A man with one leg rides his bicycle and tries to change the world. Emmanuel is an athlete with a humble goal: to help people with disabilities in Africa, and eventually all over the world. He was born in Ghana, with only one good leg. In Africa, people born with a disability are shunned, left for dead or even poisoned. If they live, they are not accepted into schools or society in general. Fortunately, he had a mother who wouldn't bend to the pressure from the community to abandon him...

  Gene (88) and Martha (84) Finney share their story of hope from the 1950s. Gene is a World War II veteran who served the navy for about two years. After the war ended, Gene took the option of taking a course under the GI bill which offered a cosmetology course and a sheet metal course. Gene did not have a chance to go to school before joining the navy. In the interview, he relates how he started making money by the age of 8 by selling gum and taking on different jobs, constantly hoping to...

  Mpumi was admitted to the inaugural class of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, which opened in 2007 in Henley-on-Clip, South Africa, and graduated in 2011 amongst the top of her class. It was all part of a communal expectation for Mpumi, whose name means "success" in Zulu. “ From the social extreme of a young South African girl losing her mother to HIV & AIDS and being orphaned at the tender age of nine, to speaking across the United States at conferences, panels,...

  I am 41 years old, a husband, a father, a farmer, a musician, a carpenter, and the co-founder / director of a small non-profit organization, ECOVA MALI. ECOVA MALI is dedicated to increasing food security and promoting economic development in Mali by providing technical (and occasionally financial) assistance to Malian farmers.

  Adrienne Tingba is a 22 yr old Liberian Blogger and Writer who is using her voice to retell the Liberian story with Liberian voices. As the Founder of The Colloqua Dialogues (thecolloquadialogues.com), Adrienne highlights Liberia's progression and its shortcomings in an effort to increase awareness, and promote the overall development of the nation.  

  Nisreen Nasser is a Lebanese television producer and music instructor. She holds a Masters degree in Media and Communication, and a Bachelors in Audio-Visual Journalism from the Lebanese University. In 2014, she started an initiative to offer alternative education to children of Syrian and Palestinian refugee camps and underprivileged zones in Lebanon. In April 2015, she quit her career in television and co-founded Solidarity Through Humanity, an initiative that allows towns and...

  Moses Owen Browne, Jr., is Global Youth Ambassador, A World at School, United Nations Secretary General’s Global Education First Initiative. He’s advocating for Education for all. He holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Mass Communications and English with emphasis in Telecommunications Management and Broadcasting (Cum Laude) from the United Methodist University in Liberia and a prospective student of International Relations, Graduate School of Arts and Science, New York University. Moses...

  Blair Glencorse is Founder and Executive Director of the Accountability Lab, an incubator for creative, youth-driven ideas for accountability and transparency around the world. Blair is also a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Anti-Corruption and Transparency and a Social Impact Fellow at the Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania. Previously, Blair was an advisor to the now President of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, and worked for...

  Tafadzwa Nyamuzihwa, founder of the organization Shine on Africa, grew up in an orphanage since the age of one. He attained primary and secondary education in Harare, Zimbabwe, and went to study in South Africa towards a Diploma in Sports Management in 2006. Tafadzwa, at the age of 25, became totally blind in 2009 due to a retinal detachment that resulted from cataracts. Consequently, he found life tough and felt his window to the world had been shattered. As a Christian, he never gave up...

  I was born on the 20th of February in 1975 and at my birth there was something visibly wrong with me. My legs were large and my feet very large and deformed (for want of a better word to use).It wasn't until a few weeks later that i was actually allowed home with my parents as the doctors did not know if i would live or die, but hey I'm still here at 39 having fun! On reaching school age I attended a special school being there we all had physical problems so we knew that we had...

  Izzy is a former middle school teacher who quit his job to follow his childhood dream: to become a ninja. That lead Izzy to Japan where he intensively studied Aikido for 4 years. Presently, he is on a journey to train 1,000 hours in the best dojos in the world.

  Beth Steinberg is the executive director and co-founder of Shutaf Inclusion Programs, offering year-round, informal-education programs for children, teens and young people with disabilities in Jerusalem. Shutaf is committed to an inclusive teaching model that welcomes all participants - with and without disabilities - regardless of religious, cultural and socioeconomic differences. Beth moved, with her family, to Israel in 2006 from Brooklyn, NY. She regularly writes on parenting issues...

  Ben Kubassek was born and raised in a religious commune founded by his grandfather near Kitchener, ON. Canada. However Ben chose a different path for his life. He left the security of the commune at the age of 21 and started his own electrical contracting business. Ben quickly became a serial entrepreneur and started numerous other companies in the home building/land development, construction, retail, and speaking/training arenas. He is also the founder of Missionary Ventures Canada,...

