Pratham which means ‘First’ in Hindi was founded in Mumbai by UNICEF in 1994 to help provide basic literacy to India’s 100 million illiterate children. Through its Read India campaign which began in 2008, Pratham has now reached over 35 million children in 22 Indian states.

Pratham is a grassroots based NGO and works with young people, village communities, governments, corporates and volunteers to provide a model that is economic, scalable and does not replicate government infrastructure. Pratham’s development interventions include improving literacy and arithmetic at primary and secondary level, protecting vulnerable children from child labour and providing greater opportunities for vocational skilling for young people.

Pratham has also become a powerful voice in the area of educational reform. The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) facilitated by Pratham is referred to by the Central and State Governments for formulating education plans and policies.

Earlier this year, in the first list of its kind, Pratham was awarded number 22 in the list top 100 NGO’s in the world in the esteemed Global Journal. In 2009, Pratham received the CNN-IBN Indian of the Year Award in the Public Service category and was designated a ‘must buy’ by the Abdul Jameel Poverty Action Lab, MIT. Pratham was also the recipient of the Henry Kravis award for Leadership for 2010.

Pratham UK was founded in 2003 by volunteers who wanted to help make a difference through educating children. As an overseas chapter of Pratham India, Pratham UK focuses on fundraising to support Pratham's programme work on the ground, whilst also increasing awareness of the charity's goals and activity with a UK audience by holding fundraising and awareness building events throughout the year of which the ARTiculate gala is the high point.

www.pratham.org

www.pratham.org.uk