kanthari Blog

From Comfort to Chaos: Navigating Resilience and Inclusiveness Through an Unexpected Diagnosis Anubha Singhal grew up in Delhi, India. She loves to travel. She always lived a comfortable life, until […]

Guest- blog: Sohan Tari from Mumbai, a student of the Travellers University is volunteering at kanthari for 10 days and herewith we share a blog post he wrote. Enjoy. Urban […]

Born HIV positive, Mutongi T. Kawara lost her parents to HIV/AIDS-related illness at an early age. From then onwards, she had to move into different relatives’ homes. There she was […]

As a survivor of sexual childhood abuse , Sara Tandel knows that child safety has to starts at home. Sara was taught to unquestionably obey elders, even if it meant […]

Myat Tun grew up in a small village in Western Myanmar. No internet, no electricity, just the simplicity of rural life. In 2013, a child once without any dream became […]

Mary Mutua from Kenya has survived the slums, where drugs, crime, and prostitution were a daily companion. She tried to escape all challenges and was hired as a housemaid, where […]

Malak Alamar grew up in refugee schools in Jordan and witnessed how refugees have suffered from hate speech and poor living -conditions. Coming from a family with Palestinian roots, she […]

Kuyili’s Call Keerthi Selvaraj from Tamil Nadu, India grew up in a conservative religious family which restricted her opportunities to explore. Despite her limitations, she began photographing birds because their […]

Trauma to purpose – Paving the Way for Inclusive Early Childhood Education A fatal bus accident had caused his eyes to be temporarily blind for two months. This gave him […]

Leprosy is not our of the world… After his retirement as a medical doctor, Johny Sulistio from Indonesia decided to work with cows to regain some purpose in life, during […]

Itohan Iyawe is from south-west Nigeria. Her childhood experience with water scarcity negatively impacted her education and health. However, while working with an NGO she got an opportunity to learn […]

Restoration from isolation – Born with albinism, Ifeoluwa faced rejection and isolation. Her mother’s unwavering love protected her from societal prejudices. However, after her passing, living with relatives worsened the […]

kanthari auction: a bid for change supporting kanthari’s Vision In Trivandrum, South India, a unique initiative known as kanthari is shaping the future of social change. A few months ago, […]

Empowering Single Mothers – the Story of a single mother. Bosede Nwachi faced rejection and negligence from her father all through her childhood. Right after giving birth to twins, her […]

Dear Friends, Greetings from kanthari. How are you? We hope this message finds you well. The picture above shows some of the participants of the kanthari course 2023 in a […]

Empowering Rural Lives- The remote location of the Oda village poses challenges in accessing healthcare and quality education in Kalikot, Nepal. The death of Karan Singh’s father due to lack […]

Embracing albinism-A painful discovery: Sherleen’s 25-year journey of Denial to Embracing Embracing albinism-It took Sherleen Tunai 25 years to accept that she has albinism. Sherleen grew up in Kakamega, Kenya. […]

The Spirit of Peace There has been ongoing armed conflict in Cameroon since 2016. Politicians and warlords are inciting and instrumentalizing youth into acts of violence. Therefore, Emmanuel Lumumba is […]

food literacy: Nelson Kamoyo’s journey from hunger to empowerment Growing up in rural Malawi, going to school hungry and having one meal per day was the norm. As the last-born […]

Empowerment-Life as an Experiment I arrived for the first time at the taxi stop to pick up passengers in my car. Passengers would stop at my Toyota Corolla, which was […]

Growing More Than Crops Introduction A vibrant community, thriving in the hills of Sindupalchoak, Aarukharka, Nepal, where greenery meets mountains and a nearby river serenades the landscape. Families work together […]

Determination and Disability When I was just two years old, a doctor gave me an expired polio vaccine. After three months, I was diagnosed with polio, a disease that affects […]

Blind youths Myanmar  A Life-Altering Accident: From Football Dreams to Blindness I remember the incident as if it was yesterday. When I turned 17 years old, I had enough. Enough […]

Breaking Barriers – The Uplifting Journey of Kavya Poornima Balajepalli Meet Kavya Poornima Balajepalli, a 27-year-old young woman with a bright smile, filled with a passion for art and a […]

A Journey of Resilience and Hope “It was a beautiful morning when I was sitting in my small office when my friend, Dominic, a social worker in a certain church […]

