nishtha annual report 2014-15

8/19/2019 Nishtha Annual Report 2014-15

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Nishtha UK Trust

Charities CommissionRegistration No: 1118248

IR charity status ref No: XT2400

e-mail: [email protected]

Cheques can be made out to

Nishtha UK Trust and sent to:

Nishtha UK TrustP O Box 203 Totnes,Devon TQ9 9BS

or paid directly to:

Nishtha UK Trustsort code: 30 97 41a/c No: 00118802

BIC: LOYDGB21063IBAN: GB82 LOYD 3097 4100 1188 02

Your donations will qualify us

to receive Gift Aid benefit!

Nishtha Rural Health, Education& Environment Centre

VPO Rakkar, Sidhbari,

Distt.Kangra 176057Himachal Pradesh, India

Tel: +91-9882895838


Bank Account:State Bank of Patiala, Sidhbari, H.P

No: 55094130770. Bank code: 5-441Swift code: STBPINBB597

(Chandigarh – Sector 8-C Branch)

Nishtha Rural Health, Education& Environment Centre is a

registered charitable TrustRegistration No: 51 1/4/98

Tax Exemption No: N26 (Shimla)FCRA No: 182450048

dedicat ion and commitment

Nishtha Austria Trust

Gemeinsames Engagement fürEntwicklungszusammenarbeit.


Bank name: OberbankBLZ 15000

a/c No: 4591018215BIC: OBKLAT2L

IBAN: AT241500004591018215 Verwendungszweck: Projekt Indien

Nishtha depends on individual donors to continue our health and community work.

We are very grateful to all those who provide support through Nishtha Austria and

Nishtha UK Trust as well as to those who contribute directly and to our local supporters.

Nishtha Austria

Austria Republic of IndiaUnited Kingdom

Nishtha’s Website

www.nishtha-hp.org

Nishtha on Facebook

www.facebook.com/nishtha.ngo


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his year is a very special year or us as we complete 20years working here in Rakkar running the Rural HealthClinic inspired by my late husband Kishan Nath Baba.It gave us great joy that His Excellency the AustrianAmbassador along with his amily and so many o ourwonderul riends and loyal supporters joined us here inRakkar to celebrate this occasion with us.

I am very honouredand grateul to receivethis Austrian GoldenCross award rom theAustrian Government orthe social service Nishthahas been doing in therural areas o KangraDistrict o HimachalPradesh over the years.It is both motivatingand I eel a greatresponsibility to carry

on the work or whichI have been recognised.Our achievementshere at Nishtha are dueto the hard work andcommitment o ourwhole team. I wouldlike to recognise theenormous input o thosewho have worked with meright rom the beginning

– Ram, Dr. Kusum andSuresh who joined mewhen we were only a very small simple clinic.Mohinder, who camein as project managerand then gradually overthe years the ancillaryand community centrestaff who joined as our very small flower grew

and blossomed into thewidespread project you see here today. I also want to thankour loyal rustees who help us with great dedication andconcern and without whom we could not survive.

Our work at Nishtha has been totally dependent on thegenerosity o our donors, many o whom could not bewith us on the great day but who we recognise and thankrom the bottom o our hearts. I hope that in the years tocome we will be able to welcome many more o you tosee the work we are doing in the villages – reaching outinto the rural communities with health education and

care or the most needy,ostering the programmeto empower singlewomen and working toencourage young girlsand students to studyand grow into peoplewho can take on thechallenges o the uturewith understandingand compassion. Ourcommunity centrework with the children

and young people othe village, providingstill needed nutritionalsupplements and joyuleducational acilities,activities and sports.And o course ourenvironment programmewhich is taking on thechallenge o plasticwaste management in

our village and organicagriculture.

Our 2014-15 annualreport is presented asa souvenir o our 20thanniversary. We hopeyou will find it inspiringand continue to supportour work. Please alsokeep in touch with ourwebsite and acebook

page where we post allour programmes and activities as they occur.

Tank you all!

MESSAGE FROM NISHTHA DIRECTOR

DR. BARBARA NATH WISER

APRIL 2015


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Dr. Barbara and the Nishtha staff joyully welcomed over200 guests to join in the celebration o the 20th Anniversaryo Nishtha Health Care Centre on 2nd April 2015. Te eventat ara Centre was graced by the presence o His ExcellencyMr. Bernhard Wrabetz, the Ambassador o the Republic oAustria who presented Dr. Barbara with the Decoration ofHonour in Gold for Services to the Republic of Austria, thehighest civil award or Social Service.

Our honoured guests included over 80 sponsors whohave been supporting Dr. Barbara’s work or these 20 years,making it possible or Nishtha to make a significant impacton the health and social environment o the local villages.

Local guests included our valuable riends and supportersincluding esteemed members o the ibetan community.

As the guests assembled, a video recounting all thework done by Nishtha was shown. Te programme openedwith chanting by a group o 10 ibetan Nuns rom DolmaLing Nunnery who prayed or the continuation o thegood work being done by Nishtha. Expertly introduced byRadhika Shaunik, His Excellency made a speech in whichhe expressed his pleasure at being here and being able tosee Nishtha, an organisation that he has heard a great dealabout, with his own eyes. He has met Dr. Barbara beore in

the Embassy in Delhi and always enjoyed talking to her andwas impressed by her sincerity and dedication to her workas well as by her humour! He remembered his mother who,he elt, being also a doctor would have applauded the work

being done in the villages by Dr. Barbara and regrettedthat she was unable to visit along with him and his amilytoday. With that he presented the Decoration of Honour toDr. Barbara, pinning it onto her sari. We then all rose andlustily sang the Austrian National Anthem.

