My story of hope are companies, that are completely devoted to the common good. There's one called Crepes and waffles which is a restaurant chain in Colombia with over 6000 employees. Although it's a multinational, Its purpose is the inclusion of single mothers in society, and in the labour markets. What's so marvellous about crepes and waffles, is that they guarantee wonderful quality of food for everybody because it's very affordable for the many social classes. They source quality foods from single mother suppliers of vegetables and fruits, and they pay them from 40 to 60% above the market value If they retain clean watercourses in the plots. They regenerate the quality of soil so when you go to these restaurants you participate in a solution which is a global need, which is bringing back the bio-diversity and cleaning up the waters.

My hopeful story starts In 2014 when I shared a conference stage with the amazing James Partridge, the founder of changing faces which is the world's foremost charity, championing the cause of those who look different. James himself suffered horrendous burns to his face and upper body in a car accident in his teens. I listened to James share that those with visible differences from trauma from congenital disorders from skin disease are often amongst the most vulnerable in our society, facing a daily grind of exclusion, harrassment and challenge in all areas of their lives from struggling to find meaningful employment and relationships. Outside the NHS, Changing Faces currently provides the UK's only free counselling and well being service for children, young people and adults with skin disease who need appearance related mental health and well being support. James died in 2020, but his legacy lives on in changing faces.

I stumbled upon my hopeful story at the Tommy Hilfiger fashion frontier programme and they were one of the finalists. It's an organisation called clothes to good and they're based in South Africa. I was so inspired by what they do. They are empowering people through using waste that would ususally be thrown away as a tool to teach people with autism or disability how to weave and make things like weighted blankets. I was just so moved to see a work that empowers people and creatively recycles and upcycles.

The person who's inspiring me most at the minute is Nadia Schick from right to Roam who are doing an incredible work around land justice and fighting for the right to roam, to access land. Nadia understands that it's bigger than that, it's about the right access of land and who owns that land, the money in that land and how the richest people hold it. it's not just about land, it's the metaphor for all things.

Patagonia is my hopeful story as a great example of what I would deem community that happened also to be a business. They have invested in employees, and made those employees feel valued with a sense of purpose and then done the same with their customers who again I don't think want to be known as customers but a part of the Patagonia community. They self impose an earth tax of 1% for the planet and they champion and defend land and water across the globe. So, something that started off to make a difference and add value to somebody's hobby is now a huge force for good in the world.

I went to record in a studio called platoon and the guy who runs it is called Denzel. One thing I noticed which I have not noticed in many studios, (I have been in them since I was 17) was that the engineers were all female and for me that was a huge, huge thing for me. Seeing more females within these roles is extremely inspiring, and sets an example for other studios, other establishments, other distributors, other labels. It's just whether you're making active decisions to make those changes and I feel like Denzel is one of those people who is doing that.

In 2015 I was covering the refugee crisis in Europe as a photo journalist and I started to receive a lot of messages from people in different parts of the world asking how we can help. A foundation was established that is run by passionate talented people from different parts of the world who believe in making a difference. It's a home to ease the lives of thousands of people simply through passion, through photography, through visuals, through paintings through art. Anybody can follow their hearts and use their passion in a good way.

My story of hope would have to be about surfers not street children who do such incredible work in Mozambique and South Africa. I've met many guys who have come through the programme who've experienced tough upbringings or have had long spells of hardship. Tandel for example is an incredible surfer who grew up on the streets and had a tough upbringing but the programme and surfing really helped him find direction in his life. This is just one of the many kids that have come out of this programme.

I find many stories of hope by just observing people on a daily basis. Even this morning I noticed a man with a cart selling fruit trying to cross a busy road in front of me. Half way across the road, he stumbled and fruit spilled out onto the road. In that moment, cars stopped and many people came around him to help him back on his feet and pick up the fruit. People who do good often do what they do in silence and secrecy. They do not promote it.

Professor Paul Hawken and the team from Project Drawdown came up with the 100 best solutions to tackle climate change. This is a blueprint that society could put to work now and make great strides toward tackling climate change. Amazing changes are going on in the investment industry with many companies embracing ESG (Enviromental, Social, Governance) and the UN SDGs (Sustainable Developmental Goals). So much still needs changing, but knowing what the solutions to a lot of our challenges look like, and how we can do it, is a great encouragement to get on with it!

My story is about a lady that very few people know of called Bernadette Moses who is a wonderful humble lady living with a disability in the heart of the community on the Cape Flats in Cape Town. What she does is amazing through small acts of kindness. People that can do small actions can make a big difference to our planet.

