Free cancer treatment for all — and 5 other ideas to transform global health |
In a year marked by devastating cuts to aid and horrible humanitarian crises, global health and development progress is at risk of backsliding. But then, there are those who refuse to cave in.
This story is part of the 2025 Future Perfect 25
Every year, the Future Perfect team curates the undersung activists, organizers, and thinkers who are making the world a better place. This year’s honorees are all keeping progress on global health and development alive. Read more about the project here, and check out the other categories:
Innovators Movers and Shakers On the GroundHave ideas for who should be on next year’s list? Email us at futureperfect@vox.com.
Tackling global health from new perspectives, these leaders have channeled their expertise to create lasting impact. Their work spans high-stakes arenas, from pioneering massive new commitments to women’s health to preventing biodefense failures. Others have steered national health system transformations — including making cancer treatment free for all. Then, there are those who are rebuilding war-torn nations, when attention has been diverted elsewhere.
They are united by a deep-seated, strategic commitment to addressing child mortality and poverty and by their determination to make progress in the face of a perpetually challenging world. — Izzie Ramirez, deputy editor
Ms. Rachel
If you’re a parent, teacher, or cool aunt, you’ve probably heard of Ms. Rachel. She’s every toddler’s favorite YouTuber.
Informed by her (two!) master’s degrees in music and early childhood education, Rachel Accurso started making singalong videos for her son back in 2019. He had a speech delay, and Accurso knew there was a gap in useful but fun content for kids like her son. Her finger was on the pulse. Her channel, originally named Songs for Littles, transformed into a global phenomenon. Some 13 billion views later, the Ms. Rachel cinematic universe now encompasses books, a fast-selling toy line, and a top-rated Netflix series.
It could have been easy for Accurso to focus only on making positive videos — the ones that toddlers can’t stop dancing along to. She didn’t. On her other social media platforms, Accurso has a direct line to caregivers and adults — and she uses it to advocate for the most disadvantaged.
Accurso has consistently used her immense platform to champion causes often avoided by public figures, speaking openly about her personal struggle with postpartum depression and brushing off conservative backlash for posting a Pride Month message last year.
Perhaps none is more moving than her unwavering commitment lately to kids in Gaza, where the malnutrition crisis — caused by Israel’s brutal military campaign and continued reluctance to allow consistent aid into the enclave — has now reached “catastrophic” levels, according to UNICEF. There, more than 320,000 children are at risk of acute malnutrition.
“Please look at her eyes for one minute,” she said in one video earlier this year, pointing to a picture of an incredibly malnourished baby, Siwar Ashour, whose haunting stare became emblematic of the crisis in Gaza. She also featured Rahaf, a three-year-old double amputee, and sang with her on one of her videos. Critics accused her of not “caring for all kids” after she raised more than $50,000 for Save the Children’s Emergency Fund........