大象传媒

Aqeela Asifi is the Afghan teacher who set up a school in Pakistan's Kot Chandana refugee camp

Khoo Swee Chiow quit his office job to become Singapore's first professional adventurer. He has travelled to the North and South Poles, climbed the world's highest mountains, swum the Straits of Malacca, kayaked around the Philippines - you name it, he has probably done it. It was reaching the summit of Everest in 1998 that started him on this course, and changed his whole outlook on life.

In 1997, Amanda Boldeke's brother Jorge went missing from his home in Brazil - and she went to extraordinary lengths to find him. A website that she set up became a focal point for other people looking for relatives - and helped reunite many families.

When Aleksandar Hemon was a young journalist of 28, he set out from his home town, the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, for a three-month visit to the United States. On the very day he was due to return home, Sarajevo came under siege which lasted nearly four years. Aleksandar was trapped in Chicago, was granted political asylum and now he is an acclaimed writer, and author of the hugely successful novel, The Lazarus Project.

(Picture: Aqeela Asifi. Credit: Sebastian Richi)