Karadi Cultural Alliance Trust (KCAT)

The Karadi Cultural Alliance Trust (KCAT) is a not-for-profit organisation that was started in 2003. The organisation has 5 founder-trustees: Ms. Shobha Viswanath (writer, educational consultant), Ms. Anooradha Sriram (musician), Ms. Nandita Das (actress), Ms. P. R. Rajalakshmi (honorary administrative manager), and Mr. C. P. Viswanath (musician).

KCAT’s vision is to contribute to the alleviation of educational and cultural deprivation of children in disadvantaged groups through creative materials and methods. Other KCAT projects include the Dreaming Fingers initiative to provide tactile picture books to the visually impaired, which was an initiative supported by the Ford Foundation, and the Karadi Path initiative to help children in 30 Panchayat union primary schools around Chennai along the path of language learning, which was an initiative supported by the Government of Tamil Nadu. Following the tsunami of 2004, KCAT also distributed books to displaced communities in an initiative supported by the UNICEF.

Our Vision

  • To integrate culture with education wherever relevant and possible.
  • To contribute to the alleviation of educational and cultural deprivation of children in disadvantaged groups through creative materials and methods.

Visually impaired children touching the tactile edition of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle published as a touch-and-see book with Braille text by Dreaming Fingers