Ali Hewson couldn’t possibly have guessed how life would turn out when she met her future husband at Dublin’s Mount Temple Comprehensive School in 1975. Her high school sweetheart, Paul, is now known as Bono, perhaps the biggest rock star (and according to Time in 2009, one of the most influential people) in the world—thanks to his many charitable initiatives. In 2005, the couple launched Edun, a fashion company that promotes trade above aid in Africa and other developing countries by using factories that pay fair wages, creating jobs and encouraging investment in these areas. These days Hewson divides her time between family, campaigning and running the now multinational company. Meet the people who most inspire her:

Cristina, who is Italian, lives in Kenya and has raised her boy there with her husband Gerson [Barnett], who’s from England. The two have immersed themselves and it hasn’t been easy, but they’ve made the commitment and have stuck with it. Now, she has a thriving business and is making a difference to the community that she’s involved with, and they make a great product—that’s what’s really wonderful about it.

Sharon was brought up on a farm in Northern Ireland, and she gets how difficult it is for these people and the elements they are against. She has so many different ideas about how the clothes can look, and is so willing to make it happen—she came to Kenya with us last week for a day! She has a brand new baby and is such a hard worker, and everything she does has a thoughtfulness to it and a respect.

Aweko is a woman I met in Africa in February who is part of the Conservation Cotton Initiative, and she blew me away completely. We met her in a mud hut with her husband and her seven children. She’s a lead farmer, which means she organizes all the meetings for, and oversees, 250 farmers, making sure they get all the information they’re supposed to have and attend all the meetings they’re supposed to attend. She got the highest yield from the crop in January. On top of all of that she was eight months pregnant with her eighth child. You feel so small when you’re around people with that strength and ability.

Louis is a painter and the embodiment of the three things I find most inspirational in people: humanity, humility and humor. He’s 94 now, and is one of the gentlest human beings I’ve ever met. He paints a lot of heads, and he’s able to translate the language of the mind into the language of the eye. He’s a true artist.

Angélique is from Benin, West Africa. She lived there until she was maybe 12 or 14 and then had to leave because of the political situation, and lives in Paris now. She’s a jazz singer who was signed to Island records, and she’s still looking back towards Africa to do work there and trying to fix the issues there. Apart from being an amazing singer and artist, she has held onto a huge amount of humanity.