At Latika Adda, Friendship is not a Programme

Group photo of young people and a woman in a sari under a wooden gazebo with stone tile flooring.

Eleven members of Latika Adda, India’s only leisure club for disabled adults, visited The Doon School recently. Accompanied by three members of staff, they received a warm welcome from Ms Seetha and student leader Lakshya. The objective of the visit was to enable Adda members and Doscoes to meet, share stories about themselves, their lives […]

A Shout Out to Moms Everywhere

Group of women in colourful Indian outfits posing together on a curving staircase, smiling and giving peace signs.

In families across the world, it’s usually the moms who do the heavy lifting – globally, the figure stands at thrice as much unpaid care work than men, with the numbers closer to five times as much in India (OECD, 2023). The emotional and physical toll is well documented. For mothers of disabled children, in […]

Autism Week at Latika

Promotional graphic reading Latika celebrates Autism Awareness Week with the autism infinity symbol.

Awareness days come and go but for those who live with the conditions – or love those who do – like the children and families in our community, they’re a lived reality. So this year, we turned 2 April, World Autism Day, into a weeklong celebration. Autism’s everywhere this month, and quite literally too, with […]

Ramping Up On Safety

Architectural rendering of the Latika centre's interior with a wheelchair user, children playing and brick walls.

Safety is one of the most important values at Latika: ensuring the protection of our children and staff at all times is key to everything we do.  Our ramp is a work of art, an example of iconic design and a practical means both of access and escape in the event of an emergency. The […]

Going for Gold

Group of young people stand outdoors holding flower bouquets in front of a stone house and garden.

In February this year, 13 of our athletes participated in a sports meet in the run up to the Special Olympics at Jyoti Special School, Rishikesh. They competed in the 100-meter race, bocce, shot put, and softball throw, and what a performance they gave – one hundred percent, all of them, and we couldn’t be […]

Walking the Talk in Architecture, Access, and Acceptance

Event poster for Architecture Access Acceptance, a talk by Jo Chopra McGowan at the Doon Library on 7 March 2025.

At Latika, acceptance and accessibility have formed the bedrock of our work since we got started three decades ago. So when our Executive Director, Jo Chopra, was invited to speak at the Doon Library and Resource Center on ‘Architecture, Access, Acceptance’ on 7 March, it was on a subject close to her heart, particularly now […]

Art for Latika | Take Two

Watercolour illustration of a child in a blue hijab carrying a purple backpack, viewed from behind.

During Covid, I happened to be stranded in the US. I had gone to be with my daughter for her first baby’s delivery and the day I arrived, all the airports shut down. I stayed for 15 months – until I’d gotten the second vaccine – and among the many things that happened during that […]

The ABCs of Art, Beauty, Construction

A young man in a hard hat smiling as he installs a carved stone owl plaque on a brick wall.

When we selected Pradeep Sachdeva Design Associates as the architects for our new campus, we knew our building would be beautiful. Exposed brickwork done with exquisite craftsmanship is PSDA’s signature trademark and we were not disappointed – they even designed a selfie point for us as a surprise! What we didn’t expect was how the […]

WELCOME, WIPRO!

Five women wearing hard hats laughing together inside an unfinished concrete building.

We were delighted to welcome Shabda Birfani Bedi from the Wipro Foundation on 30 and 31 January 2025. On the agenda: a discussion of the Wabi-Sabi inclusion project funded in part by Wipro, an ardent proponent of inclusion, meetings with schools Wabi-Sabi partners with and of course, a grand tour of our construction site. Shabda […]