“At any given moment you have the power to say; this is not how the story is going to end.” ― Christine Mason Miller”
The kanthari campus is empty and quiet, almost a little spooky. Just a few days ago the campus was full of action, and everyone was in high spirits. Here and there, participants could be heard delivering their speeches to the rather indifferent fish or our baffled chickens. In the Amphitheatre, the tent was set up for the farewell party and the campus smelled of freshly baked bread and healthy food. And then the kanthari Talks arrived. We have rarely seen such good-humored and joyfully excited speakers. They couldn’t wait to be on stage to share their stories and solutions, and additionally, everyone was also full of anticipation to hear the speeches of the other participants. Every year we intensively work with each participant to help them overcome stage fright and fear of performing. This year the event was live-streamed, and many viewers around the world left comments about how much they felt encouraged by the speeches to keep going in these challenging times. You can watch the recording here.
Dear Friends and supporters,
In the second year in which the world has been heavily affected by the Corona pandemic, we are extremely grateful that it was possible to run the 12th kanthari course on campus. There were only a handful of institutes in India that were able to do so, and we thank the Kerala government for their permission. It was a bit of a miracle that in May 2021, 17 participants arrived at our gates. About halfway, unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to one participant, the other 16 however completed the first 4 acts. They brought inspiriting project ideas, here three examples;
Niwas Kumar – Anantmool – Bihar, India:
Being only 7 years old traveling on the train with his mother, Niwas met a trans woman. He was fascinated by her yellow-green sari and very masculine voice. Suddenly his mother held her hands in front of his eyes as if she didn’t want him to see something. “From then on, I was prejudiced against men pretending to be women”. Only later did his attitude change, and prejudice changed to a commitment. He informed himself and found out that some children and adolescents identify with a different gender or cannot and do not want to assign themselves to any gender at all. In India, many of these children are thrown out of their families and end up on the streets. Niwas is going to start a school, not only for the outcast trans-children but also for those who don’t want to be ‘gender-branded’ in any way. He calls it gender-free. Are you curious to learn more? then watch his kanthari talk here.
Frank Ekow – Fair Shea – Ghana
Frank grew up in a slum where every boy has one big dream: To become a gang leader in one of the neighbourhoods. His mother, however, made sure that her three sons did not fall into the clutches of gang crime. By harvesting and selling shea nuts, she was able to provide food for the entire family and got her children safely through the various educational programs until they reached university. The shea nut is a fruit that is in high demand throughout West Africa. The kernels are used to produce shea butter, an important ingredient in skin creams, soaps, and chocolate.
The women of Ghana are responsible for the harvest and are often ripped off by middlemen. Frank wants to do something about this. With his organization Fair Shea, he wants to bypass the middlemen and form cooperatives in which women have direct contact with the fair-trade market and have a say about prices. In addition, he wants to ensure that the women’s children enjoy a good education, and he will work for the welfare of the Shea farmers. We need farmers and Frank wants to help create future generations of farmers that not only enjoy their profession but also live dignified lives!
Biman Roy – Bon-Forest – West Bengal, India
Biman is also involved in agriculture, but he is particularly concerned about organic diversity. Upon return from several years studying abroad, he had noticed a severe decrease in varieties caused by an increase in industrial monoculture farming. But how do you get local farmers to grow more varieties of vegetables? His strategy is simple: “love goes through the stomach”.
He wants to show the rural population how many tasty varieties of grains and vegetables there were and could be again. Therefore, in a model project, he wants to grow miscellaneous kinds of rice, a wide variety of tomatoes, potatoes, and herbs, especially wild herbs that no longer grow wild today. Once appetites are whetted, Biman says, demand for diverse grains and vegetables will also increase.
Our curriculum
Every year we continue to develop our curriculum. The biggest change this year happened with the third act. We have developed an intensive social entrepreneurial business training under the umbrella of Bharat Sevak Samaj (BSS), which is a national development agency, established in 1952 by the planning commission of the Government of India. Because this part of the course included quite some new elements, we invited 9 alumni, all of whom have social business elements in their organization, to attend. Here are three examples:
Jyotshna Das – Janamangal – Odissa, India (2013 kanthari).
Jyotshna founded and runs Janamangal, an organization that focuses on tribal women who have experienced (domestic) violence. Her strategy is simple but effective. Women are provided with training and job opportunities so they can earn and support themselves.
The places where the women are trained/work become social hubs and function as safe spaces. The women are trained in different skills such as growing herbs, herb processing, and cultivation of mushrooms. Mushrooms are not only processed for meals in Odissa but are also used for medicinal purposes.
Naresh Lingala – tharunam – Telangana, India (2017 kanthari).
Naresh is the son of a farmer. He witnessed how his father wanted to take his own life one day.
His father, like so many farmers in India, had a lot of debts and saw no future for himself anymore. Naresh wants to change this lack of perspective for the next generation of farmers.
He organizes self-help groups with farmers who specialize in different varieties of food. He came to our business training with the idea of a buffalo retreat. A cozy place where farmers can come with their buffalo, have them milked and fed, and get paid fairly for the milk. Naresh wants to focus on healthy dairy products made from Fair Trade buffalo milk. His project focuses on both, the welfare of the animals as well as the welfare of the farmer.
Trevor Molife – Purple Hand Africa – Zimbabwe (2018 kanthari).
Purple Hand Africa uses creative writing and other art forms to encourage members of Zimbabwe’s persecuted LGBTQ community to stand and speak up for themselves.But art and writing are not enough. Since being LGBTQ is punishable by law, job opportunities are rare. Therefore, he came up with the idea to create natural gender-free cosmetics. ‘Motokimoto unto’ is the name of the label. It means “be as you are.”
kanthari in the media:
An article about Nematullah Ahangosh was published by Deutsche Welle
– Former Indian Ambassador TP Sreenivasan had invited Sabriye and Paul for ‘Tea with TPS’.
– Smita Tharoor interviewed Sabriye Tenberken for her Stories of unconscious bias podcast
– The Indian vlogger Sai Sethu, made a video clip about sabriye’s life
– Yampier Aguiar Durañona interviewed some kantharis and also paul for the Giraffe Heroes
“Stick Your Neck Out Podcast”:
– Sarita Lamichhane – Sarita fights back (nepal)
– Akhina Mohan – Stand up and speak – alarmo (India)
– Abhilash John – the Great Indian Treasure Hunt (India)
– paul kronenberg ‘life is too important to get stuck’
and we still write the kanthari corona blog
Dear Friends and supporters,
2021 was another challenging year and it certainly will leave scars in our memories. Yet, we will need to believe in ourselves and in humanity. Please do not lose hope in these crisis-ridden times and remain encouraged that there are many committed change-makers in this world.
You have made the difference. Thanks to your support we were able to keep kanthari running, even in difficult times. We are grateful for every gift as it will help to train the next kanthari participants as well.
Thank you!
Please stay safe and healthy! If you enjoyed the quarterly newsletter, please forward it to others who may be interested.
Let us welcome 2022 with refreshed hope, positive energy, and perseverance.
With warmest regards,
sabriye and paul
If you want to support the work of kanthari, then you can do that here –
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
www.facebook.com/kantharis – localhost/kanthari
