Location: Latvia (Riga)

Martens was born just outside Riga, Latvia, several years after the collapse of the Soviet Union. As a child, his parents worried about the effect of the old Soviet era factories on the health of their son, but since then Latvia has joined the European Union, who are helping to clean up the factories.

There is a lot of youth unemployment in Latvia, but this isn’t stopping Martens from dreaming big and wanting to open his own restaurant: “I have had obstacles in my life; I have always overcome them. I won’t let things stand in my way.”