Ahimsa in Action | UN WSSD2 | Doha, Qatar 2025

Official film poster for AHIMSA — Gandhi: The Power of the Powerless Featured at the United Nations Second World Summit for Social Development (WSSD2), Doha, Qatar, 2025.

Gandhi’s Legacy for a Just and Inclusive Future

Rooted in Gandhi’s timeless principle of Ahimsa (nonviolence), this gathering reflects humanity’s shared pursuit of justice, equity, and peace in action.

Thirty years after the first World Summit for Social Development (WSSD) in Copenhagen, the global community gathers again in Doha, Qatar, for the Second World Summit for Social Development (WSSD2) — a historic reaffirmation of the world’s commitment to social justice, equity, and peace.

Learn more about the Summit’s purpose and host partners here:

👉 UN DESA | About the World Summit 2025

This year’s Summit arrives at a moment of fragile hope — calls for peace in the Middle East and renewed ceasefires remind us that Ahimsa (nonviolence) is not the absence of conflict but the presence of understanding. The world watches as fragile truces and humanitarian efforts remind us that peace is not imposed by force but cultivated through understanding, empathy, and the shared will to end suffering.

Aligning With the WSSD Goals

Our virtual screening, Ahimsa in Action — Gandhi’s Legacy for a Just and Inclusive Future, is an official UN Solutions Session hosted by the Gandhi Worldwide Education Institute (GWEI), which holds Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

GWEI’s mission mirrors the WSSD objectives: to end the cycle of poverty in all its forms and break the cycles that sustain it, expand education, and foster social inclusion through nonviolent development. This alignment reaffirms the shared vision between the United Nations and Gandhi Worldwide Education Institute — that lasting social progress arises only from unity, compassion, and the power of nonviolence in action.

As we often say — let us build schools instead of battlefields, and turn the spirit of division into the work of cooperation.

This vision comes to life through the grassroots efforts of our partners and allies who are advancing education, empowerment, and nonviolence on the ground.

Avani, Kolhapur, India | Gandhi Worldwide Education Institute Partner

Grassroots Work in India and Beyond

In Kolhapur, India, our partner Avani — a trusted women-led NGO working since 1995 — has dedicated its mission to building a just and equal society.

Avani provides marginalized and migrant communities with access to education, nourishment, and dignity through community-led programs focused on empowerment, rehabilitation, and advocacy.

Every day, Avani’s team brings education directly to children who live and migrant families work in sugarcane fields and brick kilns during the non-monsoon season, transforming makeshift shelters into classrooms of hope. Through these efforts, the spirit of self-reliance that Gandhi envisioned becomes a living reality — where education, nourishment, and dignity grow from the ground up. Their evidence-driven approach combines data, compassion, and innovation to ensure each program is both impactful and sustainable.

Avani’s partnerships with the World Economic Forum, Global Fund for Women, Johns Hopkins University, Salisbury University, University of Denver, and the Gandhi Worldwide Education Institute reinforce a shared vision: ending exploitation by creating opportunities for women and children to thrive.

Through Avani’s initiatives, communities are learning to protect the environment, reduce waste, and create sustainable livelihoods that uplift entire families.

Their motto — Protect, Educate, Elevate — embodies the living spirit of Ahimsa in action.

In Brazil, this light continues to radiate through the Gandhi Room Brazil, where the principles of Ahimsa are kept alive and shared globally. With the premiere of AHIMSA — Gandhi: The Power of the Powerless in Brazil, we carried this message from the United States to Brazil, and now to Doha — following earlier United Nations screenings in Vienna and New York. Each screening becomes a new ripple in the global current of Ahimsa — uniting hearts across continents and affirming that Gandhi’s message still speaks to the world’s most urgent challenges.

Arun Gandhi, Phoenix Settlement, Durban, South Africa — reflecting on his grandfather’s legacy where it all began.

Carrying the Light Forward

Arun Gandhi, who appears in the film, eternally rests in Kolhapur, India, where his life’s work continues to inspire. His presence in AHIMSA— Gandhi: The Power of the Powerless serves as both remembrance and renewal — a bridge between generations carrying forward the work of nonviolence in education and daily life.

Seeds of Light, our final project together during his lifetime, included the “Nonviolent Tree” chapter — drawn from a discipline his grandfather once gave him to practice, marking the beginning of his lifelong education in nonviolence. That story became a seed of his lifelong education in ahimsa, and it remains a part of our peace legacy work today — expressed through the Seeds of Light book and companion journal.

Here in Nevada, we’ve shared Arun’s children’s books, Grandfather Gandhi and my own book Seeds of Light — which includes a Foreword by Arun, with Title I schoolchildren — bringing Gandhi’s timeless message of peace and nonviolence into classrooms in the Las Vegas community. Each encounter reminds us that ahimsa begins not in distant movements, but in the hearts of those learning to meet the world with understanding and compassion.

Qatar National Convention Centre, venue of the Second World Summit for Social Development (WSSD2), Doha 2025. Photo by UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 .

Join the Event

📅 Screening Date: November 3, 2025 (free of charge)

🕖 Time: 7:00-8:30 p.m. Doha, Qatar Time | 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. EST | 8:00-9:30 a.m. PST 

🌐 Official Webpage: www.gandhiforchildren.org/wssd2

🖥️  Watch 

🌐 UN Summit Web TV Live: https://webtv.un.org/en 

🔗 UN Event Listing V33: View on the UN Summit Calendar 

🎥 Watch film during our V33 Solution Session — available here at scheduled time. [LIVE LINK]

As we move from reflection to action, the legacy of Ahimsa continues to guide us — reminding the world that compassion is not a sentiment but a strategy for peace.

The Knotted Gun sculpture at the United Nations Headquarters, New York, a universal symbol of nonviolence and the spirit of Ahimsa. Photo by Lynnea Bylund, taken on January 30, 2024, the anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s passing.

Reflection

“Social progress means nurturing peace, equity, and compassion so that all people have access to education, dignity, and opportunity, while communities work together to protect our planet and uphold fairness for generations to come.”

— Submitted to the United Nations Second World Summit for Social Development (WSSD2) by permission of the Gandhi Worldwide Education Institute (ECOSOC)

Closing 

“The presumption of prior unity — rather than the conflict between opposing identities — needs to be the basis for life in human society.”

— The World-Friend, Adi Da, Prior Unity: The Basis for a New Human Civilization