Ragi Kana is is spearheaded by Prasanna, who also started Charaka, a handloom collective that empowers women weavers from rural areas, and DESI, the social enterprise through which Charaka's products are sold.
An ex-secondary school teacher from Singapore, Kathy Xu’s passion for the environment and dismay over shark trade spurred her to start The Dorsal Effect. Her solution? Persuade shark fishermen to earn their livelihoods as eco-tour guides, and save sharks from being hunted down for their fins. "When you see sharks in their natural habitat, I think there is a point where something would change in you and you really want your future generations to able to experience that as well," says Kathy.
For a small additional fee, Dicky’s parents provide two rooms in their family home as a homestay.
These rooms are shared with other guests; guests are far and few in between for now, but up to six may be staying with the Sendas at a given time.
Dicky’s father Ignasius Senda is a retired policeman of Flores origin, and mother Ferderika Kamlasi is a respected home cook and a master of old-school Timorese cuisine. They should be addressed as “Bapa (Senda)” and “Mama (Rika)” instead of by name.
Your hosts will be families like Kiran and Surendra, who were among the first two families to become part of Friends of Orchha's network of host families. Like many households in the region, Kiran and Surendra depended on farming for survival, which is a risky in a area that suffers from droughts. As host families, they now have an additional source income, and also get to meet people from all over the world.
Meet Kiran and Surendra, and Kusum and Havi, hosts of Friends of Orchha.
