Uttara Bharath Kumar
Search Filter
Uttara Bharath Kumar 1993 fellow
Bold Idea
Educate health to illiterate audiences through innovative communication methods.
Organization
“Nalamdana” means “Are you Well?” in Tamil, and is also the name of the dynamic group of people who banded together to create this organization.
The core group at Nalamdana are from diverse backgrounds, but came together because of a common passion, for theatre, innovative communication, and use of entertainment education to reach under privileged communities in Tamilnadu.
They believe that such participatory communication techniques, make complex health and social messages easily understood. Nalamdana's mission is to use creative, innovative, and entertaining behavior change methods with community participation, to enable target audiences to make better informed decisions about their own health and that of their family’s.
Biography
Uttara Bharath Kumar is the co-founder of Nalamdana, a non-profit NGO for health communication, and served as its Executive Director until 1996. Previously, she worked for the Johns Hopkins University/Center for Communication Programs (JHU CCP) in Baltimore, and later worked in their Zambia field office supporting Southern and East Africa programs. She continues to actively serve on Nalamdana's Board of Trustees and provides technical guidance to Nalamdana's projects, research, and planning, as well as training and workshops. She is currently a Senior Program Officer for JHU CCP based in Chennai, providing support to programs in India, Asia, and Africa. Uttara holds a Master's degree in Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and a BA from Wellesley College.
