It's TED Talks Daily. I'm Elise Hugh. I didn't realize this, but what we know of as slums or informal settlements are actually the most common form of urbanization on the planet. Some have the populations of the largest cities in the world. But as today's speaker, environmental design researcher

Holtas Samper found the dearth of data on these settlements means millions are living in the

darkness. In his 2020 talk at TEDxCU, Sampur presses a case for why understanding these settlements

is so important to the global future and the communities inside them.

When I was six years old, growing up in Medellin, Colombia, I made one of the most impactful decisions of my life.

I asked my mother to change me in school, to the school where she was teaching.

To my surprise, she said, yes.

So I switched from a rich, private, Catholic school

to a public school where 99% of the students

living a condition of extreme poverty. The only meal some of my friends ate a day was the one that was given in school.

My friends and I live close to each other but worlds apart.

I live in a neighborhood with a museum, a library, parks,

and they live in a neighborhood with the lack of the most basic necessities,

such as portable water of electricity.

More importantly, they live in a place surrounded by danger,

from guns to landslides.

Their suffering was not unique. Up in the mountains in Medellin

informal settlements, thousands of families were having the same problems that my friends and their

families, fearing that the police or the rains would take their homes away. I learned so much from my friends,

but what continued to surprise me the most

is their resilient and optimism in the face of adversity.

Growing up with people that I care

...