Gua was born in a family of peasants in the impoverished region of Hua County, Henan Province in China. Seeing the poverty, underdevelopment in her village and the violation to her own grandmothers was the stimulus for her lifelong dedication to improving the rights of women . Aged 18 she attended law school at Peking University, graduating in 1983. She worked at the Ministry of Justice, All China Federation for Women, The All China Association of Lawyers.* In 1995 she attended the Fourth International Forum for Women Lawyers and the United Nations International World Conference on Women in Beijing. Her intension was to observe and interview members, she left an activist. She, with others, founded the Beijing University Law School Women’s Legal Research and Services Centre, also in 1995. It was the first non-profit- making non-government organization specializing in women’s legal aid in China. It grew to become an influential force in safeguarding the rights and interests of women. 2010 Beijing University disassociated itself from the centre. 2016 Chinese government ordered it to be shut down. Despite this Guo continues her work as first public interest lawyer fighting full-time on the front lines to protect women’s rights. In 2019 Gua was awarded Right Livelihood Award for her pioneering and persistent work in securing women’s rights in China. Sources used Wikipedia RISE:Extraordinary Women of Colour Who Changed the World by Maliha Abidi

Victor Schoelcher was Frenchman who travelled to Mexico, Florida, Louisiana and Cuba on a business trip. During his travels he realised how appalling the slaves were treated and became a leading figure in the abolitionist movement. He is seen as the father of the abolition of Slavery in the French colonies. He was appointed in 1848 as under-secretary of the navy and the colonies. As part of the provisional government of the brand new Second Republic in France he wrote the decree abolishing slavery in all French colonies signed on27th April 1848. In the decree he stated that Slavery is a violation of Human dignity. The government rejected his proposal to compensate the former slaves with grants for plots of land. Sources used People of Peace by Sandrine Mirza Wikipedia

Catherine Wilkinson (1786-1860) was an Irish migrant who became known as the *Saint of the Slaves *. In 1832 during a cholera epidemic she had the only boiler in her neighbourhood so she invited those with infected clothes or linen to use her boiler at the cost of a 1 penny a week. She saved many lives as a result. This became the first public washhouse in Liverpool. She showed them how to use a chloride of lime to get them clean. Boiling killed the cholers bacteria. Kitty pushed for the establishment of public baths where the poor could bathe, 10 years later, with the support of the District Provident Society and William Rathbone, plus public funds, the first combined washhouse and public baths in the U.K. was opened on Upper Fredrick Street in Liverpool . In 1846 she was appointed superintendent of the public baths . She died in 1846 aged 73 having already been recognised for her Indefatigable and self denying during her lifetime by the mayor of Liverpool that year. KItty was born Catherine Seaward in County Londonderry, Ireland. Aged 9 she was coming with her family to Mersey. The ship ran aground and her father and her younger sister drowned. Aged 12 she went to work at a cotton mill in Caton, Lancashire as an indentured apprentice. Aged 20 she left the mill and returned to live with her mother in Liverpool. They both worked in domestic service. While living with her mother she married Emanuel Demontee and had two children. Demontee drowned and they returned to domestic services. She was gifted with a mangle and set herself up as a laundress. In 1823 married Tom Wilkinson, a warehouse porter. They continued to rent a house in Denison Street. In 2012 marble statue unveiled in St. George’s Hall. May 2017 students voted one of the rooms in Liverpool Guild building to be changed to Kitty Wikinson room 2018 a lnon-profit washhouse In Everton was name Kitty’s Laundrette Two biographies are available 1910 and 2000 The Life of KItty Wilkinson