The adventure began in 1997. After the release of The Monk and the Philosopher, I suddenly found myself with resources I had no need for. While promoting the book, a journalist asked me if I had any regrets in life. I considered myself incredibly fortunate in my life, I replied, but I would have liked to have been able to put into practice more of the compassion I had cultivated. Compassion was the center of my twenty-five years of meditation practice. Evers since 1967, the date of my first trip to India, where I met my first spiritual teacher Kangyur Rinpoche, it has been clear that compassion was the core of the Buddhist teachings.
Fortunately, my wish to help was about to come true. I had been powerless to do anything about the difficulties affecting the people with whom I shared my daily life in India, Nepal, and Tibet, because I had no financial means to undertake anything that could be of use to them.
After the passing of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, my second main teacher, his grandson, the current abbot of Shechen Monastery, Rabjam Rinpoche, called me one day to tell me that he wanted me to become more actively involved in serving the local communities. In 1999, we considered various possibilities, first in Nepal, near Shechen, but also in Bodhgaya, India, where we were building a monastery. We organized a mobile clinic service in some of the poorest villages in the province of Bihar, India. Then we built a clinic in Nepal.
Things were soon to take on a new dimension. In 1999, I met a friend who had read The Monk and the Philosopher. He asked me if it would be possible to undertake humanitarian projects in Tibet. “Repression is still very strict,” I replied, “but we could try to start with a school and a small clinic near the Shechen monastery in Kham, which would make it easier to supervise these projects.”
He accepted without hesitation, and in 2000, I returned to eastern Tibet and we successfully completed these first two projects. Encouraged by our success, we then built around twenty clinics, twenty-five schools, eighteen bridges, and homes for the elderly.
In 2004, as our projects in Asia had grown in scope, we officially founded Karuna-Shechen in France, followed by branches of Karuna-Shechen in the United States, Hong Kong, Canada, and Switzerland. At the same time, our projects gradually expanded.
In 2015, two major earthquakes devastated Nepal. Working closely with the Shechen Monastery, a team of about 30 monks from the Shechen Clinic set out every day in two trucks to distribute food, blankets, medical care and other necessities to affected villages. In two months, we helped 200,000 people in 220 villages, delivering 600 tons of rice and 15,000 tents, and other necessities.
In India, we developed significant projects in three of the country’s poorest states: Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal. We established medical centers with mobile clinics that provide care to hundreds of remote neighboring villages. We also created seventy literacy centers for adult women, young and old.
Our current programs have greatly expanded from our simple beginnings. The Small Money, Big Change program has set itself the goal of creating 60,000 gardens, enabling families to become self-sufficient, at a cost of €120 per vegetable garden. We are creating vocational training centers for women—basket weaving, embroidery, decorative candle making, sanitary napkin production, etc. We support dozens of early childhood education centers with toys and school supplies, and train teachers to educate the children through cooperative play. We equip hundreds of village homes with rainwater collection systems and have planted thousands of trees.
Karuna-Shechen now has a team of dynamic collaborators who have enabled a growth that we could not have imagined when we began.
Everyone involved in Karuna-Shechen projects is convinced of the importance of altruism, as well as the need to cultivate kindness, integrity, resilience, dedication, humility, and joy in our own lives. All too often, it is the weaknesses of human nature—ego conflicts, corruption, etc.—that explain the collapse of charitable organizations, rather than a lack of projects to accomplish or resources.
Our approach has always been pragmatic and field-oriented, focusing on the needs expressed by the populations themselves. We prioritize taking into account people’s lived reality, without preconceived ideas. I am confident that our current and future employees will continue to uphold these values.
A huge thank you
To those who, yesterday and today, have made Karuna much more than a humanitarian project:
a deeply human adventure, made possible thanks to the generosity of benefactors, nourished by the support of partners, carried out with heart by volunteers, and embodied every day by the unwavering commitment of our teams in India, Nepal, and France.
Credit photo : Anirban Ranjit
Since its creation, Karuna-Shechen has been committed to reducing poverty and enabling the most vulnerable women, men and children to express their full potential. It’s not just the story of one organisation: it’s the story of a collective movement driven by thousands of people – donors, volunteers, partners and beneficiaries – united by the same vision. Throughout 2025, don’t miss the personal stories of those who illustrate this shared trajectory.