Dr. Barbara addressed the gathering, expressingher pleasure that so many had come so ar to share thisoccasion which was really not hers but belonged toeveryone involved in Nishtha. She presented her staff,starting with the senior staff, Dr. Kusum Tapa, RamChand and Suresh Kumar who have been working with herthe longest. o these she presented a shawl, a certificate and

a statue to adorn their household shrines as a memory othe occasion. She remembered Subhash Chand who sadlypassed away in October 2014 and presented a certificateand a statue o Ganesh-ji to his widow who is nowemployed at Nishtha. Mohinder Sharma who she reerredto as being like a son to her also received a certificate anda statue o Lord Shiva. Tere ollowed our communityactivists, Ravindra, Vijay, Megha, Ravi and Vijay Bhadwaj,our cleaning staff: Rasma, Surinder and Salochana, thestitching women’s group leader Maya Devi and ourteam o single women activists headed by Radha Devi.

Finally, Philippa Russell who has helped Dr. Barbara withthe administration o the project since 1995 was introducedand spoke briefly expressing how much she has enjoyedbeing a part o this project.

NISHTHA TH

ANNIVE

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RSARY CELEBRATIONS

At that everybody went out to enjoy a sumptuous local

style lunch cooked by proessional village estival cookSuresh Kumar along with the rest o our staff.Tis was ollowed by a cultural perormance which

opened with a lively song and dance by the Sidhbari NepaliYoung Girl’s Dancing Group. Bhandana Sharma, dressed

in local Gaddhi dress and accompanied by local musicians

rilok and Rishi perormed a haunting local song. Oursponsorship students delighted the crowd by perorming alively Gaddhi dance in ull costume and drew everybody into dance along with them until the end.

Mr. Wolgang Grader one o our oldestdonors, presented a cheque rom the

Club o Austria Bamberg.

Christl Lange presented a chequerom Weltladen, Ulm.

Pro. Dr. Paul Drobec presented acheque rom the Charity Christmas

Fair which was held in his castle.

Michelle Jaques and Molly Cooper presented a cheque rom Hands ogether, a British organisation whichaims to help organisations which work in the fields o peace, justice and poverty alleviation.

Rinchen Khando Choegyal, Directoro the ibetan Nuns Project present-ed a beautiul door curtain stitched by

the nuns themselves.

enzin Palmo presented a gorgeousstatue o white ara and spoke warmlyabout the value o Dr. Barbara’s work.

Welmut Koekebeker spoke about hercommitment to establish NishthaNetherlands in order to assist the on-

going work o Nishtha.

Various guests then rose to give their own presentations

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Sunday, 29 March

Over 80 guests, some who had arrived earlier, some on the flightrom Delhi and a large group who had been on the Indian Classic

our with Dr. Barbara’s son, Shankar all assembled on the 29th atNishtha or a reception and tour o our acilities. Te rain causedhavoc to the arrangements Dr. Barbara and the staff had careullymade to hold a reception under canopies in her garden behindthe community centre. At the last moment everything wasshifed inside the Clinic where we enjoyed a traditional welcomeand a wonderul lunch cooked and served by the staff. Many oour guests were old riends who had visited Nishtha beore, butor quite a ew it was their first time to see where we are and wewere particularly delighted to be able to show them all around.By 5.30 everyone returned to their guests houses, many at araCentre and others in Himalayan Brothers, Norling House and

Dolma Ling Nunnery guest houses.

Monday, 30 March

Tis morning we were able to offer a very special chance to ourguests to be a part o a public audience offered to visitors toDharamsala on that day by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Not onlydid we get a very special photograph with His Holiness but healso gave us a short talk, sharing his commitments to increasingethical values in the world, religious harmony and the securingthe uture o the ibetan people. We then drove down the windyroads to the Norbulingka Institute which strives to preserveibetan culture, or a traditional ibetan lunch and a tour othe very interesting Institute with it’s craf rooms, exhibition ocostume dolls, beautiul temple and gardens.

Tuesday, 31 March

Shankar and Philippa organised each to take a group by bus ora picnic. Shankar took his group to the unique Musroor rocktemple and then picnicked at the ancient ort in Kangra whilePhilippa took hers to see the exquisitely carved Baijnath temple,dedicated to Lord Shiva in his role as a healer. We then drovepart way home and stopped at an organisation called Aavishkaarwhere they very kindly provided acilities or our group to picnic.Tere was a group o young girls there, undergoing a two weektraining who entertained us by singing a song expressing their

desire to be ree rom constraints and gave an impressive judoperormance. We then got to look around the very interestingacility which provides or children to explore science in a totallyhands-on way. We then walked to the nearby tea gardens andwere enthusiastically shown around the actory by the ownerMr Butail. Many o our party were delighted to be able to buypackets o tea straight rom the source!

While we were out, Barbara and our rustees RadhikaSaunik and Soniya Sebastian received His Excellency the AustrianAmbassador and his amily and riends who swelled our numbersby a urther 10 people. Tey were hosted or lunch at Dr. Barbara’shouse and then were taken on a tour o Norbulingka Institute and

Dolma Ling Nunnery. In the evening they joined the rest o theparty at ara Centre or a estive dinner ollowed by a wonderulevening o music in which an excellent classical Indian musicianPrabhu along with Hans, a guitarist rom Sweden and two localmusicians Mani and Navi perormed local olk songs and Sufipoems accompanied by harmonium and tabla.

TH

ANNIVERSARY WEEKLO

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NG PROGRAMME OF EVENTS

Wednesday, 1 April

oday the whole group went up to McLeod Ganj by taxi calling inat the ibetan administrative area on the way to learn something

about the ibetan community in exile. We were ortunate inbeing able to see inside the Parliament building as well as to visitthe temple o the state oracle. We then called in at the Libraryo ibetan Works and Archives which has a beautiully laid outmuseum o ibetan art. In McLeod Ganj we visited the mainibetan temple, the ‘suglhakang’, which is situated by Namgyalmonastery and the entrance to the residence o His Holinessthe Dalai Lama. Despite the rain some hardy walkers enjoyeda walk around the Lha Gya Ri, a path which circles the hill onwhich His Holiness’ residence sits. Everyone was then ready ora comorting cup o coffee and a toasted sandwich in one o theseveral coffee shops on temple road on the way into the main

town. People then shopped until it was too cold and wet and tooktaxis down to their guest houses.