Rekindling Hope “If we don’t end the war, the war will end us” – H.G. Wells The Plight of Bobo in Conflict-Stricken Bamenda Bobo, a 22-year-old young man is one […]

by Itohan Iyawe How water shortage drowns education opportunities in Nigeria During the course of one of my fieldwork for the identification of problems/challenges in rural communities, I visited the […]

by Johny Soelistyo, “One day, during Ramadan, I was on my way to meet Fat, a lady in her 50s, when a call for mid-day prayer sounded over the village. […]

Martin Buber Plaque 2022 for Sabriye Tenberken and Paul Kronenberg The name “kanthari” was carefully chosen by Sabriye and Paul. They say: “kanthari is a chili that grows wild in […]

We stayed in the guest rooms of the school and enjoyed Samuel Odwar and his team’s gracious hospitality throughout the time we were in Gulu. Of all the wonderful children […]

By Riya Orison und Chacko Jacob We are in Gulu, Northern Uganda. The anticipation on a Friday night among the disabled and non-disabled students of Thumbs Up Academy for the […]

The Kenyan portion of the trip was very tightly scheduled. We were to visit Eltrud for a couple of hours in the morning and then together move to Steven Onyang’s […]

“There is no such thing as ‘away’. When we throw anything away, it must go somewhere” – Annie Leonard Waste Not, Want Not ‘Taka’ means waste and ‘kazi’ means jobs or […]

(Read Part 1 here )  PART 2: … When Nancy was only 16, she married a school headmaster. She laughed when she told me about her choice. “I believed he […]

by Sabriye Tenberken “When the quest for knowledge tramples poverty, then Zimbabwe can change for the better.” Says Nancy Mbaura, and she not only says it, but she also acts […]

Last month on February 23rd bon completed her first official year. In my last post, I told you how this one year was not easy at all for me. One […]

The struggle within by Biman Roy “If you want something, reach out and grab it”. This has been my attitude toward life. Irrespective of whether I got what I wanted, […]

The wild world – After visiting organisations that were founded by kanthari graduates in 2015, we are back on another tour. This time, however, not only Paul and I. We […]

– by Charlotte Cotton I grew up believing that men were dangerous. From my early childhood, I knew I had to be careful around males. I learned this the hard […]

– by Oluwakemi Odusanya “Camera rolling! Three, two, One! Action!” The Studio Signal blinks, and a special button vibrates to indicate that all microphones are ready. “Good day, listeners of […]

By Nduku Louis Tebi It was Monday, the 16th of July 2018, I got up early to prepare for my examination and by 6:30 am, I was walking to the […]

– By Claude Angwere Imagine a miniature Biennale, an inner-city outdoor exhibition, covering dark corners, tree trunks, and junctions with paintings and sculptures. Imagine a city that wakes up to […]

An Unbreakable Bond – By Bibek Magar Nervous and excited, I met Chandra in a busy public park after much texting back and forth. He was the first gay man […]

– By Eltrud Okeyo If I had a choice, I would have reversed the situation that led to the death of my grandmother. Unfortunately, I only had the will but […]

By Anbalagan Hari What comes to your mind if you think of a rag-picker? Let me have a guess: A man, dirty, poorly clothed, roaming around to search for waste […]

Wings to Life – by Deepu Kiran Why should parents send their children to an inclusive day-care center? If children already learn in their early childhood how important it is […]

Back to Papuan’s paradise – By Johan Andres Serhalawan Fresh air and blue skies, chirping birds, shady trees, and dense forests was the view in my grandma’s village, which is […]

– by Nancy Mbaura After hard work of gold panning, fish poaching, and tilling farmland, men from all walks of life in my district Norton, usually go to the Ngoni […]

by Nduku and Oluwakemi Saturday 15th October 2022 was a remarkable day for us, the 2022 participants of the kanthari leadership training for ethical social change makers in India.  We […]

by Robert Malunda My name is Robert Malunda. After having 2 girls, my parents were very happy to get a baby boy. I was born as a sighted child in […]

by Kerlinda War “Monkey! Monkey!” Little children and some adults would scream as I walked by, bursting into laughter. This got on my nerves. it wasn’t a compliment; it only […]

Crops as a mean for Peace: PEACE CROPS “YEAH!! YEAH!!  YEAH!! Allez les Blue!!  Allez les Blue!! Allez les Blue!!” (Which in French means “Go Blue, go!”). This was what […]

by Gumbo Majubwa – Tanzania When I was 24 years old, the forest of my happy childhood in Bagamoyo, on the east coast of Tanzania started to be degraded. Every […]

