‘Avehi’ means to know.
The AVEHI Public Charitable (Educational) Trust was set up in 1981 to promote empowerment through education. It was founded by individuals from various fields, committed to using the potential of audio-visual media to facilitate rational thinking, social awareness, and social change.
The Avehi Resource Centre with a fully functioning library was launched to facilitate community access to relevant media resources, particularly from the alternative media for widening horizons and for promoting values of equality, social justice, gender sensitivity, and secularism.
In 1990, Avehi initiated the AVEHI ABACUS PROJECT with the aim of developing a supplementary curriculum for formal schools in order to strengthen the quality and content of education.
Avehi Founding Members:
The AVEHI ABACUS PROJECT has a strong tradition of organization building initiated by persons with unique achievements in their respective fields. The AVEHI founding members came together to actualize their shared vision for a society, as most of them were active during the Indian freedom struggle.
The AVEHI trust was set up by persons of eminence from different fields, having eclectic interests and skill-sets, to further the cause of social transformation through media education. The founding trustees of AVEHI are Lt. Smt Shanta Gandhi (freedom fighter, noted theater person and educationist honoured with Padma Shree for her contribution to theatre and education), Shri. Prasanta Sanyal (freedom fighter, advertising professional, publisher’s editor, journalist), Dr. Malvika Chari (medical professional engaged in school health), Dr. Mani Kamerkar (Former Head of History Department, Bombay University), Advocate Kalyanmal Singhvi (noted legal expert awarded by the President of India in 1998 for his work with orphaned Adivasi children), Smt. Anasooya Godiwala (freedom fighter and corporate professional), Ms. Chandita Mukherjee (documentary film-maker and media educator, Director of the Comet Media Foundation, Bombay.)
The Founding Managing Committee of the organization also consisted of a group of talented and eminent persons, recognized for their contributions in their respective fields - Dr. Mulk Raj Anand (writer and social commentator; honored by the Sahitya Academy for his pioneering contribution to Indian literature in English) Shri. N.V.K. Murthy (noted cameraman, freedom fighter, Dadasaheb Phalke Awardee), Dr. Saroj Jha (medical professional, who has worked with WHO), Dr. Anjali Monteiro (documentary film-maker and media educator, currently Professor and Dean of the School of Media and Cultural Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai)
For more information: www.avehi.org.in