Friday, 3 April

Tis morning a group o our guests lef with Shankar on a touro the Himalayan region. Te rest o the party divided into twogroups, one going by bus with Philippa to Musroor Rock empleand Kangra ort and a smaller group with Dr. Barbara to visitBaijnath temple, Aavishkaar and the tea gardens near Palampur.We all had a great day!

Saturday, 4 April

Tis week the ibetan Institute o Perorming Arts were holdinga estival o “Lhamo” ibetan opera perormances at their centreabove McLeod Ganj. We thereore all went to see the impressiveperormance going on. Some people stayed, enjoying theopportunity to sample a rare ibetan experience while a groupo 16 intrepid walkers headed up the mountain. 13 made it as arat Magic View cae. Tere we rested and snacked beore headingdown the hill, though two people made it all the way through thesnow to riund, the high grazing ground just under 10,000 eet.Te rhododendrons were spectacular!

In the evening the whole party met at Dolma Ling Nunnerywhere we held a small ceremony to remember our riends andloved ones and to rejoice at the good work we have been able to

achieve by lighting 750 traditional ibetan butterlamps. It was a very moving occasion.

Sunday, 5 April

oday we were invited by Dr. Barbara to hike up to her retreat houseon the mountainside above Rakkar village or a picnic. Followingthe trail used by goats and the ew villagers who live up here we sawin passing one o the mountain schools and baby crèches whichare supported by Nishtha. Te children who live in these poormountain settlements are some o the most important beneficiarieso our programmes. Te weather which had been rainy off and onall week continued to be unpredictable, but ortunately it rained

while we were at the house and when we got back down to the village so we had a good walk without getting wet.

In the evening we all got together in ara Centre or afinal wonderul dinner prepared by the ara Centre staff beoreeveryone headed home. We had a wonderul week with ouramazing riends and supporters! Tank you all or coming!

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Nishtha Health Clinic was started in 1995 by Dr. BarbaraNath Wiser on the advice o her husband Kishan NathBaba to provide affordable medical care or the poor o the village. ogether with a core staff: Dr. Kusum Tapa, RamChand and Suresh Kumar she has been running the dailyclinic along with a small in-patient’s acility or the past 20years. We are grateul to Nishtha Austria rust who undthe majority o the clinic expenses including staff salariesand the Nishtha UK rust or their help with special casesand the Outreach clinic. Tis year we have also receivedunding rom the Population Foundation in India orsalaries connected with the Outreach Clinic.

Te majority o our patients are the very poor romthe local aming or landless labour communities. Manyare widows or elderly people who depend on us ormedical care. Our approach is holistic and patients areobserved and treated utilising the disciplines o Allopathy,Homeopathy, Ayurveda and Acupuncture as appropriateor each individual patient. Serious cases are reerred tothe nearest specialist acility or to the Zonal hospital alongwith our vehicle and assistants i needed.

Until recently we have been seeing up to 50 patientsa day but now people have money in their pockets, but

very little time so there are ewer patients coming or

consultations. In the last two years this is also due to anew very helpul Government scheme which providesree health care in the Government hospitals or belowpoverty line patients. In response, since 2012 we havebeen going out rom the clinic 2 days a week visitingmore remote villages which we access through our singlewomen’s programme offering health education anda limited number o consultations particularly to thewomen, elderly and children o the area.

Tis year our doctors held 3,619 consultations in theclinic itsel, almost two thirds o whom were women and329 were new patients. Our patients come rom an ever

widening area throughout the Kangra Valley, reflectingthe effect o reaching out into the villages with our twiceweekly health outreach clinics. Te percentage o patientsrom Rakkar itsel is decreasing slowly because peopleare more mobile and medicines or a quick fix are mucheasier to obtain than beore. Ofen Dr. Kusum will advisewomen she meets while she is out on her field clinics to visit the Nishtha clinic or particular treatments such asacupuncture, homeopathy and or gynaecological problems.At present we have around 75 patients who visit us regularlywho cannot be operated or uterus prolapses, usually the

very old or the under 40s. Tis year we had many patients

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PATIENT’S ATTENDANCE IN NISHTHA CLINIC 2014-15

N I S H T H A R U R A L


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NEW PATIENT’S ATTENDANCE IN NISHTHA CLINIC 2014-15

H E A L T H C L I N I Cwho each took 10 sessions o acupuncture. People sufferingrom migraines, sciatica, rozen shoulder and joint painsparticularly get significant relie rom this treatment. Wealso have our regular homeopathic patients as well as thosewho come or homeopathy to treat inertility.

Monsoon and winter are the busiest times in the clinicand that is when we get most o our in-patients. Teseare ofen local long term very poor local patients such asRagh who is 86 years old and was admitted three times thisyear or various problems, Sandhya Devi who suffers romepilepsy and lives in very depressing circumstances andKhampo Devi, a 68 year old woman who requently has

health problems because o her arduous labouring work.In 2014-15 we admitted 7 patients suffering rom acuteillnesses such as diarrhoea, hypertension and migraineswho were given emergency treatment and sent awayrestored within 2 days.

More long term are the chronic serious cases orwhom we do our best such as Ranju a, a 29 year womanwho ractured in her spine in 2012. She was treated inthe government hospital and then sent home where shedeveloped very bad bed sores and her health deteriorated.In 2014 the amily contacted us and we started dressing

the sores but it was not easy or her amily to bring her

everyday to clinic so Dr. Kusum visited her twice a week inher home in Yol. In December she became worse and weadmitted her in our clinic. At last she returned home whereshe died which was very sad or our team.