A Priceless Trip 20 changemakers and kanthari staff, from 10 different countries, traveling 4000 km, visiting 20 different organizations. It was a wild ride. We traveled by train, bus, tuk-tuk, […]

by Josephine Esperanza Malan, I had sympathy and pity for the blind. Not anymore. I grew up in a middle-class family in Iloilo city. Being the only girl among five […]

I was a curious child and asked a lot of questions. Being blind, many times people would demonstrate the answers to me than just simply answering my questions. E.G., when […]

Back to the Papuan roots by Johan Andre Serhalawan “Fresh air and blue skies, accompanied by chirping birds, shady trees, and dense forests” was the view in my grandma’s village, […]

By Israel Balogun I awoke abruptly to the sharp sting of a cane on my back. “Stand up! Give me all you have! Now!” But I had nothing. I almost […]

waste as a resource to get dignity What comes to mind if you think of a rag picker? A man, dirty, poorly clothed, roaming around to search for waste material […]

by Claude Angwere Azah On the 28th of March 2015, I was in Bamenda Town in the Northwest region of Cameroon at the Mankon-Ringway Rehabilitation Centre. The reason I was […]

By Gautham NC When was the last time you saw a firefly? Where do they go? Where do they come from? Ever thought about it? It’s only during the dark, […]

Cameroon has seen quite some challenging times and due to internal conflicts, more than 700,000 people have been internally displaced. Besides the conflict, many other challenges on a personal level […]

Advocacy for better access to mental health for the LGBTQIA+ community in Nepal. Bibek is an intersectional Queer youth activist and proud gay man, who grew up in a supportive […]

Oluwakemi’s life changed drastically after she turned blind at the age of 13. The world as she knew it changed and suddenly was not as easily approachable as she had […]

Nduku has first-hand witnessed the consequences of the Anglo/ Francophone conflicts in Cameroon. One day coming back from school he was kidnapped by rebels, chained, and tortured. The culture of […]

Eltrud Okeyo hails from Kisumu County in Western Kenya which borders Victoria Lake. Kisumu County has the third-highest rate of HIV/AIDS in all of Kenya. According to the International Center […]

A few weeks ago, we started a blog series about the beneficiaries of kanthari participants. Today we will read an interesting story from Nancy Mbaura from Zimbabwe. We will soon […]

My name is Charlotte Cotton, originally from France, I lived and worked for a long time in Hong Kong and in 2019, I ended up on a special train named […]

Now that the 2022 edition of the kanthari course has started, the blog posts will be mainly about those who benefit(ed) from their initiatives. We learn more about their (future) […]

from Sabriye Tenberken and Deepu Kiran Our thirteenth course, which we call “The green room”, has been running for a few weeks now. In television studios and theatres, the “green […]

by chacko Jacob “If you think we can’t change the world, it just means you’re not one of those who will.” – Jacque Fresco It is easy to dismiss someone […]

by sabriye tenberken Today I would like to introduce an ambassador for a somewhat disreputable species: an advocate for insects, specifically, flies. Flies are actually in dire need of an […]

Part One By Chacko Jacob My first encounter with a stammerer happened when I was 14. I accompanied my parents and siblings to a religious gathering of families. Spaced out […]

by Sabriye Tenberken The English term “survivor” is used too often and too lightly. These days, everyone who has surmounted a minuscule difficulty like overcoming a cold or passing an […]

By Chacko Jacob As we pulled into Akhina’s house, we were met with a yard full of exotic plants and creepers that covered every inch of available space. Her mother’s […]

by Sabriye Tenberken A few years ago, I overheard a conversation between my brother and my mother. My mother had bought pens, brushes, and colours, stretched a canvas and was […]

“I hope so…” By Chacko Jacob, It was a quiet Sunday morning at the kanthari campus on September 5th,2021 when Joseph Christophe Kone awoke to news of trouble back home […]

“Accessibility for the disabled can only be considered in times of peace. To survive during disasters, we have to be prepared beforehand to live under all thinkable circumstances.”  – Nematullah […]

by Sabriye Tenberken Many kanthari graduates who have managed to overcome the first hurdles, feel just like we did back in our early years in Tibet. Even when we have […]

by Sabriye Tenberken “Everything is difficult, and every day there are new challenges. But luckily there are two of us. When one gives up, the other has still enough energy […]

by Abhilash John – founder of Khoj India has the highest number of youths in the world. But Indian culture is known to be conservative. That means that it is, […]

Puneet Singhal talks about growing up with a stammer in a poor part of New Delhi, and how it and his mentor inspired him to start an initiative aimed at […]

