A Dream Takes Shape

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step”, a Japanese proverb states. The journey of Ashta No Kai began with a simple statistic that an incredible 61% of women, according to India’s 1991 census, were illiterate. A chance reading of “May You Be The Mother of a 100 Sons” in 1997 so shocked Founder Armene Modi, then a Professor of English in Tokyo, when she read this statistic that she decided to set up a project to increase women’s literacy near her hometown in Pune, India. Thus ‘Ashta No Kai’ (For a Better Tomorrow) was born – to bring hope, strength and a vision of empowerment to marginalised women and girls in rural India. Armene’s dream took roots when many well-wishers and friends in India and Japan pledged their wholehearted support. Today, Ashta No Kai has made many strides in transforming the lives of rural women and girls in the villages it has been working in since 1998.

Empowering Rural Women

Ashta No Kai is dedicated to empowering rural women. Ashta No Kai, through its efforts to promote and facilitate the capacity-building of marginalized women, aims to make a difference in rural women’s lives by providing them with the education, vocational skills, and resources they need to become economically independent and self-reliant.

Ashta No Kai hopes to assist women in search of their own voices to make the transition from passive acceptance of their fate to becoming vocal and active partners in their own development.