KITES: Katha Info Tech School

Creating hope and life opportunities for the urban poor - especially children and women - by forging alternative futures and community revitalization through cooperative information technology.

Katha's IT initiatives help break class and caste and English language rules by expanding the reach of English into poorer communities.

Moving effortlessly over the technology divide, our IT uses the power of story to culture-connect India's vast and diverse peoples, and move from passive into active tolerance, from debilitating mass cultures into more participatory and critical cultures, building the maturity in ourselves to keep the best of what we have, accept the best of what modernization has to offer.

The idea is to learn by doing rather than learning to do. Children at Katha develop teaching/learning materials for the junior and preschool, thus learning serendipitously to draw and paint and design on the computer. They think and plan urban design for the homes in our community, thus learning sophisticated skills like CAD and related softwares; survey and social map, and hence learn to use data management, other financial software packages.

The new Tamasha! the print magazine will make way for the e-version as and when connectivity reaches the villages.

Tamasha Roadshows . With funding from the European Wings for Support, this "IT school on wheels" serves street children.

KathaTV Network . KTN . A community TV with a difference. It inverts the very basic premise of TV as personal. Home-based entertainment.

The drive towards community mobilization for taking on the responsibility for their children's education is an inherent strength of this model and gives them the power to improve the quality of their own life.

GReDI . Katha';s major initiative, the GOVINDPURI ReDESIGN INITIATIVE has found the support of the European Union this year! The idea is to research and

PARTNERS

Our community . They form our most important partner to date. This includes especially our women We have helped in skills upgradation and training of more than 100 women each year for the last twelve years and who in turn have helped us learn the need for dreams and the meaning of potential. And our children!

Our volunteers, mentors and resource people . From all walks of life, from theatre artists to designers, writers, academics to IT/other professionals, they have come in to help us as and when they could, making the whole initiative fun and happening! The Friends of Katha Network has over the last few years helped Katha move from dreaming to doing in measured and sure steps.

Government Funding Partners . The Government of Delhi and the Slum Wing of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, who have both been with us from the day we began in 1990; the Government of India, especially the Department of Women and Child Development.

Corporate Funding Partners The Tata Group of Companies. and British Telecom who, by their proactive and spontaneous help have made the work happen. We also thank Intel for early partnership given two years ago. And to the Boston Museum of Science and MIT Media Lab for their lasting enthusiasm!