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 limitations, but we accepted that.
On reaching 14 I was enrolled part-time in a comprehensive school to do my GCSE's came away with 4 GCSE's.
After taking a quiet year of study and doing a course in Sign Language, i followed that with a desire to be a counsellor. 3 long years of the course lay ahead.
So after this the media wheel started to turn and the rest as they say is history. See media appearances section for how life changed in 2006/7 and beyond.
So after all the media coverage I have had, 2010 brought a year of big change, after living with infection after infection for up to 12 years, my ulcer on my left foot developed blood poisoning. This meant that it had to be amputated or it would have killed me.
I was very ill at the time and it took 6 months for me to be discharged from hospital and then I had to start all over again to gain my independence and get my life back on track. It is now 2012 and I am still on the road of recovery, but I have belief in myself that one day I will achieve what I need to have a full and independent life.
Here we are in 2014:
So here we are in 2014 & I am still striving for independence and I will get there, I am due to get a new vehicle soon that will mean I can drive from my wheelchair. This will make a huge difference to my life and will mean that I can actually leave my home on my own for the first time in 4 and half years! I still need a new wheelchair that I can get in and out of without hurting myself, but that will hopefully be in the pipeline soon, so watch this space for pics of me whizzing around in my WAV (wheelchair Accessible Vehicle)
So here he is, Walter, my new Wheelchair Accessible vehicle. There have been a few ups and downs since we met, mainly due to problems with the adaptations, but he certainly making my life easier.
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 for Times of Israel, and is also the artistic director of Theater in the Rough, offering engaging and affordable theatrical opportunities for Jerusalem audiences.
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, Hands for Humanity and Life Legacy Foundation.
Ben now lives in Romania and calls himself a mission entrepreneur. He believes entrepreneurs and not traditional missionaries and relief workers are the key to providing the long-term to poverty and hunger in the world.
May 2012 – Present
Humanitarian (founder/Pres.) - Life legacy Foundation – Working in Romania, development of many social, cultural and educational projects
May 2001 - Present
Humanitarian (founder/Pres.) - Hands For Humanity. - Working in Romania on relief, community development and business development projects. Building churches and community centres. Developing project for street kids. Developing agriculture projects including 10 chicken barns, a feed mill, and a hatchery.
1992 - 2000
Humanitarian (founder/Pres.) – Missionary Ventures Canada. - Built 12 schools for poor children in the country of Guatemala. Developed feeding centres for starving children and built housing for poor families.
1986 - 1996
Mechanical Contractor (founder/Pres.) – Kubassek Mechanical Ltd - Plumbing and heating contractor on commercial, industrial and residential projects.
1984 - Present
Real Estate Developer (founder/Pres.), – Kubassek Holdings Ltd. - Developer and builder of residential communities completing over 700 homes, www.3ehouse.ro, www.canadianvillage.ro
1981 - 1996
Electrical contractor (founder/Pres.), – Kubassek Electrical Ltd. - Electrical contractor on commercial, industrial and residential projects.
1972-1981
Farmer – Community Farm of the Brethren - Managed a flock of 7000 laying hens. Set up a new slaughter house. In charge of electrical maintenance for the farm. Setup new feed mill.
Publication(s)
Succeed Without Burnout (book, 1995)
Five F-Words That will Energize Your Life (book, 1998)
Achieving Real Balance (training manual, 2001)
Accomplishments
Finalist – Canadian Entrepreneur of the Year Award, 1994
Listed – Who’s Who in Canadian Business, 1995
Listed – Who’s Who in Ontario, 1996
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.
Ms. Forrester has over a decade of cross-cultural, global leadership experience in the education, community, business, think-tank and government sectors. Throughout her career, Ms. Forrester has built enduring relationships and created partnerships across diverse disciplines to lead innovative and complex initiatives which address multifaceted global, regional, and local challenges by implementing holistic, culturally responsive, stakeholder-owned programs.
Most recently, Ms. Forrester served as director of the Young Leaders Program at Pacific Forum Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Her deep roots in the Pacific underscored her career as an associate lecturer at her alma mater, Queensland University of Technology’s (QUT) Oodgeroo Noonuccal Indigenous Studies Unit, where she focused on health promotion and advancing educational outcomes for Indigenous students.
