Quarterly newsletter 2-2016
Time surely flies. July has arrived so it is time for the 2nd quarterly kanthari newsletter. Pls find below the highlights of the past three months as well as updates on kanthari graduates’ projects.
Start of 2016 kanthari course
Every year the month of April is filled with excitement as well as some tension. All participants have been selected and during this month, they will need to arrange their visas and tickets. Despite that all selected applicants received their visas, unfortunately a few family and personal health circumstances hindered some to join the course. During the first few days of May, 21 participants arrived and the 2016 kanthari course started. This year, the participants come from 6 countries; 8 participants from India, 3 from Nepal, 3 from Zimbabwe, 2 from Cameroon, 1 from Kenya and 4 from Nigeria.
All of them brought new dreams for social change. At the moment, act one is running in full speed.
kanthari graduates
In order to learn more about the impact of kanthari graduates we wish to share some updates about already established initiatives;
Nigeria: The “Book For Change” Campaign continues! Nelson Owoicho Apochi, 2014 kanthari relaunched the campaign on April 1st with an aim to set up not one, as he has so far, but TEN, rural libraries / reading hubs in Benue state. The campaign focuses on the importance of reading. Check out a beautiful poem recited at one of Nelson’s events: “Once upon a Time“
Nepal: On April 25th Head Nepal ‘s Home was re-opened with a festive celebration. Head Nepal is initiated by Chhitup Lama in Humla high up in the remote Himalayas. The residential educational center for 30 visually impaired students was renovated. Additionally 180 family members received counselling from HEAD Nepal’s Disabilities Advisory Services so far! Apart from that, the HEAD Skill Development Center has trained 61 adults in skill building/vocational and income generating activities. Learn more by watching the video
Zimbabwe: “When I got back from kanthari I did a pilot project with 5 dropouts. We trained them in soap making and entrepreneurial skills. They were fortunate to get seed money and started their small businesses in different sectors.” With a recent grant Nyasha and Impala Breeze Initiative are planning to impact at least 200 marginalized women & girls!
Kenya: Read the story and watch the interview with Jayne Waithera, founder of Positive Exposure Kenya! “We have had persons with albinism who have been killed for their body parts, children not accessing education, youth and adults without jobs. Kenyan government has made allocations around sunscreen and eye care provision for persons with albinism but few know of the existence of these programs”. Article
Nigeria: Lawrence Afere, initiator of Springboard Nigeria is building a new Nigeria through organic agriculture and personal enterprise! Their freshly built Goat Bank in Akure can conveniently house 500 goats. Constructed with full bamboo fencing and inner flooring with a raised bed which makes it easy to pack the goats’ feces to be used as manure so that Springboard farmers and students can make money raising goats the natural way!
kanthari alumni program: kanthari graduates started the kanthari change makers network.
The first peer support session via Skype was held in which a lot of information and experiences were shared. Manzi, Rwanda: “All experiences we have made up till date can be shared with each other!” Robert, Zimbabwe: “Why should we try to re-invent the wheel if we can use the valuable expertise of our peers”.
kanthari in the media:
– TV: kanthari was covered in the “TV-Show” in Holland. You can watch it here (Min 5:25 till 16:19)
– In April Shalom TV from Kerala did a feature about kanthari on its network
– The TEDx talks at TEDxYouthMAASTRICHT are now online, see them at: TEDx talk Sabriye and at TEDx talk Paul
– Sabriye addressed an audience at the screening of the documentary “kanthari, change from within” during the Vibgyor Film Festival in Thrissur, Kerala.
– On the 18th of April, we gave a talk at the 2016 YPO Beijing University.
– On the 22nd of April, we delivered a keynote at the Plenary World Stage at the 2016 SANKALP conference in Mumbai.
recognition
“Civilization is the encouragement of differences” – Mahatma Gandhi –
kanthari co-founder Sabriye Tenberken was honored with the Gandhi Darsan International Award 2016. This award, initiated by the Global Gandhi Foundation was handed to Sabriye by Justice K.T. Thomas in a festive ceremony in Kottayam, Kerala. Other Awardees were Keralite actor Mammootty and social worker/businessman Hassan Kunji.
accreditation
on the 10th of May 2016 kanthari was officially accredited. The National Quality Council which is part of the National Accreditation Board for Education and Training (NABET) has accredited kanthari as a vocational training centre with the scope of Accreditation being “leadership for social change”.
campus
Benches with a view; Seven new stone benches that will last forever have been placed at the kanthari campus. Each one of them has a unique view. We hope these new seating arrangements will lead to additional creative ideas how to best go about positively impacting the world.
kanthari worldmap
Over the past 7 years we have trained 141 participants from 37 countries. Our graduates have started more than 100 projects and initiatives that are already reaching thousands of beneficiaries.
To learn more where they are working and what they are doing, have a look at the freshly updated kanthari worldmap
Intake 2017
The next kanthari leadership training course will start in May 2017. We have already started the intake process. We are grateful if you can help by spreading the intake flyer within your network so it can reach potential social change makers who are looking for a course that will empower them to start their own social initiatives and programs.
Dear Friends,
on behalf of all our participants we say thank you for your ongoing support.
Thank you also for helping us by sharing this newsletter.
We wish everyone a wonderful summer!
With very best regards,
the entire kanthari team, paul and sabriye
You can find a PDF version of this newsletter with more pictures at;
http://media.kanthari.org/pdf/en/QN2-2016.pdf
www.facebook.com/kantharis – localhost/kanthari
