Initiatives of Change (IofC) holds a Global Fellowship Gathering every 18 months. In January 2025, three Brisbane women travelled to Panchgani, India, to take part alongside 130 participants from the IofC network around the world.
Mu, a Brisbane lawyer with ethnic minority roots in Myanmar, grew up in a refugee camp in Thailand. She expressed appreciation for “the strength of friendship” she has found within the IofC community. “In February 2021, when a military coup took place in Burma, I felt an overwhelming sense of hopelessness and helplessness,” she said. “Yet, my friends within the IofC network checked on me, prayed for me, and supported me and my country.”
“Their care and solidarity made an immense difference, reminding me that even in the darkest moments, we are not alone.”
“My relationship with my homeland, and my journey toward reconciling my biases and intentions, is ongoing. It is a process—a journey of continuous reflection, growth, and transformation.”
Naome Rusera, a Rwandan-Australian and Executive Officer at the Ethnic Communities Council of Queensland, said that her experiences in Panchgani “pushed me to think beyond just Queensland, or even Australia, and made me see the bigger picture. Suddenly, the idea of ‘building bridges across the world’s divides’ took on a whole new meaning. It wasn’t just about my community anymore; it was about all of us as a human community.”
“This shift in perspective really opened my eyes to … the need to work together across borders to create a more connected and compassionate world.”
Augusta Lokea, originally from Bougainville, was a recent participant in the Life Matters workshop in Brisbane in 2024. At Panchgani, she shared her deep connection with the Aus-Pasifika diaspora and expressed her commitment to enhancing her leadership skills, to better contribute to and give back to her community.
Energy from the Global South
The Global Fellowship Gatherings meet alternately at IofC centres in India and Switzerland. Mike Brown, a lifelong worker with IofC, noted that this time around, two-thirds of the participants were under 50 years old, and that, “Initiative and spirit rise from the younger teams and populations of the Global South.”
He cited examples from the work of Initiatives of Change teams in several countries:
- In India, the Education Today and Society Tomorrow initiative has worked with up to 8,000 teachers across 16 states of India to apply core principles of self-awareness, ethical governance, compassionate leadership, respect for diversity and empathetic service to society.
- In northeast India, the chief executive of the Bodoland Territorial Council launched a Happiness Mission to empower people after years of ethnic conflict. Its workers were trained by the Initiatives of Change team to use practices of inner listening and individual change.
- In Nakuru, Kenya, women from the Creators of Peace program have completed Peace Circles with 105 women in the women’s prison. Now they are being asked to run the program for 4,000 male prisoners.
Four “pillars” of the global work
The Global Fellowship Gathering was also an opportunity to collectively affirm the four programmatic pillars of Initiatives of Change’s work in the world, which are outlined in its constitution. They are:
- to bring healing and reconciliation where there is conflict;
- to build bridges of trust between different communities and countries;
- to embed ethics, justice and transparency in the global economy;
- to empower leadership to act with integrity, serve unselfishly and be effective agents of change.
Rajmohan Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and a former President of Initiatives of Change, reflected at the Global Fellowship Gathering that, “We, the ordinary people of the world are the key. Our love and respect for one another, and our commitment as individuals and as a team to what is right, just and fair will speak to the world.”
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