People who are making the world a better place

In 2020, Australia’s Future Crunch launched a project to identify “ordinary people answering the call to extraordinary acts of kindness.”

“The project was inspired by Rutger Bregman’s book ‘Humankind: A Hopeful History,’ which challenges the assumption of humans as inherently selfish and competitive,” Future Crunch says. “Bregman argues that this is wrong, that in truth we are hard-wired to take care of each other and solve problems, and this innate kindness and collaboration in the face of obstacles is what has led to our flourishing as a species. It’s a radically different perspective from what we see in the news, which exposes the worst of us – corruption, destruction, and intolerance – on loop, 24/7.”

Future Crunch now has identified 100 “people who have worked tirelessly under the radar for years, sometimes decades, showcasing the best of what it means to be human, without a film crew, hashtag or sponsorship deal.”

And it wants you and me to know about them.

For example, during the pandemic, “From the janitor in Florida who cooked a thousand meals a week for the homeless in her tiny kitchen, to the Nepalese sherpa who bought groceries for the unemployed, to the grandparents in India who created a pavement school for kids who couldn’t access online classes, we discovered that as much as the virus turned our lives upside down, it also brought out the best in us.”

Here are all 100 kindhearts.