Scaring a Dead Man By Nematullah Ahangosh The women were pacing in peace, Big smiles on their faces, Their distant laughter faded, Heading to unknown paths. I asked, Oh sisters, […]

Everyone, everywhere and every day is affected by their direct surrounding. Over the years it has become visible that something has been and is happening with our climate. Climate change […]

Abhijit Sinha is the creator of Project DEFY, which enables underserved communities to create an education for themselves, through self-learning spaces called Nooks. He believes that education should be brought […]

Biman Roy grew up in rural India, West Bengal, in the 90s. Having studied all over India and abroad in Sweden, Biman is well aware of what we lose when […]

Nothing makes Akhina Mohan more furious than the mistreatment of our environment. But she never had the courage to stand up and speak. She was pushed out of her silence […]

Taboos That Haunt Us for Life Juliet Omondi is from Homa Bay in Kenya. She addresses a taboo that is widespread in Eastern Africa as well as in many other […]

Adegbite Tobi Gabriel is from Nigeria. Tobi has studied biology and has practical experience as a farmer. Farmers in Nigeria face many challenges, and because of inadequate practices, many are […]

Amos is from Nyanga, Zimbabwe, a country that is known for homophobia driven by the political leadership itself. Being gay and being a Zimbabwean, Amos has experienced how challenging it […]

A Special Style of Co-Co-Communication Puneet Singh Singhal is from New Delhi, India. Witnessing violence in his personal surroundings shook him and took him to an island of isolation and […]

WINDS OF CHANGE It was mid May 2021 when immigration officials of Thiruvananthapuram Airport couldn’t stop to be surprised. India back then, was worldwide branded the hottest Covid-19 red zone. […]

Geeta Dangol Maharjan is from Nepal. She grew up in a Nevari family in Kirtipur, a town next to Kathmandu that is famous for its traditional beauty. Suddenly, there were […]

Aisha Abdullahi Bubah addresses an important topic: the state of mental health in today’s society. Her home country, Nigeria, with a population of over 212 million people, offers only 250 […]

Precious Kiwiti is from Zimbabwe. She was known as a strong woman, running restaurants and catering services successfully, and starting a kindergarten for single mothers. But hardly anyone knew about […]

Imagine. During an armed conflict, you are tied to a tree, which makes it impossible for you to escape violence. You see death hanging on the shoulders of angry men […]

Shivani Shivani Kumari is from Jharkhand in the east of India. Her partial loss of sight made it difficult for her to keep up with mainstream expectations. But she found […]

Abhilash John is originally from Kerala in the South of India, but he grew up in Ahmedabad, in Gujarat. Locked in a cage of constrains and expectations, Abhilash was not […]

Frank Ekow Arkorful comes from Ghana. Growing up in the slums, Frank’s teenage dream was to become a gang leader. But observing the hard work of his mother to save […]

Joseph Christophe Kone is originally from Liberia, West Africa. At age seven, Joseph witnessed rebels capture the city of Gbarnga in Liberia. His mother fled together with him and his […]

Niwas Kumar is from Bihar in the north of India, and he is focused on a rather sensitive topic that is right in the heart of Indian culture, which is […]

By Mirranda Tiri, Zimbabwe During a camping trip in Namibia, my parents found paradise in a place that Livingstone once described as ‘the garden of Eden.’ It was a beauty, […]

Odunayo is a 2018 kanthari alumni who founded and runs Bramble learning space, an open learning community which provides quality and lifelong education in a fun and engaging way. It […]

By Akhina and Biman, 2021 kanthari participants Every year, at kanthari there is an exciting journey to look forward to; the Exposure trip. As the name suggests, it is a […]

by Karthikeyan. Ojok Simon and I come from two continents, and we first met at kanthari nearly a decade ago. Since then, we have been working on the realisation of […]

ADAPTING AN INCLUSIVE LENS TO UGANDA’S SEXUAL OFFENCE BILL By Harriet Kamashanyu “Uganda’s Sexual Offenses Bill, 2019 both criminalizes consensual sex acts and would allow some non-consensual acts to go […]

Rwanda Nook Hub showcases various youth talents from self-learning by Norman Manzi A couple of years ago, Ananias Tuyisenge was doubting about his future and with mixed self-questions as a physically-disabled […]

Farming Blind, Honey!  by Ojok Simon – HIVE Uganda – founder and ceo Just close your eyes for a minute and think about how you would farm and keep bees […]

