Our friend Martha Farrell, an NGO leader and adult educator, has died aged 55. She was among 14 people killed in a Taliban attack on a guest house in Kabul, Afghanistan. Martha was known and respected in India, and around the world, for her work on adult education, women’s rights and gender equality. She had been leading a gender training workshop with the Aga Khan Foundation in Kabul at the time of the attack. She was fearless and committed to her work, despite the dangers.
Daughter of Iona and Noel Farrell, Martha was born in Delhi into an Anglo-Indian family. She went to Presentation Convent in Delhi, studied English literature at Delhi University, and did a master’s in social work at the same university. Martha began her career as a literacy worker, then broadened into adult education on a number of social issues, and later became a leader of the adult education programmes and a co-director at PRIA, the Society for Participatory Research in Asia, working alongside her husband, Rajesh Tandon, PRIA’s founder.
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