Shanti Ashram

🚀 Webinar | Early Childhood Spiritual Development

Dear Friends, Volunteers and Well-wishers looking forward for your participation...!👍
👉 Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_XU02lvgvQIWvyGnwRg7snQ

Join us for a timely conversation exploring children’s spiritual development as a central dimension of holistic development, well-being, and human flourishing.

Bringing together leading experts, this webinar will share conceptual insights, emerging evidence, and practical perspectives on how nurturing children’s innate spiritual capacities supports early childhood development.

📅 28 April 2026
⌚ 13:00–14:30 UTC (check your local time)
🌐 Zoom

👉 Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_XU02lvgvQIWvyGnwRg7snQ

Organized by the Consortium on Nurturing Values and Spirituality in Early Childhood for the Prevention of Violence, convened by Arigatou International.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18J2A6Myyf/

🚀 Webinar | Early Childhood Spiritual Development

Join us for a timely conversation exploring children’s spiritual development as a central dimension of holistic development, well-being, and human flourishing.

Bringing together leading experts, this webinar will share conceptual insights, emerging evidence, and practical perspectives on how nurturing children’s innate spiritual capacities supports early childhood development.

📅 28 April 2026
⌚ 13:00–14:30 UTC (check your local time)
🌐 Zoom

👉 Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_XU02lvgvQIWvyGnwRg7snQ

Organized by the Consortium on Nurturing Values and Spirituality in Early Childhood for the Prevention of Violence, convened by Arigatou International.

Come join us in observing World Health Day .
Together with our partners we renew our commitment and dedicated collaboarative ACTION to Building HEALTHY COMMUNITIES.

And we remain grateful to Professor.Dr.Shobhana Madhavan, for heading the Kasturba Gandhi 2026 Jury.
Criss-crossing the service villages she personally visited the 2026 nominees - rural women entrepreneurs whose stories of economic empowerment and entrepreneurship is nothing short of 'inspiration'. Equally powerful were the leadership trails of these amazing women entrepreneurs. For 16 straight years Dr.Shobhana Madhavan's generous giving of expertise, time and support has ensured an impressive scroll of award winners. The 15th year reunion of the Kasturba Gandhi Awardees was organized in 2025 to review together their success and future aspirations.
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Our sincere thanks to Dr.Shobhana Madhavan and her gifted MBA students for leading the jury.

Our gratitude Eine-Welt-Laden Weil der Stadt led by Gunther and Lore for supporting our work to strengthen the leadership of rural women entrepreneurs, sustain the Ashram's 30 year old vocational training programme and help award the Kasturba Gandhi Awards for over a decade now at Shanti Ashram

We look forward to further enriching the quality and reach of the programme in 2026-27.
Photos that record precious moments: Newton & MGIPLD

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An eventful week and we
cant thank everyone enough from children to parents, Doctors, experts to Deputy Director Health, from nurses to audiologists, volunteers to support staff, media to local communities, Institutional heads to District Collector, for their wholehearted support.
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This wonderful tripartate collaboration last week between PSGIMSR, International Center for Child and Public Health and the MIT team from Germany was an overwhelming success!
Here's WHY?
The 8 joint ENT screening clinics for extremely vulnerable children went well with 168 children, and 37 children benefiting with bi- lateral hearing aids.
90 lakhs worth of high quality German hearing aids with batteries and moulds formed part of the impact thanks to the MIT team.
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Walk in enquiries came not only from greater Coimbatore but from nearly 7 other districts. So registration from last year has already started !

Many thanks and a huge shout out to:
Medical Intervention Team e.V. led by Dr.Barun Sarkar, Dr.Roland and their 6 membered team.
&R PSG Hospitals Coimbatore
Dr.Bhuvaneshwaran our Medical Director, the dedicated ENT team led by Dr.Dayanand & Dr.Karthikeyan and Dean Dr.Subba Rao.
Mr.Janakiraman and the PSG Hospitals marketing team.
Ashram Center for Child and Public Health led by
Dr.Kezevino Aram
Dr.Subhadra Iyengar, Ms.Ranisha, Ms.Sumana, Ms.Tamilarasi, Ms.Blessy and
our leadership team @ Shanti Ashram : Shri.G.Vijayaraghavan, Ms.Monica Christina, Ms.Deepa Kumaradevan and our entire staff team.
Leading the documentation our thanks to Shri.C.Satish Kanna
for this annual impactful work, now in its 3rd edition.
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The good work for children stays strengthened to dream more and do even more!
Next year we hope to do a 100% scaling up of the initiative.

