Quarterly Newsletter 4-2014
2014 has passed by in incredible speed and it is high time for the last quarterly newsletter of the year.
Act 2 Change for Change
The second act ended with the Change for Change event. This year in cooperation with the kalliyoor Panchayad (a local community) a waste management project was initiated. In order to create awareness about the importance to keep our environment clean, the participants created a rock song. The lyrics of the ‘Katikale’ song entailed the problems and consequences of bad waste management. The change for change event also included a Trash Art exhibition to show that trash has value and should rather be seen as a resource.
Act 3 Internship the “Wild World”
During October the participants got a taste of the “Wild World”. They all interned in organisations and companies to put skills, acquired during the first two acts, into practice. Additionally, they gained practical working experience in real world settings. Some of the participants worked in kanthari graduate’s projects, others in NGO’s and some in corporate companies.
A few examples of the work done: Sarita Lamichhane from Nepal absolved her internship in Samarthanam in Bangalore. She created a manual how a blind person can train him/herself in mobility and daily living skills. Felix Izimioh from Nigeria worked with UST Global where he, together with a team of programmers, created an app for the Lagos State police that helps preventing cybercrime in Nigeria.
Act 4 back to the Spice Garden
Upon the finalization of act 3 all participants returned to the kanthari campus. Act 4 promised to be very busy where the main focus was on preparations of the Dream Speeches, reviews of skills such as finance, budgeting, proposal writing etc that were learned earlier in the course. One particular workshop is one to be remembered by all kanthari participants.. “The Hot Seat”. One participant takes place on the stage and needs to defend his or her project. During 15 minutes, the participant is bombarded with extremely spicy and critical questions. These questions cause accelerated heartbeats and a high adrenaline. The result however shows whether participants have become subject matter experts.
Graduation week and day.
Just in time for the guests joining our graduation week, signboards were installed. For all who will visit the campus, you can find them located from the main road (at the Topomoke Bus-stop) all the way to the campus so that visitors don’t have to rely on the local knowledge of the rickshaw driver alone anymore.
During the 15th, 16th and 17th of December, all participants presented their Dream Speeches. They shared their life stories, problems to be solved and their solutions with a public audience. The dream speeches were followed by a 15 minutes Questions and answers by an international panel of three to four experts. The chief guest this year was Mrs Andrea Christ, the Vice Consul General of the Bangalore German Consulate. Special Guest was Mr Peter Weibel, president of the Siwss Braille Without Borders Foundation. The event was witnessed by app 180 guests. Watch all Dream speeches here
Act 5 Spread the Spice
Now the participants have returned home to turn their dreams into reality. During the next 5 months, all graduates are paired up with two catalysts who will mentor the during the challenging start-up phase of the project. We are very curious and excited to see how the graduates will spread the spice!
kanthari in the Media:
2014 kanthari graduate Sarita Lamichhane from Nepal and all her visually impaired friends have a long history of harassment in the city of Kathmandu, Nepal. The Fight Back project is created so as to give these women the tools to defend themselves from physical or verbal violence. Learn more by watching the 3 minutes video at http://vimeo.com/107805760
Be inspired by the work of 2010 kanthari graduate Chhitup Lama. Chhitup runs Head Nepal, an organisation that he founded to bring about social change for the blind and visually impaired in Humla, one of the most remote areas in Nepal. A documentary was made about his work that was awarded at the New York film festival. Watch the 23 minutes touching documentary
2013 kanthari graduate Tomasz Kozakiewicz started kanthariplus. He supports kanthari graduates and coordinates the kanthari alumni network. In a few days you can read all about his work in the kanthariplus newsletter
Speaking:
– Sabriye Tenberken spoke at the World Blind Unit summit in HongKong about “The right to be blind without being Disabled!”
– Sabriye Tenberken spoke at the Erudite Conclave & Antaragni 2014-State Organ Sharing Initiative-organized by Thiruvananthapuram Medical College.
– Paul Kronenberg spoke at the India Inclusion Summit in Bangalore where he shared his views on the empowerment of marginalized people from around the world.
– Samuel Odwar from Uganda and Tiffany Brar from India spoke at TEDxVITVellore.
Special thoughts for West African kantharis
During the past few months, the world learned about the Ebola pandemic in the West of Africa. Our special thoughts go out to all of the kanthari graduates who are working in this region and who are facing difficult times and big challenges. We hope that the situation will soon improve.
Applications kanthari 2015
The next kanthari course will start in May 2015. The application process is still ongoing.
Pls do help us by spreading the intake flyer that can be found at: http://media.localhost/kanthari/pdf/en/kanthari-flyer.pdf. For those who have overcome adversity and because of that carry a plan for social change, apply now via our website localhost/kanthari
Dear Friends,
We say thank you for your ongoing support to kanthari and for helping us by sharing this newsletter.
We wish everyone the very best for 2015!
The entire kanthari Team, Paul and Sabriye