Rume Rimwe Harikombi Churu – Impact trough Collaboration By Trevor Molife – Purple Africa – Zimbabwe “Rume rimwe harikombi churu” This is a famous proverb in my home language of […]

Kirtipur, the City of Glory by Geeta Dangol Maharjan – Nepal “Boom!” What was that? It was a Saturday, early in the morning, when we heard this loud sound. My […]

From an observer to becoming an actor by Puneet Singhal, 2021 kanthari participant My journey from a mainstream jobholder to becoming a social change maker, from an observer to an […]

The podcast to restore your faith in humanity. By Yampier Aguiar Durañona You might think that writing about your own podcast is an easy homework. Well, no it isn’t. At […]

My rainbow experience by Amos – kanthari 2021 participant I used to be afraid of embracing the true nature of myself not realizing that I hold magic in my feet. […]

No school, no Meal. The National Food Security Act (2013) says, “The basic concept of food security globally is to ensure that all people, at all times, should get access […]

The plight of migrant workers By Meghana Raveendra Learning about the situation of tribals during the covid pandemic, I asked myself the following questions: Had I ever had to depend […]

Covid Tsunami hits India. By Meghana Raveendra Due to the current crisis in India, the focus of our blog will now again be mainly on kantharis who are suffering and […]

Title: Covid19 and Generation Z – One year after lockdown One year ago, after a 3-month lock-down, we spoke to Abhijit Sinha, a 2015 kanthari graduate and the Founder of […]

A Journey back home Today we publish an essay from a participant of kanthari 2021 course. Nematullah Ahangosh is from Afghanistan.  (This essay was written by him as a part […]

Is healthcare equally accessible for all? by Meghana Raveendra. Every year, the 7th of April is celebrated as World Health Day to create awareness and bring to the front important […]

Another kind of mentor by Meghana Raveendran, a kanthari graduate of 2019 “If you cannot see where you are going, ask someone who has been there before.” – J Loren […]

Networking for Social Change & Personal Development. By Peter Adeeko, founder of Soulace Africa The world we live in is entangled in a huge web. To think of untangling it […]

Sustainable design – the kanthari campus   By Pragya Raut, architect, Nepal. A severe earthquake of 7.8 magnitude hit Nepal on 25th of April 2015. It was the greatest of […]

knock knock knock   – By Meghana Raveendra “Networking is not about just connecting people. It’s about connecting people with people, people with ideas, and people with opportunities.”  – Michele […]

Water, water everywhere… Recently, something remarkable happened in our lake Vellayani. Here is the tale from two perspectives. The shishyan perspective  (Shishyan means disciple in malayalam, ശിഷ്യൻ) By Salini John, […]

Learn to say “no” in order to say “yes” at the right time.   by Chacko Jacob People often wonder why Trivandrum was chosen as the location for kanthari. Why […]

Micro-credits – a blessing… or a curse? Part 5 “Whenever I see a Problem, I start a business to solve it.” – Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank, and […]

Microcredit, a blessing… or a curse? – A multi-series essay about microfinance, Part 4 – by Sabriye Tenberken Last week I had thought that today’s chapter to be the final […]

Microcredits, Blessing or curse – A multi-part series about the pros and cons on micro finance, Part 3 by Sabriye Tenberken After having examined the opportunities and challenges of micro […]

Microcredit, a magic wand to fight poverty or profitable business at the cost of the poor? – Multi series on microfinance, part 2 by Sabriye Tenberken “The poor themselves can […]

Microcredit, a magic wand to fight poverty or profitable business at the cost of the poor? – A multi-series blog with proponents and critics of micro finance by sabriye tenberken […]

Investigative Journalism – The marginalized 4th pillar. By Chacko Jacob It is hard to comment on journalism as a whole, as it is too wide a profession. There are types […]

Why should you scale up? by Chacko Jacob Growth is inherent in everything around us. The universe is constantly expanding. Most lifecycles of organisms involve mitosis which leads to an […]

Imagine jails without inmates Paul and I vividly remember a very special event many years ago, a reading of my third book “The Seventh Year”. The book is a description […]

Stairways to change 2020 was special in many aspects. At the beginning of the COVID crisis, we were wondering what this year has in store for kanthari. Questions and concerns […]

OMLA, the future of Africa? The following blog post was sent to us by Lawrence Afere, from Nigeria. Lawrence, an energetic organic farmer, environmentalist, and catalyst, graduated from kanthari in […]

The inner child by Chacko Jacob Keep your inner child alive. Let creativity, curiosity, wonder, and openness always be part of your life. Well, we south Asians might have slightly […]