Following her time at QUT, Ms. Forrester joined the Australian diplomatic service and was appointed Consul in Los Angeles and later, Acting Director of the United Nations and Commonwealth Section. She subsequently accepted the role of Senior International and Government Relations Advisor for the Australian Industry Group. In 2011, she moved to Hawai’i to become a fellow at the East-West Center’s Asia-Pacific Leadership Program and was awarded the Amanda and Natalie Ellis Women Leaders Scholarship. At Pacific Forum CSIS, she concurrently held a WSD-Handa Fellowship for her research on the impact of social media on Next-Generation attitudes toward international issues.
She has been published on Australian foreign policy, Australia-U.S. relations, and modernizing the U.S. alliance system in the Asia-Pacific region. In February 2014, the U.S. Congress recognized her leadership of the Young Leaders Program and its contribution to cross-cultural interaction, education in policy making, and facilitation of inter-generational dialogues.
Ms. Forrester is of Wiradjuri Australian decent, a heritage that serves as the foundation of her life-long personal and professional commitment to Indigenous communities in Australia and across the Pacific. She is a sought after thought-leader with U.S., with extensive international media exposure.
About PREL
PREL envisions a world where all children and communities are literate and healthy, global participants grounded in and enriched by their cultures. Throughout the Pacific, a region of diverse languages and cultures, PREL collaborates with clients and partners using the proven results of research to improve schooling and promote community change. For more information about PREL, visit www.prel.org.
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 Post has profiled him.
His TEDx talk, “There should never be another Ibrahim” has been listed as one of the 14 most inspiring queer TEDtalk of all time, his talk at the Aspen Ideas festival left the audience asking for more. Alimi gave the closing speech at a Daily Beast event hosted at the New York Public Library titled, “I am Bisi Alimi and I am not a victim.”
“The Development Cost of Homophobia” is his most successful article that was translated into over 15 languages globally. His most recent article for the Guardian: “If you say being gay is not African, you don’t know your history” has gone on to great review and cited in many news article globally.
He has many laurels for his work
globally. He consults for World Bank on Economic impact of
Homophobia and serves on the Bank advisory board on SOGI. He was a
2014 New Voices fellow at the Aspen Institute. Listed 19 most
important LGBT person in UK 2015 and was named 77 on the World
Pride Power List 2014.
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, Ruth befriended Ibtisam Erekat, a devout Muslim Palestinian woman whom she now calls sister. She has written about this friendship for The Atlantic.
Ruth graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and completed an M.A. in German history magna cum laude from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. A native of Southfield, Michigan, Ruth lives with her husband, three sons and two stepdaughters in Jerusalem. She is writing a memoir about her experience, tentatively titled, Ibtisam and I: An unexpected friendship across the Israeli-Palestinian divide. Ruth's story has been covered by the BBC, NPR, The Atlantic, & Alhurra TV. Her uplifting message: you can turn something bad into something good.
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 young man in my estate by the name Solomon, Solomon got me involved with a youth project because he saw the potential in me to do well. He got me involved with a youth programme by the name of X-it programme. I worked with X-it programme for over 3 years and in those 3 year i helped the programme achieve Public Service Award and and 72% of non offending young people.
In 2008 I started my own company by the name of Endz2Endz, the name means to bring community together. We do this through media. Endz2Endz was started through friends, I went to college and got together with my friends to start Endz2Endz which was to promote the positives that young people were up to rather than the Negativity. Endz2Endz won Spirit of London Award, won Cinemagic award through Quiet Storm an advertisement company run by a very good friend of mine Trevor Robinson. I also interviewed most of London Mayor candidates for the London mayor Election, I interviewed Brian Paddick (Lib Dem), Jenny Jones (Green Party), Siobhan Benita (Independent Party) and Valerie Shawcross (Labour Party) all on the subject of unemployments, Education, Racism and community unity.
From the time I won my Spirit of London Award in 2010, I got diagnosed with Leukemia which is a form of cancer. I was in hospital for 3years (2013), but while in the hospital I was still working on Endz2Endz projects. When I came out of hospital in 2013, I decided to run courses with Endz2Endz teaching young people photography, film making, graphic designing etc. I believed in empowerment and encouragement and through Endz2Endz I was able to deliver them both
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 (Change Day volunteer) and a Care Maker for the chance to encourage other frontline staff to make a difference and to convince them that you don’t need permission to initiate change. As a Nurse he tries to transfer his passion and ignite other people’s hearts, and hopefully inspire courage for others to take the first step to try to improve the place they work.