Many o the very poor are provided ree medicines andhave their treatments paid or through our destitute und.Tese include single women such as Darshna, a 43 yearold who has severe weakness and is unable to work to eedhersel properly so Nishtha has been providing help orher to buy ood and vegetables and we take her to andahospital or her appointments. Ichiya Devi is a 45 yearold lady who has breast cancer and was operated in a city

hospital. Nishtha unds her ongoing medical bills as well asproviding regular treatment in the Nishtha clinic.

One o Nishtha’s long term patients is a teenage girl roma remote village who is HIV+ve. Both her parents have diedand she lives with her uncle. Nishtha has been paying or herto get ood supplies or the past 2 years. Our single womenactivists and Dr. Kusum keep a good eye on her and reportthat she is much stronger and more confident than beoreand is progressing well in her studies.

en other local poor patients have received financialhelp rom us (normally 50% o their bills) to help pay or

their medicines and treatment rom other medical acilities.


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Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar

Attendants

NISHTHA OUTREACH HEALTH EDUCATIONTis Programme takes the team out o the clinic onuesdays and Tursdays to visit villages and hold camps

organised by our single women activists. Tis year we haveheld 85 separate events in remote rural villages attended bya total o 2,748 villagers, an average o 32 people attendingeach session. Te most needy and immobile people in eachclinic have medical consultations with our doctor. Tehealth education provided by Dr. Kusum covers hygiene,nutrition, exercise, the causes o illness, public health, wastemanagement, inormation about particular diseases suchas diabetes and heart disease and emale and reproductiveissues. Although the sessions are organised by the singlewomen activists only around a third o those who attend

are single women, the majority are married women oryoung girls. Sometimes some men attend, especially to seethe doctor, but generally it is a women’s clinic. Dr. Kusumis an excellent educator and has lots o patience to answerquestions and huge store o practical inormation abouthow to be healthy. She presents her topics using a number o

videos and charts to help the sessions have greater impact.In order to get eedback rom the villagers about our

outreach clinics, during October the single women’s teamasked the women during the monthly meetings in each village about their thoughts about Nishtha’s outreachclinic. Te women commented positively that there is alady doctor so it’s very easy to share their personal medicalproblems with her. Tey also enjoyed the short healthdocumentaries in Hindi and appreciated the inormationgiven about rich healthy natural products readily availablein our villages. Tese days everyone has become dependenton what is available in the market and we are orgetting the value o the natural home cooked oods.

Te women appreciated that this is not just a clinicwhere you get medicines and that’s over. ‘Dr. Kusumgives us health education, which is more importantthan medicines; she talks about various women’s healthproblems and what we can do about them.’ Te women allspoke very highly o Dr. Kusum.

OUTREACH CLINIC ATTENDANCE APRIL 2014 TO MARCH 2015


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CLINIC DISPENSARY Te clinic dispensary is run by Ram Chand and SureshKumar who is also in charge o clinic maintenance. Eachpatient has a card which is kept systematically village wiseand brought out each time the patient comes. Tis way the

individual’s medical record is careully maintained and ourdoctors can look back on previous treatments dating backup to 20 years! ogether with Dr. Kusum they put a greatdeal o care and effort into making our own Ayurvediccough mixture, calendula ointment and stomach pills.

Nishtha was very pleased to be able to host a very successuldental camp in October 2014 held by an eminent dentalteam rom Austria. Dr. Anita Strobl, her dental studentdaughter Viktoria and her riend Bjorn, along with Dr.Martina Pommer and her daughter Lucy arrived ullyequipped to be able to set up a complete dental clinic atNishtha. During their 5 day programme they saw a total o192 patients including ibetan nuns, single women, local

people and the school children. Te Nishtha staff, studentsand single women activists all took their turn to assist inthe clinic ensuring a high quality o hygiene and efficiency.It was a very busy but rewarding 6 days.

DENTAL CAMP

REPAIRS AND MAINTENANCETis spring we undertook significant repairs, especiallyto the clinic floors and we remade the little kitchen. Tewhole clinic was given a acelif with new curtains andpaint in preparation or our 20th anniversary celebrations.

Less planned was the huge amount o water pipe repairwe had to do ollowing the re-making o the Rakkar road.During the roadwork all the pipes were damaged and hadto be unearthed and replaced with new pipes re-laid at acost o over Rs.22,000.

DENTAL CAMP DATA 27-3 0 OCT 2 014

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MALE MALE MALEFEMALE FEMALE FEMALE

CHILDREN ADULTS ELDERLY


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CLEAN WATERIntegral to our work to improve the health o the villageare the water filtration units we have set up in the clinic, atthe school with an external tapping point or the villagersand at ara Centre with an external tapping point or thoseliving in the lower part o our village. All three o these sys-tems are used regularly by most amilies who collect theirdaily needs or drinking and cooking, thereby significantlyreducing the cases o gastroenteritis. Water filters have alsobeen provided to Chatwan and Samlekanath schools whichare a part o our school nutrition programme. Suresh is re-sponsible or cleaning and maintaining all these filters andthe community centre staff who deliver the ruit and vege-tables to the upper schools regularly help him by cleaningthose filters and reporting any problems. Tis year we hadto change some piping in the Chatwan school. Te filters

are changed every 6 months and the tanks, piping and tapskept in good clean working order.

We were happy to welcome the student group rom Ped-die School in the US to help us by painting the filter cages.

