What we do

Karuna works in four countries across South Asia, where hundreds of millions of people suffer lives of grinding poverty and oppression, excluded from the region’s economic boom.

For example, in rural India, Bangladesh and Nepal, ‘low castes’ or ethnic minorities struggle as landless day labourers, in constant danger of violence and exploitation, with little or no recourse to the law or police. At best their children receive a few years of substandard schooling. In the teeming cities, such people live in cramped, dirty slum huts, so oppressed by the daily struggle to survive that they can offer little means of escape to their children.

Karuna works with community based organisations that are helping thousands of people to escape the hell of poverty and discrimination and take their rightful place in society.

In this section

Education

Marginalized people remain excluded from mainstream society without access to decent education.

Women's Empowerment

In addition to caste discrimination, Dalit women suffer further marginalisation because of their gender.

Cultural Expression

“Our aim is to help people live happier, more fully human lives” Ashvaghosa worker.

Buddhism

Karuna believes that suffering is eased through gradual but profound shifts in individual attitudes and consciousness.

Accessing Human Rights

India has one of the most sophisticated constitutions in the world, and one that provides strong guarantees to protec...