EDDIE NDOPU
Eddie Ndopu is an award-winning, internationally acclaimed activist and humanitarian. A South African disability rights advocate, he’s also the global advocate of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy at age two and given only five years to live, Ndopu has become a beacon of hope for people with disabilities around the world. He chronicles his life in his memoir, Sipping Dom Pérignon Through a Straw: Reimagining Success as a Disabled Achiever (written, he says, “with my one good finger”). Last August, Ndope was featured on TIME magazine’s “Person of the Week” podcast. Ndopu’s message is that anyone, despite their disability, can achieve great things. If things continue going his way, he wants to be the first disabled person to travel to space. —K.M.