Subhash joined our clinic team in 1999 afer the death o hisather Banni who was a riend and assistant to Krishan NathBaba and who worked or Nishtha in the early years o the projectespecially overseeing the construction o the clinic. Subhash

quickly learned how to assist with a wide range o work in theclinic as well as to drive, becoming our principal driver. Weappreciate the work he did or the school nutrition programme,going to the market in the early morning and selecting thebest ruit and vegetables or the children. He was known orhis gentle kindness especially when transporting our specialchildren to apovan daily and is much missed by our guests. We very much regret his early demise in October 2014. In order tohelp his amily we are pleased to have engaged his widow Sujatato be in-charge o our organic arm and we are committed tounding his 2 small children through their education.

28/6/1972 – 28/9/2014

SUBHASH CHAND

HOMEOPATHIC OUTREAC HNishtha Homeopathic Outreach (HOPE) was initiatedin order to extend our provision o ree homeopathicmedicine and health education to a much wider rangeo disadvantaged rural communities. Since January 1st Nishtha has adopted SHRI (Shantideva HomeopathicResearch Initiative) Free Clinic in a small village in BajnathBlock, Himachal Pradesh. Te clinic is open 4 days a weekand is run by local staff with the assistance o volunteerhomeopathic and health care proessionals Spero LatchisDHom and Robin Jameson. Te clinic has been very busyseeing around 60 patients a month. In addition the team hasbeen visiting a local ibetan nunnery once a week treatingaround 15 patients a day there. Most o the patients seenare suffering rom joint or back pains and or some type oasthma. Tey are also treating epilepsy patients, a boy with

spinal bifida, and patients with hypertension and chronicheart disease. Teir success rate is high because they cantrack the patents and get them to come or ollow ups.Funding or this clinic is coming rom donors in the USA.


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Arushi is now 12 years old and has cerebral palsy. She wasthe first child we engaged with 4 years ago and since thenthe quality o her lie has improved, though her physicalcondition is not very good as she gets a lot o inections.Arushi’s ather abandoned her mother, Vishvendru andArushi when she was young so Vishvendu works asan anganwari teacher. o help her manage financiallyNishtha pays her to tutor Rupa, a young girl rom a verypoor Nepali labouring amily who Nishtha also sponsors.It is very hard or Vishvendru to manage without helpas Arushi needs 24 hour attendance, thereore we havea very kind sponsor who pays or an attendant, SomaDevi to take care o Arushi while her mother works, andpampers so it is easier to look afer her.

Sanjoli is now 6 years old and the second twin o a

poor Nepali amily living on Rakkar Road. Te athercannot work and Sanjoli’s mother is an anganwari teacherearning only around Rs.3,000 a month. Sanjoli’s cerebralpalsy is more manageable than Arushi’s but none the less

her mother needs help and thereore Nishtha has alsoound a sponsor to pay or a helper or her. Both thesechildren use chairs provided by Nishtha.

Several other children have specifically re-located tothis area in order to attend the apovan acility. Teyinclude eight year old Arnav, a cerebral palsy patientwhose parents have moved rom their home in Chambato rented rooms on the Rakkar road in order that he cango join the apovan physiotherapy programme. Five yearold Navya has a severe squint - her mother too rentsaccommodation in Rakkar. Akshar aged 4, Smile aged 2and Atul aged 8 rom Palampur all with cerebral palsyofen join the car. Ten there are 2 children, 6 year oldPadma and 5 year old Choephel who come rom Ladakhand are living at the Spiti children’s Hostel and Aadrikaan,

an 8 year old autistic child.We are very happy to be able to help these children by

providing the vehicle and driver who also helps them reeo charge.

CHILDREN WITH SPE CIAL NEEDS ASSISTANCE PROGRAMME

As in any population, there is a small percentage o childrenin our village who are born with birth deects includingsensory impairment and cerebral palsy. Te problemsaced by their parents are enormous, the sense o shameand personal responsibility or the child’s deects, theofen unsupportive response o the amily, neighbours and

doctors, and the physical and emotional stress o lookingafer such a child are huge burdens or people to bear. Veryofen parents conceal or deny their baby’s disability until itbecomes too problematic to handle in the home when it is very ofen late to be able to work effectively with the child toimprove her development potential.

Although the Government schools provide limitedacilities or differently-abled children within some schools,many children have very severe educational and accessibilityproblems and thereore cannot attend. However, CORDrehabilitation and day care centre at apovan which is only

3 kms rom Nishtha Clinic runs an excellent programmeproviding physiotherapy and very practical and caringassistance or children with disabilities. Teir treatment andday centre is attended by around 30 children who receivedaily treatments and exercise in the physical therapy,audiometry and speech units and enjoy the play therapy

centre with their riends. We are delighted to have oundthis excellent acility in our area and have developed a goodworking relationship with them.

As well as offering medical and social support and payingor additional equipment, supplies and carers, Nishthacurrently provides between 5 and 9 children with daily reetransport to attend this rehabilitation centre at apovanalong with their careers. Te Nishtha driver picks them uprom their houses along the road and drops them at apovanat 9:30 am and brings them back home at 3:30pm 24 days inevery month.

OUR SPECIAL NEEDS CHILDREN


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PRE-SCHOOL PROGRAMMEFor many village children their first experience o ‘school’is when they are lef in the local baby crèche, Anganwari

by their mother who needs to work either in the fields or inarduous manual labour. Te government has set up theseacilities in every hamlet in every village and appointsteachers and assistants to register the pregnancies and birthsin the village, provide ood supplements to pregnant andlactating women and to look afer the children aged one anda hal to 5 years old. Te children go on rom there into thelocal government schools.

Most aspiring amilies however, wherever it is possible,choose to send their children to private nurseries which aregenerally in much better condition and provide teachers whocan ocus on the children rather than being distracted by

the other activities required o the government Anganwariworkers. Private kindergartens eed the children into privateschools or are attached to them so it is thus much easier orchildren to get a place in a coveted private school. Te resultis that the children remaining in the government Anganwariare rom the very poorest and least aspiring amilies and havea very poor chance o doing well in their education.

