I Share Hope: Chris Williams

  Journalist and cofounder of Women's Media Association AFEM, Congolese Organization. Chouchou Namegabe is a Congolese activist, radio journalist, and founder and director of the organization South Kivu Women's Media Association (AFEM in french). Ms. Namegabe trains rural and urban Congolese women as journalists specifically to report about sexual violence and human rights abuses. With her organization she uses the media to raise the awareness of rural women. According to the advocacy organization Women Deliver, who awarded her as one of the "top 100 most inspiring people delivering for girls and women", Ms. Namegabe's work has been "helping Congo's women broadcast to the world." She advocates for sustainable solutions of the conflict in Eastern DRC, targeting the causes, not the consequences. Ms. Namegabe has testified at the Hague to urge the International Court of Justice to classify rape as a political weapon in the DRC, and in Washington, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on violence against

  Amy Bleuel is the founder of Project Semicolon. Project Semicolon is a global non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and love for those who are struggling with mental illness, suicide, addiction and self-injury. Project Semicolon exists to encourage, love and inspire. After overcoming many obstacles in her life including bullying, rejection, suicide, self-injury, addiction, abuse and even rape, Amy has found strength and a love for others. Amy struggled with mental illness for 20+ years and has experienced many stigmas associated with it. She now shares her stories around the nation giving hope to others struggling with mental illness.

  After making a few online ukulele tutorials to amuse a friend a few years ago, I've since managed to parlay it into a career as a full-time YouTube who has given up his office job in IT and travelled across the USA to meet several of my viewers in person. For a mini animated version of the story, check out my Draw My Life video here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqspxvJB9LI. I had actually considered my story in the context of 'hope' even before you'd contacted me. Before I started making the videos I was incredibly depressed with my life - stuck in a dead end job, overweight, unhealthy, no social life etc. With the confidence I gained from the feedback I received from making the videos I ended up losing a lot of weight, getting a better job (which I was later able to quit entirely!) travel across the States and make lots of new friends. It's genuinely changed my life in ways that I never could have dared imagine when I first started. On top of that, I receive comments frequently from people who say that

  Best mates Nic Marchesi and Lucas Patchett built a free mobile laundry in their old van to help the homeless and Orange Sky Laundry began. Aiming to connect the community and spark conversations, Orange Sky Laundry started helping people in September 2014. Since then, this world first idea has rapidly grown to eight vans in Brisbane, Melbourne, south-east Victoria, Gold Coast, Sydney, Perth, Adelaide and the Sunshine Coast– and they plan to expand their services Australia-wide. With the help of 250-plus volunteers, the custom fitted vans – each with two commercial washing machines and two dryers – service 22 locations and wash more than 200 loads each week. Orange Sky encourages people of all walks of life to come together. In February 2015, they took their mobile laundry to North Queensland to wash clothes in cyclone- ravaged communities. Nic and Lucas have found a way to treat others the way they want to be treated by restoring respect, while raising health standards and reducing the strain on resources.

  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 because he was a bad omen. Instead, his mother taught him that everyone is a child of God and every person deserves love and a chance to contribute to society. In his youth, he was determined to show his community that he could do what other kids did. He shined shoes to buy a soccer ball and learned to play on crutches. People saw him playing and it began changing their hearts. As he grew up, he started to ride a bicycle. And ride. And ride. He became an athlete and rode across the whole country— showing communities all over

  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 do better, until he joined the navy at age 17. Having the eye of an entrepreneur, Gene took on the cosmetology class (which he knew would pay better) and later became a hairstylist for Gould’s Salon Spa where he retired from just last year at the age of 87. He was a hairstylist there for 63 years. He’s done the hair of Elvis and Cybill Shepherd. Gene is also an avid harmonica player. He’s played individually, with a band and lately with his eldest son, Rick. Gene uses his gift of music to share hope to a lot of people – he

  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, fundraising events and being listed amongst motivational speakers such as Gloria Mayfield Banks; Schroeder Stribling, the executive director of N Street Village (a nonprofit for homeless women) and the media mogul powerhouse Oprah Winfrey herself– Mpumi Nobiva continues to reach for her dreams. In May this year, Mpumi Nobiva co-keynoted with 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Peace Activist, Leymah Gbowee at Queens University of Charlotte, North Carolina. She has spent the first half of 2015 in the City of Cape Town, as part of

  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 communities around the world to come together and raise funds to support people in crisis. STH started a ripple effect across the United States, Europe and Asia promoting the concept that every single person can make a huge difference in someone else's life, and that saving lives does not really take superheros... it simply takes hope, a good intention and continuity.

  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 is originally from Liberia and has worked around the United Nations in New York advocating for global education at the United Nations General Assembly. He is currently the Media and Communications Manager for Plan, the international children charity organization, www.plan-internationa.org. Moses is 29 years old, born May 15, 1986 unto the blessed union of Moses Owen Browne, Sr. (deceased) and Mother Beatrice Johnny, a peasant agri-business family from Grand Bassa County, one of the first three Counties that founded the Repub

  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 the World Bank on issues of governance and development. He is an Echoing Green Fellow and winner of the World Technology Award.

  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 on the Lord and he received grace and strength. He went for rehabilitation in unaided mobility and brail in 2010 and proceeded to obtain a Certificate in Counselling from Connect Zimbabwe. Later that year, he featured in a local national television drama series that ran from September 15, 2010 to March, 2011. In the same year, he received a one-year scholarship to study at the International Institute for Social Entrepreneurs in Trivandrum, Kerala, India (Southern India) in 2011. Through such opportunities availed to him, h

  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 school i started college to do an Art course and more GCSE's. I made good friends and along with studying enjoyed some weekends away with plenty of booze and drunken nights.   After leaving college i went to study a degree in Graphic Design away from home. However I had mobility difficulties and didn't find it easy so deferred my course and came home to have an operation to reduce the

  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, com

  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 Leade

  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

  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 frien