Katha is an India publishing house that uses literature to promote social change in Delhi's slum communities.
http://www.katha.org/
The organisation runs a number of schools and women's empowerment groups in and around Delhi. A few of us visited as part of the Involve International Opportunities Programme and saw first hand the amazing work being done.
We have set up a society to work with Katha to benefit the schools and groups in Delhi but also to bring some Katha's values to the local community in Lancaster.
We have a number of different projects running:
Mentoring Programme - Students at Lancaster can mentor students at the Katha run schools through an online portal. The aim to to make the students at Katha more globally contacted and improve their English. Contact Lucy Miller (lucymiller1@live.co.uk) if you are interested in getting involved for further.
Women's Empowerment: We are working to make advice leaflets for the women's groups in the slum communities to inform them of their rights: such as access to ration cards which we found many women weren't getting. If you want to work on this project get in touch with Matthew Hilton (m.hilton@lancs.ac.uk).
Fund-raising- We are raising money for Katha to send some of their students over to Lancaster and to organise a summer school. This will be the first time the children have ever been out of the country and will be an absolutely amazing opportunity for them. To get involve in fund-raising events get in touch with Lucy Searles.
Local Schools Project - We are working in partnership with Involve to create reading circles in local schools using Katha books to increase the pupils cultural awareness. There is also the possibility of doing a Indian culture day in one of the schools. If you are interested in this get in touch with Emily Robertson (e.robertson1@lancaster.ac.uk)
Lancaster Katha Society 