A focused initiative.
We are very pleased that the screening effort for children between eyes, ears and general paediatric screening is now reaching over 15,000 children a year at ICPH.
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A hall packed to its brim reverberated with the commitment to higher education. The venue Sri Krishna Aditya College of Arts& Science. Dr.Kezevino Aram addressed the gathering and honoured the academic high achievers and sports winners.
Dr.Palaniammal the Principal earlier introduced Dr.Aram and spoke about the long association between the institutions and the impact of the Ashram’s work over the past decades. The commitment to the educational empowerment & active engagement of young Indians remains steadfast.

A community at work for 39 years - Shanti Ashram ! 🤍

We had to share these beautiful glimpses from SANGAMAM 2026 held on February 21st at Kumaraguru Institutions. 🕊
Dr.Krishnaraj Vanavarayar, Chairman Emeritus of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan delivered the Presidential address. 🕊
Organized to mark 25 years of Madam Chiara Lubich's first visit to INDIA and Shanti Ashram, over 1000 people from 26 Institutions - participated in the two day Sangamam with 5 distinct and interconnected programmes. 🕊
Shri.Shankar Vanavarayar, President, Kumaraguru Institutions, Ms.Annemary Attard, Mr.Vivek Coutinho representing the Focolare movement and Dr.Kezevino Aram, President, Shanti Ashram also addressed the vibrant audience, recalling the depth and fruits of the Sarvo-Foco collaboration. 🕊

Dr.Mridula Rai's ...Sree Natyaniketan artists presenting the opening Bharatanatyam curations bringing alive the cultural legacy of India, Bharathiyar's inspiring poetry read to note by Ms.Nafiya Zuhana & Mr.G.Vijayaragavan from Shanti Ashram, the art-centered reflection of Artist. Lioba Knepple from Germany, Anam Prem's stunning ensemble on the Rudra Veena ...each presentation was very inspiring...and a feast for the soul. To the Sangamam of gifted artists our sincere thanks.
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The evening stringed in the convening and elegance of an able young leaders team : Vijay Ragavan, Ms.Monica Christina, Deepa Lakshmi Kumaradevan, Mr.Nishanth, Mr.Nivethan,Nafia Zuhana, Ravi, Karthi, Vivehaa and Nitish....the dynamic volunteer leaders at the Ashram.

The huddle after the moving programme captured as our group photo.....❤️
We love it !
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What was hosted after the programme was an 'illai virundu' ...a multi course sit down dinner under the night sky at Jyothi nilayam hosted by the ever gracious Shri.Shankar Vanavarayar and the wonderful Kumaraguru Institutions family. 🕊

Sakthi Kodu !
is our collective prayer... !
Photos : C.Satish Kanna and KCT studio.

-MIT-PSGIMSRjoint partnership

Three successful ENT screening clinics have been held in February& March 2026 @Shanti Ashram in preparation for our annual week of joint clinics with Medical Intervention Team e.V. for vulnerable children with hearing disabilities.

A dedicated partnership between three institutions and an annual provisioning of 30 pairs of high quality hearing aids to vulnerable children worth almost a rupees one crore. The teams are looking forward to the active collaboration on ground between March 20th and March 27th. We thank Dr.Subhadra, Ms.Tamilarasi, Ms.Ranisha & Ms.Sumana and Dr.Karthikeyan & Dr.Dayanand at PSG Hospitals for their wonderful coordination and convening.


Photos: C.Satish Kanna

🌏 Post Forum – Regional Meeting Asia | Thailand | 5 March 2026

The Post GNRC 6th Forum – Regional Meeting Asia was held in Thailand on 5 March 2026, bringing together participants from different countries to share experiences and strengthen collaboration for peace and inter-religious understanding.