Taboos in Thailand (Part 2) Can it be said that cultures that are greatly influenced by taboos and superstition are not ready for democratic processes? In the last blog post, […]

Taboos in Modern Thailand (Part 1) by sabriye tenberken Life and work in an intercultural context, as we experience it here at the kanthari Institute, is very inspiring. But if […]

A Quest for Kids’ Literature in Tamil By Akila Surendran, As a kid, I grew up reading English books like the Ladybird series, Disney’s fairytales, Aesop’s fables and Enid Blyton’s. […]

The State of Affairs – Why Civil Courage is Important by Karl Amadé Giraffe Heroes Foundation Europe and kanthari The world has come to a point where it has clearly […]

An everyday struggle with patriarchy Every now and then, we like to post articles from the blogosphere that catch our attention. Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the […]

Nigeria erupts Imagine the following scene. A group of well-dressed educated teenagers, armed with nothing but their smart phones, stroll along a highway somewhere in urban Nigeria. Suddenly a car […]

Unity in the absence of calamity By Chacko Jacob The blogpost on 24.04.2020 talked about the incredible way in which all the pillars of society came together to deal with […]

A silent crisis, civil war is COVID resistant by Sabriye Tenberken Corona has had the world in its grip for more than nine months and looking back, we are wondering, […]

The diaper dilemma… part 2 – Come, dream with me… by Chacko Jacob – catalyst at kanthari A month Ago, Sabriye wrote about the diaper dilemma: the unlikely connection between […]

The outsider advantage by Sabriye Tenberken I was born in a family of outsiders. When I was two years old, my parents moved into a village that was located approximately […]

Children of the Indian Railway By Sabriye Tenberken Every now and then Sanoj visits the kanthari campus to get to know the new kantharis. Two years ago, he took my […]

Unconstructed Freedom by Chacko Jacob – kanthari catalyst I joined kanthari as a catalyst two weeks after the 11th generation of kantharis started the course. Having gotten to know this […]

Fight back by Chacko Jacob – kanthari catalyst A woman scrambles to get on a bus before it leaves; she barely makes it. Stumbling around to grab onto something while […]

The diaper dilemma What connects disposable nappies to water hyacinths? It’s neither a Bollywood classic nor love at first sight; we are talking about an arranged marriage between disposable diapers […]

And then there were tools…   By Chacko Jacob – kanthari catalyst Around a million years ago, the Homo erectus discovered fire, changing the course of history. They gained control […]

The handshake – an endangered ritual We all remember the time when a handshake was a common first gesture to get to know each other, even among peers. Today, in […]

Fit for post Corona   My call got her out of a rehearsal for a reality dance show, a telecast competition which will be on TV soon. In this show, […]

The Vellayani Lake Challenge By Ajith Kumar, Manager Administration at kanthari Once upon a time, we had a lake that had sparkling fresh water. The Vellayani area and its lake […]

Challenges offer chances, Alternative learning in rural Nigeria     By Odunayo Aliu, a 2018 kanthari graduate and founder of Bramble. Somewhere in a village, in the middle of a […]

Examinations – A consistent reason for student suicides since 2000.   – by Meghana Raveendra, founder of moringa As per the National Crime Records Bureau, ‘Exam failure accounts for 2% […]

Yes, Sierra Leone! (part 2) “When we got there, we were relieved, we thought we had done a good job. What we didn’t know is that things would get much […]

Yes, Sierra Leone! (part 1) In the far east of Sierra Leone, in the three-country corner of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, you can find the Manor river. This border […]

‘Switch off Video’: On Caste, Cameras and an Unexpected Perk of Online Education     From a LiveWire post, dated 24th June 2020. Original article: http://livewire.thewire.in/personal/switch-off-video-on-caste-cameras-and-an-unexpected-perk-of-online-education/ In the past we […]

Agro-forestry   A glimpse of a selected 2020 kanthari applicant into his future vision, before the dream is going to be transformed into reality. (By Biman Roy) “I have been […]

In the shadow of war and Corona Perhaps some of you who have read our earlier blogposts remember the articles from March 31st and April 1st, 2020. It was about […]

Pride in Isolation by Chack Jacob, kanthari catalyst “Would it bother you if your roommate is from a completely different culture or belief system?” “Absolutely not, I love working with […]

Time to be Frugal (By Olubodun Akinyele, 2019 kanthari) As I boarded the plane from Trivandrum airport last December, I was filled with mixed feelings. I was not only leaving […]

