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How to Build Rural Communities That Sustain Themselves While Transforming the Community with Sanjana Shrestha and Swathi Massar from READ Global
Facilitating Change: How to create transformative spaces that inspire, empower & drive real change
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In this Thanksgiving week, we bring you one of the most moving conversations we have ever had on Facilitating Change. Mentor sits down with two remarkable leaders from READ Global: Sanjana Shrestha and Swathi Massar. Their work spans rural Nepal, India, and Bhutan, where they support communities in building community-led libraries and resource centers that unlock dignity, agency, and long-term change.
This episode goes deep into what real facilitation looks like in places where people have been told for generations that they have no power. Sanjana and Swathi share stories of bonded laborers, women who were once considered untouchable, and entire villages that shifted from “this is our fate” to “we are the authors of our own future.” They show us how deep listening, humility, patience, and shared humanity can transform whole systems.
You will hear stories of:
– How a simple tent became the first “library” in a brick kiln community
– What it takes to earn trust in places where outsiders usually create dependency
– Why facilitation is not a method but a way of being
– The five kinds of patience needed to help communities lead their own change
– How READ centers are built, owned, and sustained by the community itself
– Why not a single READ center has closed in 35 years
This is a conversation about dignity, trust, and the kind of change that lasts because people own it.
A Thanksgiving Invitation
This week, as we reflect on gratitude, we also have a chance to support work that is helping families create real freedom and possibility for the next generation. If this episode moves you, consider supporting READ Global.
General information: www.readglobal.org
Donate here: www.readglobal.org/empower
Even a small contribution makes a meaningful difference, especially now when global funding is shifting and the work depends on community-paced, patient, human facilitation. If you’re looking for a place to give during Thanksgiving week, this is the organization Mentor is choosing to champion.
Thank you for listening, for supporting, and for being part of a community that believes in change shaped by the people living it.
Enjoy the episode.
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