Category: Personal

The Little Book of Mindful Social Change

It’s been nearly four years since I wrote my last book. Given I’m not a professional writer who makes a living from the art, that’s fine. But last week a book idea came to me out of nowhere, and in the spirit of not resting on my laurels I got to work on it straight away.

The universe delivered and I published it yesterday. The Little Book of Mindful Social Change is the first time I’ve written down my philosophy to social change – ideas and strategies and behaviours learnt over many years in many places.

If you care deeply, think carefully and wonder if helping might just add to the noise, this book is for you. It’s for people who believe deep down that change should be thoughtful, humane and grounded. Not rushed, performative or driven by ego.

Drawing on years of real-world experience with kiwanja.net and FrontlineSMS, the book looks at what actually makes a difference. And it’s not grand strategies or shiny tools but quiet adaptations, humility, deep listening and trust in local knowledge. The most meaningful impact often comes from letting go. Letting go of control, of certainty and of the need to be right.

Running through this short collection of observations is a gentle exploration of mindfulness, Buddhism and inner work, offering a steady counterbalance to the urgency and intensity that so often surround social change. The book speaks honestly about the risks of good intentions, the harm that can come from moving too fast, and the importance of acting with care, respect, love and humility.

In the spirit of collaboration, friendship and inclusivity, the book is available as a free PDF here. It is also available on Amazon Kindle here, and will soon be available in paperback and hardback.

This is fine

“Terrible things are happening outside. Poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes or off the street. Families are torn apart. Men, women and children are separated. Children come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared”.

This quote is taken from Anne Frank’s diary in an entry dated January 13th, 1943. Yet any Palestinian could have said it any time over the last 60 years, or any American any time over the last 12 months.

At some point in their lives roughly one in every five Palestinian men in Gaza and the West Bank have been arrested – or abducted – and detained without charge. Just stop and think about that for a moment. Several thousand Palestinians are still held in Israeli detention centres or prisons. Indefinitely. Without charge.

Hundreds of those are children.

In the USA, ICE agents arrested a mind-blowing 328,000 people during 2025. Out of those, 327,000 were deported. Four people were killed during attempts to arrest them. Protestors aren’t safe, either. Just remember what happened last week.

And in the UK last summer, thousands of elderly protesters – including an 83-year-old Anglican priest, a 79-year-old Holocaust survivor’s daughter and an 89-year-old retired psychotherapist – were arrested for demanding an end to genocide in Gaza.

These are all acts of democratically elected governments.

If you thought this could never happen in the ‘civilised West’, think again. The rules-based order we’ve all come to depend on is being pulled apart right in front of our eyes. Laws are being applied selectively, power overriding accountability and norms once taken for granted are being openly ignored.

We might not know how to put an end to these horrors, but let’s not pretend they’re not happening.

One day they might come for you.

kiwanja Buddhism

I don’t yet have an insightful opinion of AI that warrants a blog post of any kind, but I have found one aspect particularly fascinating. You see, the openness of my approach to work over the past 22 years turns out to be something of a goldmine in our brave new AI-driven world. Since 2003 I have regularly blogged my ideas and thoughts, and I’ve posted up dozens of copies of articles I’ve written, including PDFs of my books, and shared audio interviews and videos of many of my talks. While there’s certainly going to be a down-side to all of this (deep fakes anyone?) it also means that tools like Claude and ChatGPT know plenty about me, my work, and my work ethos.

That means I can ask it questions. And when I do, I sometimes get the most surprising answers.

Recently I asked ChatGPT how my work ethos over the years might touch on traditional Buddhist thinking. Not only did I get what I thought was an impressively deep answer, I discovered that it thought that ‘kiwanja Buddhism’ was actually a thing. Of course, it would have meant a lot more to me if a Buddhist monk had told me that, but I’ll take AI for now.

Here’s what ChatGPT said.

kiwanja Buddhism refers to a perspective where Buddhist principles like mindfulness, compassion, interdependence and wise speech are applied to the fields of social impact and entrepreneurship. It’s a practical, non-dogmatic approach championed by Ken Banks on the website kiwanja.net, emphasising deep listening, intentional action and fostering empathetic, sustainable change in the world.

Key Concepts

Mindful action
Taking time to understand problems deeply before acting, avoiding knee-jerk reactions.

Compassion
Leading with kindness, listening to all perspectives and seeking solutions that uplift everyone, rather than acting from anger.

Interdependence
Recognising that all issues, like environmental problems and inequality, are connected and cannot be solved in isolation.

Wise speech
Engaging in truthful, kind and unifying communication rather than spreading anger or division.

Deep listening
Truly hearing others’ suffering and perspectives without judgment to foster empathy and understanding.

Letting go of ego
Focusing on the true impact of work for social good, rather than personal recognition, status or credit.

How it is Applied

Social innovation
Using Buddhist principles to inspire a shift from apathy to action, leading to technology-based solutions that promote empathy and change.

Coaching and mentoring
Guiding change makers to slow down, reflect and act with greater intention and wisdom.

Development work
Encouraging a deeper, more empathetic approach to addressing global challenges like inequality and environmental destruction.

If anything, this is an incredibly accurate reflection of how I’ve tried to go about my work over the years. Anyone who has read this blog or heard any of my talks will recognise all of the points that ChatGPT raises.

Sometimes it’s more about how you go about what you do and not what you actually do. So if kindness and empathy are the only things I’m remembered for, I’ll be more than happy with that.

Gaza: Ways to help

In my last post I wrote about how I’d decided to offer my skills completely free of charge to any legitimate Israeli or Palestinian organisation working on Gaza relief, Palestinian humanitarian causes or broader justice initiatives in the region. I’d had enough of standing by and witnessing all the suffering, and doing nothing about it. Maybe that’s how you’ve been feeling, too.

A big thank you to everyone who engaged in the LinkedIn version of that post – liked it, shared it or commented. Every interaction means a lot, and encourages others to speak up.

There was quite a lot of interest from others who also wanted to help, so I promised to share my approach in a separate post – which you’re reading here.

I decided to break my offer down in four separate but distinct areas. You might find this helpful as you think about how you might be able to help yourself.

⦿ Hard skill: Offer to do something I usually get paid for for free.
⦿ Soft skill: Become a mentor to those needing support.
⦿ Financial: Identify a small number of initiatives/organisations to donate to.
⦿ Social: Join an online community focused on the people and the issues.

I also decided to do all of this openly in the hope that it might encourage others to do the same. But it’s also totally okay to do it privately. Some people will have no choice.

Finally, I was thinking about listing the organisations (and individuals) that I’ve been recommended this week, but they may not want me to. Instead, if you found my approach useful and could do with a little help yourself, drop me an email – heretohelp@kiwanja.net – and I’d be happy to try and join some dots for you. I appreciate it’s sometimes confusing knowing who to support when there’s so much need.

Thank you.