  On November 3, 2014, Ms. Nicole M. Forrester became the President & Chief Executive Officer of Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL), an independent, nonprofit corporation that serves the educational community in the U.S.-affiliated Pacific islands, including American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia (Chuuk, Kosrae, Pohnpei, and Yap), Guam, Hawai‘i, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. ...

  Bisi Alimi is a CONTROVERSIAL, PASSIONATE, and POWERFUL internationally renowned researcher, public speaker, policy analyst, television pundit and campaigner. His expertise on Social Justice ranges from Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity to Race and Race Relations, Feminism, Education and Poverty Alleviation. He has appeared on many international television stations as a social and political pundit, including, CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, and CCTV, and outlets like NPR and the Washington...

  Ruth Ebenstein is an American-Israeli writer, historian and health activist who loves to laugh a lot and heartily. She has published her writing on both sides of the Atlantic and won two first-place Simon Rockower awards, sponsored by the American Jewish Press Association, One was for an essay that ran in Tablet about her Israeli-Palestinian breast cancer support group's trip to Sarajevo to meet other survivors who support each other across religious and ethnic lines. Through the group,...

  My name is Dennis Gyamfi, born and bred in Ghana but moved over to the United Kingdom at the age of 10. At my arrival I had the opportunity to meet my siblings and mother for the first time. In the United Kingdom I lived on Somerleyton estate and attended Christ Church Primary school all in the South London area Brixton. Living and going to school in one of the deprived areas in London, Great Britain after moving from Africa I found myself involved in small drug dealing which lead me to a...

  Joan Pons Laplana is a proud Nurse, a change agent and a Care Maker. He is on a mission to turn the healthcare system upside down and empower frontline staff & patients to lead together. Joan is also a Dignity Champion, a Dementia Friend and a PFD Champion. He is involved in promoting Equality and Diversity across all his activities. Recently he has also become an ambassador for the Mary Seacole statue appeal and very recently has join the HSCVoices Core Team. Joan became a Hubble...

  One of the world’s foremost experts on pharmaceutical supply chains in emerging markets, is a senior research fellow at the University of Michigan’s William Davidson Institute and director of the institute’s Health Care Research initiative. He was previously a professor of supply chain management at the MIT-Zaragoza International Logistics Program and a research affiliate at the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics. Prashant is an advisor and consultant to the World Bank, the World...

  English psychotherapist and author of The Mood Cards which is a card deck of 42 moods and emotions for self-awareness, empathy, connection, emotional intelligence and healing.

    Co Founder of The Kindness Offensive (or TKO for short). The Kindness Offensive (or TKO for short), founded in 2008 by Robert Williams with three of his friends, had mobilised volunteers to donate, wrap and then deliver 38 tonnes of toys across the capital. Recipients included children in hospitals across London, while the children of prisoners were also supplied with gifts so they could give their parent a present at visiting time. It was just one of the latest initiatives...

  Daniella Cohen is a senior at Highland Park High School in Illinois and is passionate about empathy and education. She currently serves on youth advisory boards to Born This Way Foundation and Ashoka’s Youth Venture. She is also the co-founder of her own project, G.I.V.E. (go.innovate.volunteer.educate). G.I.V.E. funds and installs internet, films educational peer to peer videos, and sends computers, pen-pal letters, and flip flops signed with messages of hope to schools in India, Uganda...

  I'm just a regular dude, a nurse, a father, husband, a nerd and founder of a non-profit that builds EPIC costumes for kiddos in wheelchairs!!! I look at life through eyes that try to see the best in all. I cling to hope and happiness and know that no matter what comes my way if I just hang onto my faith, do right and good, things will work out the way they are supposed to. That's me a simple regular dude. I love life! -Ryan Weimer

  Currently the Executive Director & Founder Compassion Society, a non profit organization that assists in the growth of a generous community of people who help one another to lead improved lives. Ms. Mina Wahidi has a history of local and international volunteer work. Having visited Haiti and Afghanistan. Also, through efforts with Rotary Club of Oakville Trafalgar, achieved a $3000 donation for Badilisha Day Orphanage in Kenya.

  A Dyslexic by birth and a Dreamer by Choice , he’s often addressed as ‘The Madman’- Swapnil manifests the name to its core. Starting up in his early twenties post a coveted career at RBI, his Journey throughout has been the core of his Inspiration. His work has spanned poverty alleviation, opportunity creation, exploring and saving endangered civilizations in the Naxal Jungles of India through his venture Naked Colours. (estd. 2011). He now spins his learning from footpaths, gruelling...