Founder of Janwaar Castle and The Rural Changemakers. Digital nomand. Freesoul.
In May 2018 I was invited to participate in The Green Hub Festival at University of Tezpur, Assam. We arrived close to midnight at the campus after a 4-hour-drive from Guwahati. And it was amazing. I immediately fell in love with this place – it was still lively, the students roamed around on bicycles – […]
Last month we registered The Rural Changemakers e.V. – Verein zur Förderung der Jugend-, Erziehungs- und Entwicklungshilfe – in Berlin, Germany. The goal of the Verein is to raise funds for our activities in Janwaar. This is our official stamp: Andreas Schulten, Axel Pfennigschmidt and myself form the management team. Astrid Ramge, Volker Schönbühler, Kirsten […]
It’s a little more than three years that the skatepark in Janwaar “came into life”. What unfolded in Janwaar is quite remarkable and we can tell some nice stories of change. The community of the kids – we call them The RuralChangemakers – is vibrant and more and more they are coming out of their […]
In April 2018 I gave another TEDxTalk in Bhopal. This time I was focussing on what we, as an NGO, do differently. And I made three essential points: First, everything we do we do WITH the community, not FOR them. We don’t pre-define programs. We don’t define any kind of outcome – which doesn’t mean […]
In March Priscilla, Nora and Antonia from the Tara Trust in Goa came to Janwaar. In our homestays they lived and worked with us for two weeks. Their mission was to build music instruments with the kids! In early morning and evening sessions they brought together various groups of kids who were all deeply engaged […]
We are pretty proud to ammounce that our book is out !!!!! REMOTE. The Rural Changemakers Of Janwaar €25 | $30 | ₹ 1750 plus shipping. Please order now! Have a look at the excerpt below – and then order right here 🙂 To order please fill out this form with your complete shipping and […]
To create a social impact with sport is part of Decathlon’s philosopy. We’ve been enjoying a very funny and healthy relationship with the oxelo team in Bangalore and Lille over the last 1.5 years on various occasions. Our common journey started when their entire team reached Janwaar in November 2016 for our first skateboarding competition. […]
It’s been three years since a skatepark was built in an obscure village in central India. Or, if one actually made the long-yet-picturesque trip to Janwaar in Madhya Pradesh, in the middle of nowhere. The facility, called Janwaar Castle, has raised a new generation of rural changemakers, who have left an impression on the rest […]
Many people ask me why skateboarding? Why not any other sport? What they want to ask is actually can only skateboarding trigger the kind of change we are witnessing in Janwaar or would any other sport do the same? I am tempted to say only skateboarding can. And here is why: Skateboarding culture is very […]
This year in September/October we’ve taken three young skateboarder from Janwaar and Kovalam, India, to Europe. Ramkesh, 10 years old, Arun 14 years old – both from Janwaar, and Sujin 16 yeras old from Kovalam. We’ve spent five and a half weeks touring Germany, Belgium, France and Spain. Our goal was to interact with the […]