Nishtha aims to uplif the provision or the children inthe poorest Anganwaris in our area by providing them withimprovements to their acility, regular ruit and nutritioussnacks and books and toys. We send our community activistsregularly to spend time in the crèches to play with the children

in a creative educational manner and encourage the teacherand assistant to give more positive attention to the children.

Nishtha has been working with our Anganwaris or thepast two years and this year, since October, with the helpo the UK rust we have been able to add two more: SaletGodam and Naag Mandir bringing the total number o babycreches we help to six.

Salet Godam is up on the hillside, ar rom the town. Mosto the people there depend on mine related work which ishard and poorly paid. Consequently. the kids are quite poorlynourished and never get to see any resh ruit. Te babycreche is established in a local government building which is

not in good condition. Ofen more than the 8 kids registeredattend the kindergarten every day and are looked afer byone teacher and one helper who requested Nishtha to help toprovide better or the children.

Naag Mandir Anganwari is in Upper Rakkar and the teacherthere is Arushi’s mother Vindru. We visited it two years ago at

a time when it was very poorly attended and so we did not takeit on. However, now they have 15 +children attending regularlyso we elt it was necessary to extend help to them. Tis babycreche is housed in a rented room in the village which is verydark and cramped, however it is quite dry and has a niceoutside area that the children use when the weather is good.

Although the main problem with all the Anganwaris isthe lack o proper acilities, there is very little Nishtha cando about this because these are government projects and allattempts to improve the inrastructure in any significant wayis reused. We thereore concentrate on providing playingmaterials, cooking equipment, bowls and spoons, sitting

mats, storage boxes and so on. In November we whitewashedthe rooms to make them brighter. We also now include theAnganwari children in our school nutrition programme andprovide them with a piece o ruit at least 3 times a week.

Ravindra, Vijay, Ravi and any volunteers in Nishtha visitall the Anganwaris at least once a week. At times we areable to increase the number o visits and time spent but thisis not always possible. In the Anganwaris there is a lack o‘real activity’ or the kids, thereore with this program we arehoping to improve and awake the children’s creative skillsby introducing them to various activities: drawing, cutting,singing or dancing as well as providing them with playing

material, books and stationary.Our book “Fun Learning” is distributed and worked with

in every kindergarten. Tis book is based on a variety oteaching methods which help the teachers with ideas or moreenriching activities with the kids.

For two months between April and June 2014 Ravindrawas joined by a volunteer rom Delhi who went with herin her visits to the anganwaris and helped her to keep theprogramme active. With the onset o the monsoon, accessingthe higher anganwaris became more difficult and so the visitswere reduced to once a week. As the monsoon finished we re-assessed each o the anganwaris to see what they needed. We

bought an induction stove or Samlekharnag, 2 grain storagedrums or Chakvan and lots more toys and board picturebooks or all the Anganwaris. Te two new baby creches havehad toy boxes made and they are being regularly re-stocked.


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Child nutrition is a crucial issue which effects growth,perormance in school and uture opportunities or children.

In India, around 46 per cent o all children below the age othree are too small or their age, 47 per cent are underweightand at least 16 per cent are wasted. Many o these children areseverely malnourished. In our local area we can see this is true– even when parents are earning,the cost o ood is increasing sorapidly that child nutrition suffers.Malnourishment effects children’sdisease resistance and causes themto under achieve in school.

Integral to our work to upgradethe health o the village, since

1998 we have been running aschool nutrition programme whichcontinues to be very successul inthe Rakkar village school. Nishthaaugments the very basic mealprovided by the Government byproviding oil or ghee as a cookingmedium, some spices and extradals and beans, but particularly a good range o nutritious vegetables and ruits or the children. Te result is thatthe children in this school have been doing very well bothphysically and in their studies and the standard o the school

has improved.In the last two years, Nishtha has started to also help the more

remote schools in the less endowed mountain communities onthe mountain side above Rakkar and Khanyara villages. Wehave adopting a small primary school called Samlekanath and

the school in the village o Chatwan which has 65 childrenrom very poor mining and arming amilies. In addition we

are supplying ruit to 6 baby crèches. Te remoteness o theseschools and baby crèches means that the amilies have muchless access to resh ruits and vegetables and thereore more inneed o help. At present we assist a total o 273 children rom

the very poorest amilies in the area.Our staff visit the Dharamsala

vegetable market in the earlymorning each Monday – the goodsare sorted in our community centreand prepared in crates or deliveryto the schools. Te road up toChatwan in particular is very rough

and can become difficult during themonsoon. At the same time, ourstaff service the water filters we haveinstalled in these schools to ensurethat the children get clean drinkingwater and visit the baby creches.Tis water is also available to thelocal community and has greatly

improved the health o the villagers.We are pleased with the response o the teachers rom the

more remote schools who welcome our visits and do theirbest to prepare the vegetables and include them properly in

the school meals. We continue the programme in the Rakkarschool because only the poorest children now attend. Weare happy that these include children rom migrant labouramilies who are here while their parents are working on aconstruction in the area.

with books, drawing equipment and toys.In February the dental program which we did in the

schools and outreach clinics extended to the anganwari kids.We taught them how to brush properly and regularly and togargle afer eating. We distributed one brush and a tube otoothpaste to each child.

Te teachers and parents o kids are very happy withthis program. Tey say that with the help o Nishtha their

kids are learning a lot o things and are much more active.Earlier many children were ofen absent or only came to theAnganwari or hal an hour but now they are doing a lot oactivities and it is more attractive.

SCHOOL NUTRIT ION PROGRAMME

Rakkar School46%

Samlekhar School19%

Chakwan School7%

Rakkar2%

Naagmandir4%

Chakwan2%

Lunta2%

Samlekhar Naag2%

Saletgodam2%

Kids Club14%

PRE-SCHOOL PROGRAMME CONTINUED


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NISHTHA PATIENTS’ VILLAGES

MAP KEY

Outreach clinics

33Paent villages with

number of paents


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Te Nishtha Single Women’s programme been runningunder the Himachal nodal agency SURA since 2005.