What can we learn from a Colibri*?   The hummingbird is known to be the smallest and, in terms of its body size, the fastest bird in the world. The […]

Documentary “KANTHARI – change from within” now online     The documentary “KANTHARI – Change from Within” about Nobel peace prize nominee Sabriye Tenberken and Co-founder of kanthari institute Paul […]

Durian, for a more just world (by Tony Joy, 2017 kanthari graduate) During times of crisis it is sad that people use it as an opportunity to exploit others. I […]

Looking back… and forward…   By Chacko Jacob (catalyst at kanthari) In India we have moved on to nationwide Lockdown 4.0 till the 31st of May. Under new slightly more […]

Just don’t relax too soon!       All over the world, it looks as if people are slowly getting used to the new ‘normal’. News of new infections and […]

Vahani, scholarships for equality   by Jaishree Misra When Savej Hassan was finishing high school, he confesses being frightened to look too far ahead. He breaks into Hindi to express […]

Let’s convert the hamster wheel into a carousel     By Viviane Ruof. Viviane hails from Switzerland, graduated last year, and on her India trip, just before the Indian lockdown, […]

It is okay to say that you are not okay!     By Anand Mathew – former kanthari volunteer I hail from a small town called Kottayam in the state […]

A view from afar     By Priya Mohan, former kanthari Intake-Coordinator, nowadays she works with Deutsche Welle in Bonn.   For a Keralite living in Germany for the last […]

Three days at kanthari by Ananya Ayasi, a Make A Difference volunteer Make A Difference is an NGO that works around India in 23 cities, to foster children from shelter […]

Another virus that people have to live with   kanthari TALKS, December 2015: After a brief introduction of the next speaker, the audience is prepared for what is coming. Suddenly […]

Covid-19 and the generation Z   Who would have thought this? Just when we started to look forward to the worldwide relaxation of lockdowns, the next damper is already on […]

A new silence…   By Teresa Millich, (former intern) There it is again, the harrowing reminder that we have not yet mastered our humanity. The pursuit of control, the illusion […]

Food for thought   “WE FELL ASLEEP” by Haroon Rashid “We fell asleep in one world, and woke up in another. Suddenly Disney is out of magic, Paris is no […]

Sports: Entertainment? Social Glue? or Lifesaver? By Riya Orison The pandemic has made people question the importance of many activities. One such question is, how essential is watching sports live […]

Corona and the bees   Does it feel like an overdose of Corona news? Well, here is something different: KILLER bees! They are spreading all over the American continent. 50 […]

Corona makes it possible: the anxious relax and the strong are losing it! By Meghana Raveendra, 2019 kanthari graduate and founder of Moringa, an organization that cares for anxiety disorder […]

What if….   We sometimes wonder how many people are actually driving themselves crazy because nothing went according to plan this spring. All events, examinations, building projects, trips and upcoming […]

Winds of Change By Chacko Jacob In the last couple of days, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the “papal almoner”, has made headlines by wiring money to a small community of transgender […]

We still have to stay inside “It’s completely absurd. Now, while everyone slowly gets their old lives back and people are allowed to go out again, there is a rule […]

Corona frees the modern slaves from Lebanon….  making them homeless… From modern slavery to homelessness: the tale of foreign domestic workers in Lebanon They had faced tough times for quite […]

Today’s blog post is from a volunteer who was ‘trapped’ in kanthari during the Corona outbreak. However, hor her apparently, it didn’t seem the worst place to be trapped in. […]

A view from Spain, one Covid-19 epicentre in Europe Dear readers, yesterday we received the news that the nationwide lockdown has been extended until at least May 15th. Many kantharis […]

About frogs, beavers and eagles (Part 3) In this “series” of three blog posts, I compare three different film projects. All of them have the goal to initiate positive change […]

About frogs, beavers, and eagles (Part 2) In today’s blog post we further explore the different kanthari types and their specific approaches problem solving. I’ll use three different film projects […]

About frogs, beavers, and eagles (Part 1) Imagine there is a problem, and nobody can really describe it. Why not? Because we are all located in the very middle of […]

School closures, a curse? Or a blessing? By paul kronenberg and Ashu Egbe Marlyse ” The best teachers are those who show you where to look but don’t tell you […]

Interconnection by Chacko Jacob There are an estimated 10 million NGOs worldwide. Some champion the causes of the marginalized; some bandage wounds while others work for lasting peace in war […]

About SARS, toothache, and frogs Do you remember the SARS outbreak about 17 years ago? In those days, Paul and I were in the country of its origin, in the […]

