of
:03:15. > :03:22.health is not active on the ground. The funds have not been released for
:03:22. > :03:26.medical intervention. We have not seen them. Let poisoning is a
:03:26. > :03:30.convert it to treatment and it needs a lot of training. The government
:03:30. > :03:34.denies the accusation and puts the blame back on the community itself.
:03:34. > :03:43.This is a man-made disaster. It is not a natural disaster. Illegal
:03:43. > :03:48.mining is undeniably the reason for this. We cannot sit back and take no
:03:48. > :03:53.action. The government continues to take steps to protect lives. Efforts
:03:53. > :03:58.are underway to clean up the environment. Toxic soil is replaced
:03:58. > :04:02.with clean earth. It is slow work, partly because they do not have the
:04:02. > :04:05.equipment that the government was supposed to supply. Medical help can
:04:05. > :04:11.only be given once all the poisonous soil has been removed. And that has
:04:11. > :04:14.not happened in this village. Aid agencies and villagers are asking
:04:14. > :04:21.why the government has not been treating this as an emergency,
:04:21. > :04:24.because that is what it is. Gold mining may be lucrative, but lead is
:04:24. > :04:34.proving to be a highly damaging byproduct. As long as mining is
:04:34. > :04:40.allowed to continue, thousands of children will pay a high price.
:04:40. > :04:44.The conflict in Syria is now in its third year. It is thought that
:04:44. > :04:47.70,000 people have lost their lives during that time. The catalyst seems
:04:47. > :04:57.to be the moment when young schoolboys painted anti-regime
:04:57. > :04:57.
:04:57. > :05:02.graffiti on a wall in the city of Deraa. Their subsequent treatment,
:05:02. > :05:09.including torture and death, caused outrage. In this city, schoolboys
:05:09. > :05:14.helped ignite a revolution. On this non-descript wall, the spread of the
:05:14. > :05:19.most daring words imaginable, a call for the end of the regime. Two years
:05:19. > :05:25.on, many of responsible for the graffiti are scattered in textile.
:05:25. > :05:30.-- many of those responsible. The boys of Deraa hold hands, the sign
:05:30. > :05:35.of the friendship forged through these remarkable events. They were
:05:35. > :05:44.13 and 14 when they saw the Arab spring unfolding. TRANSLATION: We
:05:44. > :05:48.came out of school and saw the names of these countries, so we wrote our
:05:48. > :05:57.names on the wall and called for the downfall of President Asad's resume.
:05:57. > :06:00.What were you feeling? It was refund. -- it was for fun. 15 other
:06:00. > :06:05.boys were arrested and tortured, and that led to the biggest
:06:05. > :06:13.demonstrations the regime had ever faced. Deraa became the cockpit of
:06:13. > :06:18.revolt. For some, it meant torture and death. This boy was brutally
:06:18. > :06:23.beaten. His body was mutilated. This boy, also 15, was tortured and
:06:23. > :06:33.killed. On both sides of this conflict, the young have been
:06:33. > :06:34.
:06:34. > :06:39.traumatised. The UN has warned of a lost generation of Syrian children.
:06:39. > :06:47.TRANSLATION: My childhood has been lost. Many houses have been
:06:47. > :06:51.destroyed, including mine. I want to go back to Syria.
:06:51. > :06:58.Children from Deraa are still fleeing. These boys attend the UN
:06:58. > :07:03.school at the refugee camp in Jordan. The schools they left behind
:07:03. > :07:09.are unable to function. Moussa once to be a maths teacher and speaks
:07:10. > :07:13.hopefully of going home. -- wants to be. TRANSLATION: I am encouraging
:07:14. > :07:19.myself and my family not to be scared. And not to be surprised by
:07:19. > :07:24.what we will find when we go back. When we go back. There is more
:07:24. > :07:33.certainty among children than adults. They have suffered much, but
:07:33. > :07:37.something of the original spirit of Deraa has survived.
:07:37. > :07:40.Revved up engines, fast cars and daring stunts used to be a ritual
:07:40. > :07:46.associated with South African gangsters in the 1990s. Since being
:07:46. > :07:51.made legal, motor spinning has become one of the country's
:07:51. > :07:54.fastest-growing spectator sports. We volunteered to get into the
:07:55. > :08:01.passenger seat at an event in Johannesburg.
:08:01. > :08:08.If you work in driving instructor, look away now. -- if you are a
:08:08. > :08:13.driving instructor. In South Africa, spinning is the big craze. This
:08:13. > :08:17.gives burning rubber and new meaning. Within minutes, reckless
:08:17. > :08:22.stunt drivers called spinners take their driving passion to gearing
:08:22. > :08:28.levels, in spectacular fashion. -- gearing levels. This started many
:08:28. > :08:33.years ago but in actual fact, it was one specific township. If you look
:08:33. > :08:40.at South Africa as a whole, almost every township has got a spinning
:08:40. > :08:50.crew, and a spinning legacy. There will be someone who is regarded as a
:08:50. > :08:51.
:08:51. > :08:56.legend. Iron in the car with one of South Africa's finest spinners.
:08:56. > :09:02.Because I'm in the car with him, he has promised to be gentle. I'm not
:09:02. > :09:08.sure about that right now! If it had not been for the sport, he says his
:09:08. > :09:12.life would have turned out differently. It started with me
:09:12. > :09:21.stealing my father's are. That is how according to the sport. I'm used
:09:21. > :09:24.go around block. -- I used to go. It keeps me busy, but guys in the
:09:24. > :09:30.neighbourhood were doing the wrong things. Drugs, housebreaking,
:09:31. > :09:37.stealing. I've enjoyed the sport. It kept me off the streets. -- I
:09:37. > :09:42.enjoyed the sport. Spinning has become a legalised spectator sport.
:09:42. > :09:47.It started as a ritual in the countries -- in the country's
:09:47. > :09:51.townships. In the 90s, when a gangster was killed, his friends
:09:51. > :10:01.would steal a car, spin it at his funeral, and then set it alight as a
:10:01. > :10:05.sign of respect. Behind-the-scenes, an army of
:10:05. > :10:09.mechanics are working constantly to maintain the high standards of these
:10:09. > :10:15.spinning machines. But it is not just about the revving engines. It