He is very active in Social Media and in 2014 won the Nursing Times Tweeter Nurse of the Year. You can follow him at @thebestjoan
Person-centered care is his passion. Making a difference is what motivates him to get up every morning and go to work with a smile. Honesty and transparency are also vital and they are part of his core values.
Joan is an example of the new sort of nurse entrepreneur who never stops coming up with ideas. The difference between him and those who just talk about new ways of doing things is that he is unafraid to change his role, job and even location. He just gets on and delivers
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 Health Organization, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development, and the Government of Zambia. Recently, he worked on a project in Tanzania to study suppliers’ incentives for making artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) drugs available and affordable for the treatment of malaria. The Clinton Health Access Initiative is sponsoring this project with funding from the Gates Foundation.
Earlier in his career, Prashant served as a Senior Strategic Modeler at Health Products Research in New Jersey and as an Operations Consultant at KLG Systel and HOLTEC Consulting. He is a Chemical Engineer by training and has an MBA and PhD in Management Science.
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 undertaken by the group as part of its commitment to undertake "random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty".
So far, these acts have included: going round festivals giving out pineapple drinks to revellers; giving spare change to people instead of asking for it, like most charities; cooking free pancakes on Shrove Tuesday; and handing out chocolate bars to random people on streets of London.
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 and Rwanda.
Daniella has spoken at TEDxRedmond, numerous universities, conference and has led multiple Ashoka’s Youth Venture workshops. She was featured in a Belgian documentary: “30 under 30 International Social Entrepreneurs” by GoYoung. Daniella has received several awards including the Princeton Prize in Race Relations, the Build-A-Bear’s Huggable Hero Award, and the Prudential Spirit of Community Award. (www.DaniellaCohen.co www.GoGiveProject.com)
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 jungles, kidnappings and empty bank accounts into a unique behavioural psychology based module called Livemad. His sessions have helped spread Hope among people with suicidal tendencies, depression, abuse and rape victims, sex trade workers and children with special abilities.
Inspired by the power to create, he has innovated with products ranging from contraceptives to mattresses, that heal! With 8 patents in process in the areas of Women Safety, Marketing Information dissemination, physiological efficiency, and concepts based on universal ratio. ‘Invention for Change’ remains his vision and has helped beget Joy in more than 35 regions across underdeveloped and developing economies of the World. As a vow to provide safety and honour to our Women, he developed World’s cheapest self defense device, Shakti, a unique whistle dagger that can be worn as a bracelet. The device accentuates the power to fight back and lets women defend for themselves. The idea is currently open for funding and support.
Swapnil, with his venture Naked Colours is a case study at Newcastle University (NCU) and LBS (U.K.), University of Tampa, Florida. HBR and IISc Bangalore. At the age of 25, Swapnil’s became the Youngest Social Entrepreneurship enterprise to be featured in Forbes Magazine (International). ‘Indian Express’, ‘The Better India’ magazine and Himalaya Foundation Award recently featured his Life story.
A freethinker, and a devotee of Creation, Swapnil loves to create and is in the process of developing a 700 syllable rich language and its lexicon.
Three books based on the inspiration he derives from the one Life we all have, are en route to find their way into bookshelves and hearts, soon.
His Life story is soon to be portrayed in a feature film, as well.
He may be reached at swapnil@livemad.org
A professional athlete from Singapore in the sport of Rowing. In 2013, She took the risk of losing her job to train full-time. She went over to train in Sydney where the training environment is more conducive for high performance rowers. She used her savings to support herself in Sydney. The whole experience was worth it because I became Singapore's first individual Gold medalist in the South-East Asian Games in 2013.
Now, Saiyidah is embarking on the journey to become Singapore's first rower to qualify for the Olympics. The journey has been long and arduous since she won 2 years ago with events that hinder her performance like injuries, having self-doubt and all the other distractions in life. She has been 5 months away from the qualifiers and I am not going to let anything get in the way between me and my dreams.
JAIME BAUTISTA was born in Colombia, an ex-student of Civil Engineering and a self-taught artist. Amongst working with conventional art mediums he has also developed a special technique for his models and pictures with a material normally associated with kindergarten use- Plasticine-. Not only did he develop this technique in the artistic sense, he went further and at the Foundation Children’s Hospital over a year and a half, he developed and applied a rehabilitation programme for children with learning difficulties, with excellent results. He also developed teaching programmes for able and disabled children and adults, which are still in use.