Thumbs up for an open society (Part 2) “The weeks he had spent in captivity, and especially the images of the murdered disabled, did not let him go, they changed […]

Thumbs up for an open society (Part 1) During the recent weeks, we have contacted 150+ of our 226 kanthari graduates who are working in 40+ countries. Although everyone has […]

The crisis from a different angle,   “Dear ladies and gentlemen! The next speaker is Amrita Gyawali from Nepal!” Applause fills the theater… but the stage remains empty. Yet, we […]

Day 26 19-04-2020 “Cleaner air, more vibrant wildlife, quieter surroundings… Isn’t this time such a breath of relief for mother nature?”, I wondered out loud. “Mother nature??”, exclaimed an annoyed […]

Albert Schweitzer School in Kisumu County, Kenya “Who among us has ever heard about this? The school is closed because of the Corona Crisis, but the students just don’t want […]

What does ’empowerment’ mean? A famous proverb says “Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a […]

The virus and the digital trap? While students studying in Central, international boards and a few premier institutions attend online classes, the rest of India’s children are on what is […]

‘Rural is cool’ – or – the transformative washing machine Over the past decade, around the world there has been a rather suspicious attitude towards non-governmental organisations. Speaking with many […]

What to eat? Today is the 21st of the India-wide lockdown and it was supposed to be the last one. We just received a confirmation that the lockdown is now […]

Day 20: Corona Racism; additional stigmatization for people with Albinism There are two possible scenarios of how the world could change once the pandemic is over. Would all the “social […]

Another Death Toll By Chacko Jacob, a kanthari catalyst (At kanthari instead of teachers or professors, we work with catalysts. Catalysts are not teachers in a conventional way, they are […]

“No water, no farmers. No farmers, no food.” John Mwangi, a 2016 kanthari, grew up in Kibera, one of Nairobi’s largest slums. His family, father, mother and 7 more siblings […]

Finding Purpose Eight years ago, at the kanthari campus, we had a lively discussion about the question “what is meaningful work?” Many of our graduates set up their own training […]

What happens if the information flow is disrupted? In a crisis, those who cannot be informed through regular media channels are particularly disadvantaged. It’s about people in our society who […]

Imprisoned Yesterday we saw a video on CNN that was smuggled out of a prison in the US. The prison inmates talked about their fear of sitting in a corona […]

Hunger: a crisis within a crisis   I cannot stop thinking about the issue of hunger in the heavily populated African country of Nigeria. Despite the nationwide curfew, many panicked […]

Turn trash to treasure On the 12th day of the lock-down, I actually wanted to talk to Tosin about domestic violence. But instead I got information on a different and […]

In the safety of the family? I have spoken to some of our kantharis about impacts of lockdowns on family situations. Ruang from Thailand, a 2018 kanthari graduate said: “Family […]

Vision 2020, THE RIGHT TO SIGHT! Twenty-one years ago, when we had just opened our preparatory school for the Blind in Tibet, we were invited by ICEVI to attend a […]

The good ones go into the pot, the bad ones go into your crop? Karthik, a 2012 kanthari graduate, sent me an article this morning titled: “People with Down syndrome […]

Back in India We were quite prepared for a lockdown, but on the ninth day the restrictions are noticeable. Since we have only recently started to plant vegetables, we are […]

War in times of Corona (part 2) Peace Crops is an NGO of a 2019 kanthari graduate from Cameroon. In his 10-minute kanthari Dream speech, he describes a life beyond […]

War in times of Corona (part 1) Whenever we think of kantharis in times of crisis, we mainly remember catastrophies such as Fani, a destructive cyclone in Odissa, the 2018 […]

What about Children in times of Corona?   According to WHO data, the Corona virus doesn’t seem to affect children so much. However, children without family members are facing a […]

And who benefits? If we didn’t know better, we would believe that we are in the middle of a jungle. Crickets, frogs, birds of all kind, no airplanes, no trains, hardly […]

Groups at risk Everywhere, medical doctors are talking about the special care that needs to be given to persons with preconditions, to high risk patients. Many of our kantharis are […]

Lockdown in rural areas The question that is asked everywhere in India: how does a complete lockdown work in remote areas? Where people live in small shelters and have to leave […]

kantharis in times of Corona We started a global campaign, every day during the lockdown period, we introduce a different kanthari with a short (video) message on our Facebook page. […]

Nationwide Lockdown in India Today is the first day of the 21 day lockdown. So far, all decisions that impacted us regarding the Corona outbreak were made by the Kerala […]