670. Robin Chaurasiya

Posted on November 22, 2022 by Rick Archer

Robin was born and raised in the US with a very religious and schizophrenic mother as well as a violent and atheist father. At 14, Robin started volunteering with various non-profits organizations and traveling the world, two lifelong passions which led her to work with dozens of NGOs and travel nearly 100 countries. After spending several years in the US Air Force, Robin was kicked out for being lesbian which led to her new life as an activist. At 24, she started Kranti, an NGO that empowers survivors of trafficking and daughters of sex workers from Mumbai’s red-light areas, where she lived and worked for a decade. In 2020, Robin moved to a mud hut at 13K feet in the Himalayas without any water, electricity or toilet. For over a year, she wasn’t online, didn’t read any book and didn’t speak with anyone. In July 2021, she started working part time from the mountains and became a certified BatGap addict. She returned to civilization in August, 2022 and will return to the mountains (temporarily) in January, 2023!

Kranti: kranti-india.org

Donating to Kranti:

savethechild.org Tax exempt for US donors.)
Milaap: Help the Survivors of Trafficking (India-based, doesn’t deduct fee. Not tax exempt for US donors.)
Donating to Happy Feet Home (hospice for terminally ill children)

Contact Robin

PDF with more info about Robin, her upcoming book, and Kranti

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Transcript of this interview

Interview recorded November 20, 2022

Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.

Empowering girls in red-light areas for social good | Robin Chaurasiya, India | Global Teacher Prize

Robin’s hut at 13,000 feet in the mountains of Nepal:

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643. Shelly Tygielski

Posted on April 21, 2022 by Rick Archer

Shelly Tygielski is the author of Sit Down to Rise Up and founder of the global grassroots mutual aid organization Pandemic of Love. Her work has been featured by over 100 media outlets, including CNN Heroes, The Tamron Hall Show, The Kelly Clarkson Show, CBS This Morning, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. A trauma-mindfulness teacher and a Garrison Institute Fellow, she has been called one of the “12 Powerful Women of the Mindfulness Movement” By Mindful.org and teaches self-care and resilience at organizations around the world. Visit her online at shellytygielski.com.

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Transcript of this interview

Interview recorded April 16, 2022

Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

626. Nipun Mehta

Posted on December 8, 2021 by Rick Archer

Nipun Mehta is the founder of ServiceSpace, a global community at the intersection of technology, volunteerism, and the gift economy. Most recently, ServiceSpace’s pandemic response has showcased the unique beauty of its global ecosystem. Nipun has catalyzed a global social movement of community builders grounded in their localities and rooted in practices for cultivating love, nonviolence, selfless service, and compassion. The ecosystem has reached millions, attracted thousands of volunteers, and mushroomed into numerous community-based service projects as well as inspiring content portals. ServiceSpace harnesses the collective power of networks and our deeper interconnectedness to create a distributed social movement founded on small, local individual acts of kindness, generosity, and service that ignite shifts in individual and collective consciousness. Nipun was honored as an “unsung hero of compassion” by the Dalai Lama, not long before former U.S. President Obama appointed him to a council for addressing poverty and inequality in the US. Yet the core of what strikes anyone who meets him is the way his life is an attempt to bring smiles in the world and silence in his heart: “I want to live simply, love purely, and give fearlessly. That’s me.”

In his mid-twenties, Nipun quit his job to become a “full-time volunteer”. One of his most formative experiences was a walking pilgrimage across India, with his wife of six months, whose profound lessons also became the subject of his widely-read address at UPenn commencement. Over the last twenty years, he has addressed thousands of gatherings around the world, speaking next to wide-ranging leaders from Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak to author Elizabeth Gilbert to civil rights legend John Lewis. Germany’s OOOM magazine named Nipun one of the Top 100 Most Inspiring People of 2020.

See links to these ServiceSpace websites at the bottom of their website.