He has organised a number of conferences and practical art workshops in Colombia and other Countries including the UK, India and Sri-Lanka for teachers, art students, disabled people, psychologists, occupational therapists, experts in special education, corporate and public sector employees.
A commercial designer turned designer baker. She tries to spread awareness and help people through her art and her medium of art and expression is her cakes. She have tried to create awareness on the subjects like Save the girl child and Food waste through my cakes. She have been making edible Ganesha idol for the last 4 years to send out the message of real celebration of festivals. Edible idols save the environment and more importantly help in feeding the underprivileged children. For her, real celebration is when no one sleeps hungry.
She have started an organisation called The Food Army, where every member contributes 25 homemade theplas (spicy Indian flat bread, which can last for 7 days) during any calamity in the country. They had sent 35,000 Theplas to Kashmir last year during floods. This year we sent 1,00000 Theplas to the Nepal earthquake victims in just one day. The most unique part about The Food Army is it doesn't accept any money from anybody, just 25 theplas.
An award winning comic using comedy to talk about taboo topics such as eating disorders, mental health and identity. A full time comic of 6 years Dave is regular compere/MC, opener and warm up act, currently on UK tour.He is a versatile writer, performer and host and always a fun name on the bill. Continuing to go from strength to strength, he is lively, fun and definitely a name to look out for and certainly an act to book.
Anne Jones has won the World Speed Reading championship six times. She has made numerous TV and radio appearances (including c-BBC's Newsround featuring her work with a team of Burleigh Community College youngsters, BBC2's The Daily Politics, Sky News and BBC Radio 2's Chris Evans and Simon Mayo shows). Anne set a new speed reading record reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and reviewed the book for Sky News and various newspapers, including the Independent on Sunday.
Success in speed reading competitions led to requests to speak about speed reading and for training courses. Anne is now the UK's best-known speed reader and travels internationally to train clients in speed reading.
Aleksei Budõlin is an Estonian judoka. At the 2000 Summer Olympics he won the bronze medal in the men's Half Middleweight (73–81 kg) category, together with Nuno Delgado of Portugal.
Sydney Olympics 2000, bronze
1 silver, 1 bronze from World Championships
1 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze medals from European Championships
Head Coach of the National Judo Team, as well as coach work in a club.
Hobby is beach-soccer.
He is interested in constant development and progress and loves to philosophize about things.
In a relationship for 22 years- daughter, 14 y. and son 1,5 y.
As CEO of Education Development Trust (former CfBT Education Trust), Steve leads an organisation that operates in diverse environments around the world to transform lives by improving education. Working with governments at national and regional level to improve education systems and with school clusters to raise standards, Steve manages an internationally based workforce in India, the Middle East, South East Asia, Africa, the UK and many other localities. CfBT is a charity and its commitment is to sustainable, high quality self-improving education systems.
Steve began his career as a secondary school teacher in Birmingham, later moving to the north east of England where he worked as a teacher and then as a lecturer. In the late 1980s and the 1990s he worked in school improvement roles in Oldham and Blackburn with Darwen and from 2000 to 2005 he was director of education in Knowsley, Merseyside. Steve was chief executive of the National College for School Leadership from March 2005 to November 2012.
By the time Wim reached his teenage years, he was already running barefoot through the snow, comfortably.. It was the beginning of a large series of confrontations with the cold, where every single time, limits were tested, stunning the outside world.
Wim Hof (born 1959) is able to perform exceptionally, almost unnatural, on what he is focused on. Due to our lifestyle today we are far removed from our natural bodily condition. We breathe much more shallow which means that our body is not optimally supplied with oxygen.. According to Wim, it’s not complicated at all: "What I am capable of, everybody can learn".
Peregrine Church is a Seattle-based creator who spends his time thinking of ways to make the world a more interesting place. He is the creator of Rainworks, street art that only appears when it's wet. He began decorating the streets of Seattle with his rainy-day art in May 2014.
In early 2015, a video featuring Rainworks went viral, netting over 15 million views between Youtube and Facebook. Since then, Peregrine and rainworks have received worldwide recognition and media coverage. Recently, Peregrine launched a Kickstarter campaign as an effort to distribute the spray used to make rainworks. The campaign ends on September 20th, and Peregrine is hoping to raise $50,000 to get his new endeavor off the ground.