For me hope is found in the ordinary moments of life and the acts of kindness that will never be a headline or even noticed. I was blown away by the overwhelming compassion of a bus driver in downtown San Francisco who treated a blind women with such joy and love and kindness when she got onto the bus. This impacted me to the point where I thanked the driver for going the extra mile. 'My sister also has a disability, so of course I want to help when I can.'

I was lucky enough to work part time as their startup coach for their Innovation Fellowship. The Academy sends people like myself to support innovators and researchers to developing countries to help innovators to turn their ideas and innovations into impactful and sustainable ventures. I got to know an entrepreneur who tried to use 3d printing to produce low costs, prosthetic arms, that people can afford in his country. There was also another entrepreneur that took mobile and hygienic toilets, to remote villages that don't have proper toilets to use. The Royal Academy of Engineering are supporting developing countries in so many different ways. which is really inspiring to me.

I have a lot of respect for people who are situated in large, complex multinational organisations who are committed to doing good things and doing good for the world. The person who brings me hope is a leader I've worked with at Google named Michael Bakker. What's inspiring to me about Michael is that he is coming from a place of deep business experience and expertise and later in his career has come into the work of regenerative business, systems change and sustainability. What I admire is that he has this commitment to have impact while working with and navigating the tensions that can be inherent in a large multinational company.

An Iranian entrepreneur is my hopeful story. He is building schools across Germany in which children can grow up with a knowledge that is centred around what the world actually should be like and a curriculum that teaches them how to interact with human beings and with nature.

My hopeful story is a community that is processing its history and coming to be a force for indigenous land use and protection and conservation in Canada. They have rightly recognised that their relationship with the forest is their key to adaptation and survival in the future and they're blazing a trail showing the rest of us how it's done. They are showing that despair is often the first step towards repair and that processing the past is often the key to unlocking a more transformative and positive future.

I'm going to big up a young man called Keon who I have been working alongside at the Rio Ferdinand foundation who invest into the futures of young men and women in the most deprived areas.

Hopefulness is found in the people who don't get any credit, don't have any recognition, volunteers in care homes, food banks, Samaritan call line volunteers, people who are single mothers working two jobs for the sake of their kids, young carers, people living in tough situations with humility and with grace and without fanfare.

Yeukai Taruvinga is my story of hope. She is originally from Zimbabwe and moved to the UK when she was 18 years old. She was involved in some political protests in Zimbabwe and her life was in danger. She thought she was coming here for a couple of months, until things calm down and she's still here 30 years later. Her asylum claim was very difficult, stressful and long, but she used that time to volunteer for boards of different charities in London working with young people from very diverse backgrounds. She decided that this was her life's calling. As soon as she got her refugee status, she set up a social enterprise called Active Horizons and she works now with young refugees, young asylum seekers and young people.