The kanthari Institute in Kerala is a dream workshop for social visionaries from all over the world, people who themselves belong to a marginalised social group. Here they learn everything they need to make their visions of a more social, fair and peaceful world reality.
Sabriye Tenberken is blind herself and after a trip to Tibet set up a school for blind children there. The school is now managed by the first generation of pupils. Other former pupils run an integrative kindergarden, a massage clinic or are studying. They all had a tough start in life – and yet they have fulfilled their dreams. These success stories inspired Tenberken and Paul Kronenberg to set up the kanthari Institute in Kerala, southern India.
Graduates include Stephen who comes from an area near Lake Victoria where over 30 percent of the population die of Aids-related illnesses. It all started when he took on his relatives' children, now he runs a home for Aids orphans. He wants to give them courage and new self-confidence. Or Ojok who is an environmental activist, beekeeper and he’s blind. At his training centre in Uganda, he trains blind people to become beekeepers and environmentalists themselves.
Sabriye Tenberken’s book is an account of her journey to successful kanthari projects throughout Africa, it chronicles her own personal development to independence and describes the adventurous early days and campus life in Kerala.
