MEET OUR TEAM

IT STARTED WITH A VISION

CHRISTIAN CAROW

Christian was not spiritual most of his life, but being in love with Anja he just followed her on a journey to Asia and the encounter with the Buddhist monk Ajahn Somchai and his very science oriented buddhist teachings completely changed his life. He also became a monk for a year and in the intense meditation retreat he had a vision of a community and learning center based on the Buddhist teachings. Since than he is driven to make this vision become a reality.

Anja Carow

Anja studied Sports and Biology and during her exam she had a spontaneous insight, that becoming a school teacher will not be her path and she decided to go to Aisa after finishing her study to learn meditation and about ancient wisdom. Together with Christian she stumbled into a Thai monastery and the teachings had such an incredible impact, that she studied meditation and Yoga ever since. It became her driving force to teach these ancient wisdom to young people in a very alive and relatable way.

THE SCIENCE TEAM

Suwit Laohasiriwong, Ph.D.

Chief advisor

Is a retired Associate Professor in the field of Plant Science from Khon Kaen University. A native of Northeast Thailand, he had wide ranging experiences not only in academic area but also in administration e.g. President of Nakhon Phanom University, Vice-President for International Relations, Khon Kaen University, founding Deputy Director of the Mekong Institute. Currently he serves as Advisor to Vice Minister of Edcuation (Dr. Khunying Kalaya Sophonphanich) for Agricultural Vocational Education and the Chairman of Khon Kaen Community for the Future Foundation. He also holds an interested to work with community in various issues since his student years up to now.

Dr. Tantip Thamrongwaranggoon M.D.

Chief organiser

She and her husband are the founder of the local hospital and as such she has started numerous projects to massively impact the health, poverty and life of the local community. She has started projects for woman, HIV patients, handicap people, a tree nursery and organic example farms, convincing farmers to change to sustainable agriculture. She is an angel for the community and the most important key for connecting with the local community, giving the reforestation project an incredible trust from the very start.

Professor Suree Lakana, Ph.D.

Forest management

Specialized in Sustainable Natural Resource Management (SNRM); Sustainable Forest Management (SFM); Participatory Watershed Management; Forest Ecology; Wildlife Ecology and Conservation; Agroforestry; Social/Community Forestr. Lecturer at Chiang Mai University

Nopporn Nontapa

Lokal forest expert

He studied forestry and became the founder and head teacher of the Forest school Khon Kaen, โรงเรียนปลูกป่า. He invented a new way of categorising the local tree seeds and is running a tree nursery and does large reforestation projects and workshops to help people transform their alnd into productive forest. He is able to achieve a tree survival rate of 98% in his forests.

Irene Heuser, Ph.D law

advisor soil protection

Dr. Irene Heuser is the Chair of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law Specialist Group on Soil and Sustainable Agriculture Law. She graduated in Law for her PhD thesis on European Soil Protection Law in 2005 from the University of Trier, Germany (with a scholarship of the German Research Council). Works as Head of the Unit “EU Policy, EU Law, Development Policy” as well as Deputy Head of the International Department of the Ministry for Europe in Potsdam. She previously worked as Head of the Minister’s Office or Senior Legal Officer in the State Chancellery, the Ministry of Environment and the Direction-General Environment of the European Commission

Pariwate Varnakovida, PH.D.

Ground water management

Director of Geospatial Engineering and Innovation Center at KMUTT university working for the Ministry of Education of Thailand.

He completed studies of Ph.D.(Geography), Michigan State University, U.S.A.

M.S.(Information Technology), Mahidol University, Thailand

B.S.(Mathematics) Chiang Mai University, Thailand

He is also part at the team of American Groundwater Solution

American Groundwater Solutions

Ground water management

American Groundwater Solutions operates as a nonprofit organization group with the goal of helping as many people gain access to sustainable environmental conditions as we possibly can.Our expertise pertaining to engineering, waterworks, groundwater, and flooding issues are all at the disposal of the public as we promote free flow of information and education around the globe.American Groundwater Solutions team is helping out many poor farmers in the rural area of Thailand, Myanmar and Malaysia to fix their water problems. Our team also provides education about groundwater in schools and local governments in many parts of Thailand.

More informations: www.usagroundwater.com

Shubhendu Sharma

Forest systems advisor

Former engineer working for TOYOTA. Toyota planned to create a tiny forest on their site. In the search for the best pratice they came across Prof. Miyawaki from Japan. His work inspired Shubhendu that much, that he quit his job and started AFFOREST, a social enterprise with the mission to plant native, dense and fast growing forest all over the world. His engineer background enabled him to perfect the method, incorporating other methods as well.

MINDFULNESS FOUNDATION THAILAND TEAM

Dr. Supawan Laohasiriwong, Ph.D.

Director of Thai charity

She is the chairman of the Mindfulness Foundation Thailand and an ENT doctor and assoc. professor at Khon Kaen University Hospital.

Ahjan Dr. Somchai Kantasillo

Buddhist monk

Dr. Kantasillo is the professor for Buddhist Philosophy ad Comparative Religion at Mahachulalongkorn University, Thailand. He is also a Buddhist monk and serves as the Abbot for the Wat Pho Ban Nontan Monastery.

Prof. Dr. Bandit

Bord member

Dr. Bandit is Professor at Khon Kaen University in the Department of Public Health, Epidemiology and Biostatistics. He is a data scientist, software developer and university researcher.

Jaksaree Suvarnasara

Secretary of the foundation

Jaksaree serves as the Secretary of the Mindfulness Project charity and is coordinator at the Ratanadek Bilingual School.

Kru Ya

Bord member

Mr. Ya is the Founder of Ban Luk Rak Child Help Foundation, an incredible orphanage in Khon Kaen. He is turning his orphanage into a sustainable living center.

MINDFULNESS CHARITY GERMANY

Anja Carow

FOUNDER / YOGA TEACHER

Anja founded the Mindfulness Project together with Christian. She has been a nun for one year in Wat Pho Baan Nontan. Her passion is yoga and so she teaches yoga and meditation at the Mindfulness Project and organizes several yoga-related retreats every year.

Christian Carow

FOUNDER / MEDITATION TEACHER

Christian is the founder and spiritual leader of the Mindfulness Project. He has been a monk for one year in Wat Pho Baan Nontan. After this year he realized he wants to share his knowledge, enthusiasm for life and his natural way of living with people from all over the world.

Janne Tiktok

Yoga teacher / team member Thailand

Janne is a former professional cyclist and now Yoga teacher and nutrition advisor of the project in Thailand.

Ren Breese

Administration Management

Well-being researcher from the island of Martha’s Vineyard.

Quite silly. Enthusiastic about spiritual, relational, cultural and environmental health.