KATHA-UNCOMMON SOLUTIONS FOR A COMMON GOOD

1. KATHA-UNCOMMON SOLUTIONS FOR A COMMON GOOD Presented By: GunjanBansal NavedShah AnkurMehrotra

2. HISTORY • Founded by GeetaDharmarajan with UNICEF in 1988 and since then she’s the Executive Director • KATHA School was started in 1990 with 5children – largest slum clusters in Delhi

3. KATHA’S MISSION • The joy of reading among children and adults • Interest in lifelong learning that will help the child grow into a confident, self-reliant, responsible and responsive adult • Help break down gender, cultural and social stereotypes • Encourage, foster excellence, and quality literature and translations between the various Indian languages

4. ABOUT KATHA • Katha is a registered nonprofit organization working with and for children and adults and works through a unique concept of stories and storytelling • Katha serves as a leading edge organization in the literacy to literature continuum, in both education and publishing • Katha basically works for underprivileged children ( age-group 0-17years) • Establishing schools for slum children's in their area or area nearest to their vicinity like KathaKhazna

5. FIGHTING FOR CAUSE • They are fighting to eradicate hunger & poverty , providing basic necessities of life , health & hygiene, empowering women to work • Katha’s on going programme i.e. ‘SHE’ stands for Safe water & Sanitation , Health & Hygiene and Education & Economic conditions • Establishment of self-help group through which Katha trained 1,055 women in baking , embroidery , cooking & various other income generating skills.

6. Work Areas • Methodology of katha is that they teach children through stories & real life experiences like mode of transport which is taught through real objects like showing them buses , cars etc and discussing its features. • Children attending katha are mostly first generation learners who don't have access to education in their regular life. • They provide Mobile crèches to children at the construction site.

7. Cont… • These crèches provide them facilities like day care, meals and education. • They have a bus named Tamasha road show, which cater the needs of the street children. • The mobile van teach them through pictorial books. • They also conduct workshops for in-service teachers related to innovative ideas of teaching for e.g. Conducting Puppetry work-shop, paper toys , story-telling workshops • The most recent work-shop conducted by katha was kite flying festival , storytelling & illustrations in DASTKAR Basant Bazaar.

8. Achievements • As if now KATHA caters the needs of 6,000 students in the Kathashalas • It helps bring positive changes - lives of more than 6,000 children & 250,000 adults, living in 57 communities

9. FUNDING • 1988, started with UNICEF to the Government of Delhi and of India • The embassies and high commissions :- Australian, French, German, Netherlands, Swedish ,UK & the EU • Corporate and donor partners included:- British Telecom, Cognizant Foundation, Ford Foundation, GAIL, Intel, MSDF, Oxfam, PVR, Target, Tata group, Wipro have given their invaluable support to make dream of Katha a reality.

10. Learning Outcomes • The first generation children are very talented & some of them are very good at drawing sketching and painting. • The interiors of katha is designed by children themselves, the pictures represented on the walls are painted by the katha children & some of the excellent sketches & paintings are framed & hanged in the katha interiors. • Anyone interested in volunteering can join katha.