Named locally Ekal Nari Shakti Sangthan has completed itsninth successul year and has achieved a prestigious nameand considerable ame. Te purpose o the programmeis to provide single women, the most depressed andundervalued group o people in this society a orum tomeet and discuss their problems and to provide access tomeans to address issues which are otherwise ignored bysociety and government alike. SURA supports our workby organising trainings and providing sufficient undingto cover the travel allowance and expenses o the singlewomen activists. All the salaries and major events are

supported by Nishtha.Each year we increase our reach to vulnerable womenin the area and consequently our ability to enact real socialchange. Tis year we have been working in 90 panchayatsin 3 blocks in our area reaching a total o 2,643 women,the majority o whom are widows but including a smallernumber o separated, divorced, abandoned and womenwho have never married. Te number o women attendingour meetings is steadily increasing reflecting the hard workand dedication o our team and the perceived effectivenesso the Single Women’s Programme in the area.

3-YEAR COMPARISON DATA CHA RT

SINGLE WOMEN’S ACTIVISTS

Our eam is led by Radha, Nishtha group coordinator andNational Single Women’s Organization member. In 2006she started her career as an activist afer being abandonedby her husband and now takes care o her young son alone.She is totally dedicated to her work and passionately graspsand understand ideas very quickly. She is a compellingspeaker and has written many articles or the single women’snewsletter. She says: “When rural single women, alone or ina group fight or their rights or raise their voices against violence it gives me immense satisaction that my effortsare bearing ruit. However, sometimes I am depressed when

our efforts to obtain justice are obstructed by governmentrules and regulations, especially regarding the singlewomen’s pension scheme. Tose single women whosechildren are in government jobs are not eligible or thisscheme, but they don’t see the pitiul elderly single womenwho should be cared or and treasured being disregardedand unsupported by her amily as we do in the field.”

Kummo Devi is a senior activist and coordinator in theNishtha Single Women’s Program. In 2006 she joined thesingle women’s group afer getting swindled in her divorceby her husband. At that time she had no idea what to doand elt totally helpless. Contact with the single women’sgroup calmed her and ocused her attention so she couldfight her case. With the help o the group she appealed inthe Supreme Court and duly got her rightul compensationand was convinced to join the single women’s team andhelp others in similar positions to hersel. Having workedsteadily and effectively in Rait block or the past 9 yearsKummo has gained the trust o the single women in thatarea and is known or her compassion and being alwaysready to help a woman in need, day or night.

Shilpa joined Nishtha Single Women’s eam in 2011.Radha meet her in one o the single women’s meetings when

she came with her mother, a very poor widow, and askedor work. She had been living with her mother since herhusband abandoned her afer brutally beating and fightingwith her everyday over each and every small issue. Having

21492314

2643

2012-13 2013-14 2014-15

Total Members

NISHTHA SINGLE WOMEN’S PROGRAMME


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received training at Nishtha she was appointed as assistantactivist in 2011. Shilpa gained the courage and strength

o the organization to get a divorce, and compensation oRs.80,000. Her natural shyness is gradually being replacedwith confidence and she is an effective and valuablemember o the team.

Sunita is a widow and has three sons. In 2010 her husbandcommitted suicide and lef her in serious trouble. She had noincome but plenty o intelligence and resourceulness and so joined the single women’s group in her area. In 2011 Nishthaappointed her as a single women activist and sponsored herson’s education. She works really hard covering Nagrotablock with conviction and determination. Te local women

as well as her colleagues praise her work and say she is themost active field worker. She eels sad about the inadequateand unulfilled government schemes or single women,largely due to weak government bureaucracy.

Pratibha is a widow and has two children. In 2013she was appointed activist in Nagrota Block. She is highlyeducated which helps her manage legal and official workwhich requires understanding complex documents. Sheis new but grasps everything quickly which is good orthe organization. She believes in honest work and alwaysadvises single women never to be araid o menace orraise your voice against violence. She gets very angryabout Indian culture and rituals where people worship thegoddess in the temple and abuse the women at home.

Pammi Devi is a widow and has two children. She joined the Nishtha Single Women’s program as an activistin 2011 and has been working in Rait block. Unortunatelyshe has not been well or some time and so has been unableto work. Te team is very sorry not to have her well andactive as, despite her lack o education she is very good inthe field, mobilizing women or meetings and programmesand is a good communicator. We pray or her good health.It is hard to find such a dedicated and honest worker.

Gyani Devi is 72 years old and has been working since2013 in Rait block, assisting the other activists. Toughshe is the oldest worker in the group she has amazingenergy which boosts the other activists to work hard. She

is a widow with two grown children and is excellent atcommunicating with the village women.

PROGRAMMES 2014-15Te Nishtha Single Women’s team is involved in a busy roundo meetings and events throughout the year. Our activistsorganise monthly meetings in every Panchayat (villagearea) and a block level meeting, either in the village or atNishtha every six months. During these meetings we drawin single women, register them and hear their problems.We provide inormation about their rights, governmentschemes and explore ways they can get financial and otherhelp. We take effective steps to address immediate problems

such as legal issues, domestic violence and health problems.Tis year our Block Meetings were held in June andDecember. Our activists worked hard to reach out to thosesingle women who were hesitating about joining and whoare not properly aware o their rights. Te meeting on June10th in Rait Block was held in the community hall Shahpur.Advocates Roji Katoch and Rohit Katoch were present aslegal consultants. Te 52 women who participated in thismeeting received useul legal inormation on domestic violence, land rights, child labour and other issues.

