Journeys
Journeys across seven continents
Raghu Vamsi Kadiri has travelled across all seven continents and 25+ countries and territories, through fellowships, leadership programmes, volunteering and solo backpacking. Everywhere, he looks at the same question: what makes people show up for each other?
Seven continents, one question
Asia and Oceania, Europe and Africa, the Americas and Antarctica. Scroll to follow the threads home to Hyderabad.
- Asia and Oceania. the Himalayas, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand Himalayan villages, the United Nations in Laos, where the country keeps an eighteenth goal of its own, and long stretches across Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
- Europe and Africa. the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Russia, Namibia, Nigeria, Mauritius and W. Sahara An international leadership programme in Italy, journeys through Europe, and Africa from the Namib to Mauritius.
- The Americas and Antarctica. the United States, Canada, Greenland, Brazil and Antarctica North and South America, the ice of Greenland, and the seventh continent, where climate change stops being abstract.
Where he has been, by continent
The places, grouped so they are easy to scan. There are more on the way.
Asia
India, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Taiwan
Europe
The United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Russia
Africa
Namibia, Nigeria, Mauritius and Western Sahara
Oceania
Australia and New Zealand
North America
The United States, Canada and Greenland
South America
Brazil
Antarctica
The seventh continent
Asia
The United Nations in Laos, and an eighteenth goal
Laos is the only country that keeps a Sustainable Development Goal of its own. Alongside the 17 global goals sits SDG 18: lives safe from unexploded ordnance, launched in 2016 with the support of the United Nations.
Raghu worked with the United Nations in Laos, and the lesson stayed with him: global goals only work when a country makes them its own. It is the idea behind his talks on localising the SDGs.
Asia
Fundraising on the shop floor in Thailand
At a UNICEF stand in a busy shopping centre, fundraisers ask passers-by to become monthly donors, face to face, one conversation at a time.
For someone who builds volunteer networks, it is a reminder that trust is earned in person, and that the ask is only as strong as the cause behind it.
Europe
An international leadership cohort in Italy
The WYSE International Leadership Programme brings emerging leaders from many countries together in Italy for a residential programme on global citizenship and solving global challenges.
Days of working through problems with people from very different places made one thing clear: the instinct to show up for others needs no common language. What differs is the structure that lets it work.
Asia
Taiwan, solo
Long stretches of solo travel are part of how Raghu learns. In Taiwan that meant heritage buildings by day and the city lit up at night, with Taipei 101 above it all.
Asia
Villages in the Himalayas
Farm work on terraced Himalayan hillsides, and a World Environment Day rally with schoolchildren on a mountain road.
Programmes look different from a hillside. The people who live there already know what their land needs; the job of an outsider is to listen first, and help second.
Watch
The Ichamati, on the India and Bangladesh border
India
Where nature and nations meet: the Ichamati
On the banks of the Ichamati, the river that marks part of the border between India and Bangladesh, Raghu talks about the river’s life, its people and the environmental pressures it carries.
It is one episode of the short field diaries he records on the road.
India
Living with host families
Rural immersions mean living with a village family for days at a time: cooking at their hearth, walking their fields and learning how decisions are really made in the community.
It is where Raghu learned that the best programmes are designed with people, not for them.
Camping and the open road
Tents by lakes, mornings among boulders and the occasional rainbow. Time outdoors is part of the work too.
What the road taught him
Lessons that came home to Hyderabad and into Marpu Foundation’s work.
People everywhere want to help
In every country, the willingness to show up for others is there. What changes from place to place is whether there is a structure that lets people help well.
Local knowledge beats imported plans
Communities know what their land, their schools and their streets need. Good programmes start by listening.
Goals mean nothing until someone owns them
Laos’s eighteenth goal is a reminder that global targets work only when a country, a district or a village makes them its own.
The work is done by people who stay
Visitors leave. Lasting change comes from the people who remain, which is why Marpu invests in volunteers who come back year after year.
Journeys, briefly
Straight answers to the questions people ask about Raghu’s travels.
How many countries has Raghu Vamsi Kadiri visited?
At least 25 countries and territories across all seven continents, from Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Taiwan to the United Kingdom, Italy, Namibia, Mauritius, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, Greenland and Brazil, as well as Antarctica.
Has Raghu Vamsi Kadiri been to all seven continents?
Yes. Asia, Europe, Africa, Oceania, North America, South America and Antarctica. The places are listed on this page by continent.
Did Raghu work with the United Nations?
Yes. He has worked with the United Nations in Laos, where the country keeps an eighteenth Sustainable Development Goal of its own: lives safe from unexploded ordnance. He is also a Global Shaper with the World Economic Forum’s Hyderabad Hub.
Which international programmes has he been part of?
Among others, the WYSE International Leadership Programme in Italy, UNESCO World Heritage volunteering, the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Community and the American Express Leadership Academy. See fellowships and programmes.
Does Raghu speak at international events?
Yes, in person and online. He gives keynotes on India’s CSR law, volunteer-led development and youth leadership. See international keynotes.
Why does a social entrepreneur travel so much?
Because the question that drives his work travels well: what makes people show up for each other? Every place answers it differently, and the answers come back into how Marpu Foundation designs its volunteer programmes in India.
Want an international perspective in the room?
Raghu speaks on India’s CSR law, volunteer-led development and youth leadership, in person or online, across time zones.