Arun Gandhi, a grandson of Mohandas “Mahatma” Gandhi, was born in Durban, South Africa during the apartheid years. At age 12, Arun was taken to India to live with his famous grandfather and learn ways to cope with anger and violent reactions. He learned some very valuable lessons during the two years that he spent with his famous grandfather. Arun says: Those two years changed my life for the better.

He founded the M. K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence in 1991 originally based at the Christian Brothers University in Memphis, Tennessee, and moved in 2008 to the University of Rochester, NY. The Institute has programs for inner-city children, inmates of correctional facilities, and poor families living in the inner city of Rochester. The Institute also teaches nonviolence to students.

Arun is now the President of the Gandhi Worldwide Education Institute to take the message of nonviolence all over the world and, to rescue and train children living in poverty so that they can break the oppressive cycle that crushes them generation after generation.