Our special thanks to Opor Opal for her inspiring leadership and the welcome of the Global Network of Religions for Children (GNRC) family and the local hosts INEB.

From Shanti Ashram, Mr. Vijayaragavan, Head of the Youth Leadership Programme and Country Coordinator of Global Network of Religions for Children (GNRC) India, participated in the meeting and presented the initiatives carried out through GNRC India at Shanti Ashram. It was a meaningful platform to share our work and learn from inspiring initiatives from other countries.

Two young representatives from Shanti Ashram, Vivehaa, a student of , and Hariss, a student of , also had the opportunity to participate in this international gathering. The experience helped them gain valuable knowledge and a deeper understanding of inter-religious collaboration and the importance of building harmony among different communities. Shanti Ashram senior volunteer -Mrs. Kousalya was also part of the meeting.

✨ Highlights from our youth participants:
Vivehaa presented on the topic: “What qualities make you feel safe, respected, and hopeful when interacting with religious leaders?” Her presentation was highly appreciated by the participants.
Hariss was honoured to contribute by leading the opening and closing prayers during the meeting.

🙏 Our sincere thanks to and for coordinating and hosting this fruitful and inspiring regional meeting.

And if 'community' needed a visual description here it comes from our Mahalir Mela 2026 celebrations. We stood up together and for each other!
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RIGHTS - JUSTICE -ACTION a lived reality @ Shanti Ashram for thirty nine years.
🎬 A community that honoured our rural women entrepreneurs with the Kasturba Gandhi Award 2026. Wahida Akka led the list this time with an inspiring entrepreneurial journey. Her call for economic freedom, investment in girls education and stepping up for fellow women was absorbed by the hundreds who gathered.Two other women entrepreneurs shortlisted by the jury as the first & second runner up alongside the 4th specially mentioned enthusiastically participated in the public hearing on the IWD theme.
🎬 The Community Women leaders award started during the COVID-19 pandemic honoured the Noon meal incharges from 48 Government schools from our service villages. Over 8000 children, vulnerable children are served by these amazing front line leaders who ensure food security every day for children.
🎬 the age composition from 3 - 90years, girls and women from every age group participated and contributed to the beauty and depth of the programme.

The 3 year old representatives of the Bala Shanti Programme spoke to us about, diverse faces of empowerment & vocations through their artistic presentations as did they tell the elders ' a violence-free society is every child’s wish'.

Interfaith prayers reverberated a fully packed Aram Arangam as the audience also included those observing Ramadan & Lent. The Heads of the Programme Division and the Ashram's centres of excellence MGIPLD and ICPH led the programme immersed in the joy of convening something meaningful.
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To Dr.Shobhana Madhavan who has led the Kasturba Gandhi Award Jury for 16 years, our sincere thanks. Thank you for hosting the community lunch for all 250 of us. ❤️

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Our Mahalir Mela Guests inspired us by their example and continue to encourage us by their active engagement & words of encouragement:
. Sujatha N A, Co-founder & Marketing Director, i-Robochakra&
. Sangeetha, Senior Manger, CSR, Sakthi Financial Services
. Ramya Kamesh, District ISO, Inner Wheel District
. Raji Subbaiyan, Director of Resources, Bluebells School International, New Delhi
. Swetha, Marketing Executive, Brookfields Estate Pvt. Ltd
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A very sincere thank you to our District Collector, Thiru Pavankumar G Giriyappanavar, IAS for giving us the go ahead and wholehearted support to honour noon meal incharges from 40 Government schools.
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To Brookefields, our lead donor for Mahalir Mela 2026, thank you for supporting us and celebrating in person with your team of women achievers. ❤️
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To Canara Bank our lead banker, for your professional service and support we are appreciative.
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For images that capture the spirit, success and depth of our collective work- we remain grateful to our colleague C.Satish Kanna. ❤️

ACTION 🎬
To every single staff of the Shanti Ashram - ICPH- MGIPLD teams - this magic is handcrafted and we DID IT!!
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A special shout out to Ms.Monica Christina, the Focal Lead at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute for Peace,Leadership and Development (MGIPLD) for leading from the front with the very able Dr.Seetha, the Academic lead at MGIPLD.
You were amazing!