So my story of hopefulness is a person Mina Smallman. it's actually a tragic story of despair, but she gives me great hope. Mina came to prominence when her two daughters were both murdered in an unprovoked random attack in a park in Wembley. On the media she's been unbelievably composed and articulate drawing attention to the fact that their deaths were not taken seriously by the police because of the colour of their skin. She said 'I think the notion that all lives matter is absolutely right, but it's not true.' And yes of course she's angry, but she has such dignity and such clarity. As a mother, she's completely broken but she's also an activist and I think she's extraordinary.

One of the organisations I find inspiring is Julie's Bicycle who support artists to use their artistic-creative skills and communication to change the narrative on the climate crisis.

My story of hopefulness comes from an incredible organisation that I've known for many years called Galgael. They operate out of this huge warehouse just on the south of the river Clyde in a former shipbuilding community called Govan. They are all about giving people who have just come out of prison or tackling addiction or long term unemployment not just some skills in boat building but a sense of purpose, a sense of community and they call it a clan, giving them a sense of clanship. They use traditional shipbuilding techniques, so there's woodwork and joinery, the sound of hammers and a smell of wood being cut. It's the most amazing space to go into and what they're doing, I think is probably quite literally a suicide prevention work. They always recognise they're just a sticking plaster, they're very humble and very attentive to the nature of the wider economic system that is driving people to their doors, but I think they're just an extraordinary, very, very precious organisation.

A person that gives me hope is Bell hooks. An American professor, author, feminist, and social activist, and it's particularly her brave work on love that continues to inspire us to bring in the emotional and personal interchange work. We have to see the big picture but we always have to be rooted in ourselves, and we always have to look after the relationships we have with other people.

My story of hopefulness is an organisation based in Ghana, that is focused on helping informal workers who do not have a fixed wage, pension or savings, to have a savings pot for their retirement. Informal workers make up about 70% of the African population so when I see this organisation pushing through this mission, and really finding a way for Africa's workers to have a pension it brings me so much hope. In addition to all the challnges of setting up the organisation, the founder caught COVID and died which was a profound loss, not just for the organisation, but for the world and this space. Many people thought that the mission would die with him, his name was Samuel, but they were completely wrong. His mission has remained active and since he passed away, there have been over 30,000 more savers come into this organisation maybe contributing one or two dollars a day towards their pension. So the mission lives on.

The person is my friend Paul who lives in LA. I think we all know somebody in our life who wakes up each day and makes the choice because it is a choice to walk on the sunny side of the street or take take an inventory of the things he's grateful for instead of things that he isn't. Paul is a caregiver for his son who was born blind and autistic but that's actually led him to many other things and inspires loads of people partly in response to how his son responds to music. He lives quite close to Skid Row, which is an area of downtown Los Angeles where there's thousands of people who are living on the streets and experiencing homelessness. Back in the day he went out with a few cheap CD Walkmans and started donating them with some music they could listen to and then he got some funding and it quickly transitioned into something much bigger. Paul managed to bring together all kinds of different people to volunteer to support and distribute essential products. But the main thing is that he knows everybody down there by name and he knows them and what they need and he helps them along when he can. These people are often dehumanised in the mainstream media as people you should be scared of, but the way that Paul does his work is just so inspiring to me and it always comes back to his son and the challenge that he was faced with. He decided to completely embody and make it his strength not a weakness.

My story of hopefulness is a story about a woman who's really committed her life to helping us better understand the natural world and ensure that much of it is secured for future generations. Kris Tompkins was CEO of Patagonia, and then with her late husband focussed on how to secure large tracts of land and together created some of the largest protected areas in the world. Kris isn't coming from a traditional conservation career, she started in the private sector but always had a great reverence and respect for the natural world. She then went on to work with local communities and governments and help set up 13 national parks in Chile and Argentina, and protect almost 15 million acres. But what I most admire is her ability to communicate the importance of the natural world and our relationship with other forms of life and the need to get to know our neighbours and understand nature so that we truly respect, value and ultimately want to protect it. These challenges are immense and there's so many interests against securing the natural world. But to have an example like Kris who's just got up and done it is very inspiring.

