Celebrating one year of Changemakers Ashram

Highlight of the month

A cooperative model for Changemakers Ashram

Our co-founders Ijas and Naji travelled to Hangzhou, China, to attend APCYS 5.0 — the Asia Pacific Cooperative Youth Summit organised by the International Cooperative Alliance Asia and Pacific. They presented an idea for a cooperative model for Kerala's changemakers and were the only team representing India at the summit.

Changemakers Ashram is the first place where we chose to put this model into practice. The idea is to gradually move from an Ignite-run facility to a member-held institution. In this model, the Ashram is not simply a space run by Ignite for its community — it is an institution owned, governed and sustained by the communities around it.

Updates from Changemakers Ashram

A round-up of what happened this month and what is coming up at the Ashram.

Alumni project · SST Community Action Seed Fund & mentorship

Land restoration experiments at the Ashram

Vijitha from SST 8 is leading the Ashram's attempt to put sustainability into practice through organic farming, land restoration and beekeeping. She is developing a farm using organic techniques, planting vegetables, caring for existing fruit plants, and planning for more. She has also taken the lead in setting up beekeeping experiments at the Ashram.

With limited resources, time and helping hands, the work is growing gradually. Vijitha is also engaging the surrounding community through farming and organic experiments. The aim is to restore and care for the land, make healthy and nourishing food part of the Ashram, and build a closer connection between people, food and place.

Insights from the team

The story of Changemakers Ashram: a home for grassroots action

Where do young problem-solvers go when they need the space, mentorship and runway to build lasting change? To answer this, The Ignite Foundation began shaping a dedicated home for community leadership. What started as an experiment in a rented Varkala house has grown into a 3-acre ecological hub in Chakkittappara, Calicut — complete with residential spaces, a training hall, and native gardens designed as a living lab for rural resilience.

From watershed restoration to community seed banks, the Ashram stands as a living space where changemakers can truly come home.

— Naji Mahfood, Co-Founder, The Ignite Foundation

Opinion · Founder perspective

Why we need more non-judgemental spaces for youth

Kerala has no shortage of young people who want to make a difference. They clean up rivers, run libraries, start cooperatives and take on local governance. What they often lack is not motivation or skill, but a place to belong. Most youth programmes end when the training does. Participants go home energised, then find themselves alone with their ideas. Many leave for jobs in cities or abroad, and those who stay often work in isolation. Good projects stall for want of a room, a desk or a colleague nearby.

Across Kerala, public spaces for young people have thinned out. Reading rooms and arts clubs that once shaped generations are fewer and quieter. Cafés and coworking spaces exist, but they are built for commerce, not community. There are very few places where a young person can walk in, meet others working on local problems, stay for a few days, host a meeting or simply find support.

Spaces like the Changemakers Ashram fill this gap. At our Ashram in the Western Ghats of Kozhikode, young people run organic farms and host monthly gatherings for elderly neighbours. These are small things, but they happen because there is a shared home that people return to, look after and run together.

Kerala needs many such spaces: in cities and villages, in the north and the south. Places close to universities and government, where young people can influence policy. Places in rural areas, where they can stay rooted in their communities. Places owned and run by the people who use them, on cooperative values. Every district could have one — a meeting ground for students, volunteers, social entrepreneurs and elders alike.

Programmes spark change. Spaces sustain it.

— Ijas Hakkim, Co-Founder, The Ignite Foundation

Impact story

From a common wall to a shared space

Changemakers Ashram is situated in Chakkittappara, Kozhikode, where the surrounding community and local public spaces are an important part of the Ashram's engagement with the area. As part of the 10th batch of the School for Social Transformation, participants took up a wall painting and cleaning activity near the Grama Panchayat Hall. The space included a common wall and plant boxes that required cleaning and maintenance.

The activity involved 24 SST participants, six volunteers and five facilitators. Before beginning the work, participants consulted the Panchayat President, elected members, local youth and other community members, and prepared the initial drawings for the wall based on these conversations. The group then spent an evening painting the wall and cleaning the surrounding area.

"I didn't expect this much, and the work turned out really well. Thank you to these young people who came to our Panchayat and contributed their time and effort."— Mrs Moly Thomas, President, Chakkittappara Grama Panchayat

The process became a learning experience for the SST participants — experiencing first-hand how community initiatives can be developed through consultation, participation, coordination with local government and collective action. Rather than simply creating something for the community, they learned what it means to create something with the community.

Reflection · Naji Mahfood, Co-Founder

The Ignite Foundation at the Asia Pacific Youth Summit

Presenting our cooperative model for Kerala's changemakers in Hangzhou, China, was an experience that made us think more seriously about what the Changemakers Ashram could become. In September, Ijas and I were finalists in the Coop Pitch 2026 competition at APCYS 5.0, organised by the International Cooperative Alliance Asia and Pacific. We were the only team representing India. We presented an idea for a cooperative model where changemakers could collectively own and shape the spaces they use.

Now, we want to put that idea into practice at the Changemakers Ashram. The Ashram started as a year-long pilot in Varkala and has now found a home on three acres in Chakkittappara, Kozhikode. More than 1,000 young people have passed through it so far. Today, farming, community action, youth engagement and local gatherings are slowly making it more than an Ignite-run facility. We want to gradually move towards a member-held institution: alumni and local community members can become members, an elected committee can take responsibility for day-to-day functioning, while Ignite continues as the apex body supporting standards and continuity.

For us, this is not simply an organisational change. It is an experiment in shared ownership and responsibility. We are also trying to make the Ashram a place where ideas become practice — through land restoration, organic farming, livelihoods, internships and community action. What we presented as an idea in China now has a place to be tested. Chakkittappara is where we get to find out whether it can actually work.

"What began as an idea for how changemakers could collectively own and shape their spaces is now finding its first testing ground at the Changemakers Ashram. From presenting the model in Hangzhou to putting it into practice in Chakkittappara, this is a small but important step towards building institutions that are owned, governed and sustained by the communities around them."

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