She was educated examen artium in 1963, and finished her education as a social worker in 1968 and alcohol adviser in 1994. She was employed be the Danish Statens Åndssvageforsorg in order to arrange for 120 Faroese people who were mentally retarded to move back to the Faroe Islands after living in the Danish institution Rødbygaard in Lolland for most of their lives. The initiative for this transfer came from the Danish government. The Faroese authorities showed very little interest for social politics. The Faroese people got the right to get an early retirement because of disability in and state pension at age 67 in 1959, but except for that social services were quite unknown in the Faroe Islands, and politicians thought it was a healthy sign, that the islands didn't need welfare state institutions, because care functions were performed by the women in the families. Kjølbro succeeded only in moving a smaller amount of the mentally retarded people back home, only those who had families who could take care of them or who could manage to work. When she realised that the Faroese authorities had no intention in building institutions for the rest of the Faroese mentally retarded people in Denmark, she chose to mobilise the grass roots and was one of the founders of Javni, which is a grass root organisation for Faroese people with disabilities and their families, it was the first of its kind in the Faroe Islands. Kjølbro also made other efforts in order to make the Faroese people aware of their rights, one of these efforts was to start a social letterbox in the Faroese newspaper 14. september.Kvinfo.dk, Karin Kjølbro (1944 - ) Kjølbro, Karin Ranvá
