It’s not fame, fortune, power or status that make a life great, writes Vida Adamoli.

It is a life that cares about, and takes action for, its fellow human beings. Great lives have a stand-alone spirit, the courage to fight for truth and justice regardless of personal cost.

The majority we never get to hear about. Others become iconic. In 1955, in segregated Montgomery, Alabama, a bus driver ordered a black seamstress called Rosa Parks to give up her seat to a white passenger. She refused. Her simple act of protest galvanized America’s civil rights revolution. This is the story of Mukhtar Mai.

'It's about valuing people who might not be valued elsewhere,' says Penny Walker, one of the founders of the Coventry Refugee Centre, of her work with the refugee community.

By Geraldine Royds 

'In 1998-99 Kosovan and Afghan refugees started coming to Coventry, in the UK. I've always done practical and campaigning work - campaigning against the wars that create refugees and against the asylum system – as well as offering direct help,' she says.

Incurable optimist, Dr Larry Brilliant believes that despite the many reasons for pessimism – Dafur, global warming and new infectious diseases to name but a few – human beings have always risen to the challenge.  

As a medical doctor involved in the eradication of smallpox before joining the philanthropic arm of Google and then the Skoll Foundation, Dr Brilliant’s optimism regarding poverty, disease and climate change is, er, infectious.