Karen Chouhan

Karen Chouhan is an activist for the Black Londoners' Forum, an organisation working for better race relations. She is married to J. Chouhan, who works for De Montfort University in Leicester, and comes from an Indian ethnic group.

Nintendo Brain Training prize

Karen achieved prominence in late 2007 when the Chouhans were declared “Britain’s brainiest family” when she and her daughter, Chhaya (17) and son, Amar (10) achieved the highest score in a UK-wide contest organised by Nintendo, the computer games company [ [http://www.maxconsole.net/?mode=news&newsid=22529 MAXCONSOLE - Nintendo Wii - Nintendo reveal Britain's brainiest family ] ] . The £20,000 prize from Nintendo was intended for the children’s university fees and other educational costs. When she won the prize, a thrilled Karen had said: “We’re both amazed and speechless. This is such an amazing prize and Chhaya and Amar will benefit so much from the free university fees.” Her husband also played an important role by cheering from the sidelines when his wife and children won the London finals. With him was the eldest Chouhan child, Ashok, who works for Carphone Warehouse in Leicester. Nintendo UK marketing director Dawn Paine commented: “We all know what an expensive necessity education can be so this is an amazing prize for the family.”

Funding controversy

In March 2008 she again came to prominence for more controversial events. During the third election campaign of Ken Livingstone, twice the Mayor of London from 2000-2008, it was revealed that Lee Jasper, Livingstone's race relations advisor, had sent explicit sexual e-mails to Karen in 2006 and that her organisation had received a substantial grant from the Mayor's office. [ [http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1154558 DNA - World - Livingstone's race adviser quits over sexy e-mails - Daily News & Analysis ] ] One of the organisations of which Karen is a board member, the 1990 Trust, received a £65,000 grant from the City Hall. A second group, the Black Londoners’ Forum, was also funded by City Hall. Jasper helped the 1990 Trust and the Black Londoners’ Forum, of which Karen was a director, to receive more than £100,000 from City Hall grants. In total the two organisations were awarded £638,000 from the Mayor’s office.

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