Visit of Honourable Madam Ela Gandhi

2019 will be a very special year for us in India and for people around the world; it will mark the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
His life and work continues to inspire us in our viewing of the world and the way we contribute to our families, our vocation and the society we are part of.
Taking advantage of this special moment in history, we at Shanti Ashram are organizing a series of programmes that will help us visualize what it takes to build a peaceful world!

We are glad to inform that the Honourable Madam Ela Gandhi, the grand-daughter of Mahatma Gandhi will be visiting Shanti Ashram on the 1st and 2nd of January.

Here are the details to mark in your diary:

Event: Intergenerational Dialogue with Youth for Peace
Date: 01.01.2019
Time: 03.00 pm – 4.30 pm
Venue: Shanti Ashram, Coimbatore

Event: Conferment of the Defender of Peace Award on Honourable Madam Ela Gandhi
Date: 02.01.2019
Time: 09.30 am – 12.00 noon
Venue: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Coimbatore

We request you to mark the date and confirm your participation. We look forward to your cooperation and collaboration in making the visit of Honourable Madam Ela Gandhi a meaningful visit.

As India and global community celebrate
the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi,
the visit of Honourable Madam Ela Gandhi to Shanti Ashram gains added significance.

The Honourable Madam Ela Gandhi

The Honourable Madam Ela Gandhi is the grand-daughter of Mahatma Gandhi. She was born in 1940 in the Phoenix Settlement in the KwaZulu Natal region of South Africa. An anti-apartheid activist from an early age, she was banned from political activism in 1973 and placed under house arrest for nine long years. Gandhi was a member of the Transitional Executive Council and gained a seat as a member of the African National Congress (ANC) in the South African Parliament.

Under the Presidency of Mr. Nelson Mandela, she served two terms in the newly formed Parliament from 1994 to 2003 representing Phoenix. Her parliamentary committee assignments included the ‘Welfare and Public Enterprises committees’ as well as the adhoc committee on Surrogate Motherhood. She was an alternate member of the Justice Committee and served on Theme Committee 5 on Judiciary and Legal Systems.
Gandhi received her B.A. degree at the former Natal University and later received a B.A. in Social Science with honors from UNISA. Following graduation, she worked as a social worker with the Verulam Child and Family Welfare Society for 15 years and the Durban Indian Child and Family Welfare Society for five years.

Since leaving Parliament, Gandhi has worked tirelessly to fight all forms of violence. She founded the Gandhi Development Trust which promotes non-violence, and was a founder member and chair of the Mahatma Gandhi Salt March Committee.

In recognition of her work to promote Mahatma Gandhi’s legacy in South Africa, she was awarded the prestigious Padma Bushan award by the Indian Government. In 2002 She received the Community of Christ International Peace Award in 2007. In 2014, she was awarded the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman – the highest honour for overseas Indians conferred by the President of India and was also honoured as a veteran of the Umkhonto we Sizwe.