I'm going to take you into the realm of government and take you to Taiwan and back first to about 2012 when the government wanted to stifle and quieten the role of citizens saying effectively that 'we will look after everything that matters'. Taiwan had this thing called the economic power up plan in large part because they were starting to negotiate a big trade deal with Mainland China which would have ceded a lot of the country's sovereignty and agency to China. What happened at that time was a group of hackers started to organise. They called themselves gov zero and started to build parallel websites to the government websites in Taiwan to enable people to essentially participate in shadow government and vote and comment on things effectively saying that government isn't something that should be done for us, it's something that we should all be involved in. This grew over time and then 2014 came and a trade bill with China came to Parliament and started to be rushed through. An Occupy style protest started, students occupied the Parliament, and GOV Zero brought in a broadband connection and streamed into parliament the students debating the clauses of the trade bill. The critical moment came when the under pressure speaker of the parliament refused to stifle the voices of the students and suggested that this is what democracy looks like. Speaker Wang opened the space up and I think is a big hero. From that moment, the whole of the way Taiwan works has transformed with one of the leaders of the hacker movement becoming a mentor to a government minister then after the next presidential election in 2016, became a minister herself. She then led the country's response to the COVID pandemic, which was one of the most successful anywhere in the world and has been rooted in the principle of treating everyone in Taiwan as a participant and a source of ideas and energy.

My story of hopefulness is the Barrier Reef foundation. I had the chance to interview Peter Mumbi who's one of the chief scientists out there, who confirmed that the reef has lost more than 50% of it's coral since 1995. The issue of the seas warming up and coral bleaching is a huge problem and perhaps one of the more visible symbols of climate change. But when I spoke with Peter he spoke about a programme which is planting more than 100,000 Corals off Port Douglas, together with significant restorative activity on Raine Island which is the largest green turtle nesting site. This is an organisation that is truly walking the walk.

My story is Coral Vita who are breeding coral organisms that are resistant to rising temperatures and rising acidity in the ocean, I wish we hadn't didn't have to, but the fact we are largely pushing coral reefs towards extinction, suggests that the work of Coral Vita is going to be incredibly important. People who have that level of ambition and vision to take these vast, great living ecosystems and turn them back onto a healthy track are like a shot in the arm.

my story of hopefulness are Joe and George from London who started a company called artistic spaces, They now have roughly half a million square footage of warehouses which they rent out to artists. They began about 12 years ago by taking on a warehouse in South London and dividing spaces up to create opportunities for artists to create and musicians to have studios. I am inspired by their ethic to think big and not be afraid to fail because you won't do anything original if you think like that. But so much is about the grind. People often want to think and dream big, but they don't want to do the steps to get there but there are no shortcuts, it's just years and years of putting that effort in, During the challenging time of COVID they gave up spaces to store medical supplies and help create facilities for doctors. They have one of London's largest square footage of artists spaces and workshops and are my inspiration.

Joe Murphy and I have been doing some research into the UN Convention on Climate Change and on the series of conferences that have defined the targets and represents a glimmer of hope for the natural world. We have spoken to the people involved from the UN Secretariat to the people creating the protocols that form the basis of international law around climate change which is incredibly inspiring. Kyoto was really the first time that 200 countries came together and agreed that something should be done. This idea that you can get so many people from so many different countries to agree is sort of unbelievably inspiring and gives us hope. We think there are a lot of lessons there at a time when it feels like we're not agreeing and the idea of consensus is out of our grasp.

My hopeful story is the Reverend Paul Nicholson, who began life as a wine merchant and then became a priest and moved to Tottenham in London where he devoted himself to the service of the poorest of the poor. He commissioned research on benefits and the fact that they weren't enough to live on and he started this extraordinary campaign which was the living wage movement and persuaded London Mayor Ken Livingstone to take it up. I spoke to him the week before he died aged 87 and he was heading to Downing Street where he was going to beg sitting outside Downing Street to really experience what it was to have nothing and to sit on a pavement ignored by those who passed by. I offered to sit with him as I was quite worried about him but he refused 'I have to go alone because otherwise I won't experience what those I'm fighting for experience'. He lived an incredibly humble life in one room in Tottenham and the only thing he cared about was compassion. He ran a brilliant organisation called taxpayers against poverty, which is what it says on the tin and set up the Zacchaeus Foundation which works with homeless people and fights for the rights of benefit claimants. None of his energy was devoted to his ego, it was channelled straight into the work, he was a tuning fork for suffering and my hero.

There have been many amazing people that have brought me a lot of hope, but I would like to share about my foster brother Mez who is an Eritrean refugee who left Eritrea at the age of 12 to flee compulsory military service. He didn't know where he was going or where he would be safe, and it took him a year to get to the UK. In that year, he crossed the Sahara Desert, he went 15 days without food, he lost friends along the way partly because the boat he was on capsized in the Mediterranean Sea. He walked across Europe and lived in the Calais jungle. That feat of endurance aged 12 has just stayed with me. Whenever I am facing anything hard, I think about Mez and I think about his life now and how he continues to work hard and never take anything for granted.