Tree monthly meetings are held at Sutra in whichrepresentatives rom 20 blocks across Himachal Pradeshpresent their reports and review and discuss their workand activities as well as showing their accounts. Tis yearthey discussed important issues such as the misuse ounds provided to the Panchayat or the health o the ruralpopulation being used or construction and in Octoberthey had a long discussion on the memorandum o theNational insurance scheme through which every singlewoman gets ree medical acility along with lie insurance.Although last year the CM o Himachal Pradesh assuredus that he would act on this very soon, it has not yet beenimplemented. In January the meeting ocused on new

membership o single women in Himachal Pradesh andreviewed the last years work.

SURA also provides valuable Leadership rainingsfor young single women. In April, Nishtha’s Single



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Women sent 7 members, all kindergarten teachers whohave a close connection with village children, young girlsand women to a training which ocused on developing the

scope and effectiveness o their work, providing participantswith confidence and means to handle and act in criticalsituations and how to lead a group. In November, 15 morepotential activists rom Kangra, Rait and Nagrota blockswere sent or a training in which they learned how to managemeetings, maintain records and data in a proper way andhow to motivate weak women to stand up or their rights.In December a 6 day training was held specifically or newyoung single women to introduce them to inormation aboutthe condition o single women in the country and in thisstate, to tell them how the group are fighting or their rightsand how single women can get help through the orce o

effort o a united group o single women.

SINGLE WOMEN’S SUPPORTNishtha is ully engaged in supporting the work o the SingleWomen’s group. Each month the team o activists meet in ourcommunity centre to submit their reports to Radha and planthe coming month’s work. I any activist is acing difficultiesin their work or has other problems they try to work out asolution as a group. Tese monthly meetings are also attendedby Dr. Kusum, Dr. Barbara and the administrators who try torespond to the needs o the group.

In June some o the women who are interested in incomegenerating brought their handicraf products: knitting,macramé and candle making to the community centre todiscuss the easibility o making them into salable products.It was agreed that the women need proper training andguidance but that it would be very good i they could makeenough o such items so they can sale these products in ashop near Chamunda, where they could get a good price.

In July Ravindra, Nishtha’s wenlido trainer and Dr. Kusumgave programs in three blocks on domestic violence andhealth. In the three blocks we had more than 100 participants.Dr. Kusum gave an interactive talk on how to look afer your

own health - what to eat to get proper nutrients rom yourood and how to keep yoursel in good health. Ravindra,who is a wenlido trainer, talked about sel empowerment,how it is physically and mentally valuable or all woman.Te response to this programme was very good and a lot

o women, especially the younger ones showed interest inlearning wenlido.

During August the panchayat level meetings ocused on

reviewing the response and effect o Nishtha’s outreach clinicwhich has continued this year to visit villages identified by theSingle Women Activists as in need o medical attention, offeringhealth education and a limited number o consultations. Tewomen commented positively that there is a lady doctor so it’s very easy to share their personal medical problems with her.Tey also enjoyed the short health documentaries in Hindi andappreciated the inormation given about rich healthy naturaloods readily available in our villages. Tese days everyone hasbecome dependent on what is available in the market and weare orgetting the value o the natural home cooked oods.

In October 120 single women were the beneficiaries o

a ree in Dental camp held at Nishtha by a team o Austrianand German dentists and later that month 7 single women joined the first Aid raining held at Nishtha given by the StJohn’s Ambulance First Aid team rom Wales. Tey learnedhow to react in medical emergencies such as bleeding, burns,snake bites, shock and heart attack in a proper and sae way.

Nishtha also supports the local activities o the Singlewomen’s group such as the Public Hearing which was heldin Dharamsala 23rd May in the Lion’s Club hall. Officers romall the Government departments concerned with the affairso Single Women were invited including Welare Officers,Santosh Katoch and Narendar Jaswal; ehsildar PawanSharma; Anjana Devi rom the police department; JagdishChander rom the Vigilance department and Sutra Co-ordinator Nirmal Chandel. 160 single women participatedin this important event. Te program started with discussionon single women’s pensions, low income certificates orGovernment schemes, cases o domestic violence and otherproblems. Te single women asked various questions andgot satisactory answers rom the officers. Te Welare officerannounced that the limit to entitle you or a low incomecertificate is Rs.35,000 a year and i any Patwari reuses to givethis certificate despite the woman having below level income

then she can come directly to him or any other officer present.A person who is 40% to 69% handicapped will get Rs.550 permonth pension and above this will get Rs.770 per month.

One o the most important events o the year or the singlewomen’s group is the 23rd June - International Widow’s Day



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Population

Foundation

14%

Nishtha Austria

69%

Nishtha

Local / Sutra

17%

which is celebrated in Dharamsala, this year with 160 singlewomen taking out a rally demanding ree travel on busesor single women every 23rd June, ree medical treatment or

single women and their children, land or those single womenwho don’t own any either in their parent’s home or in their in-laws and a home or homeless single women. We conducted ashort march rom the Post Office in Dharamshala to the DC’soffice where we meet with the DC and ADC Sudesh Mokhta.We presented our memorandum to the DC and ADC and theDC assured us that he will give this memorandum to the CMo Himachal Pradesh and will try his best to act on this.

On 10th December the group organized a small rally to gainthe attention o the Himachal Government who holds theirwinter legislative session in their new building at apovan.Tis rally was attended by more than 150 single women who

marched rom Sidhbari bazaar to apowan groundwhich is near the Legislative Assembly. Terewe met with MLA Sudheer Sharma whowe presented with our request or aFast rack Court in the panchayatwhich would help us to get astresults in single women’s land or violence cases.

On 15th January, 15 childrenrom Khanyara village alongwith our activists visitedthe ADM office as part o aNational campaign initiatedby Wada Na odo Abhiyanto hold the governmentaccountable to its promise toend poverty, social exclusion anddiscrimination and to demand or9% o the Gross domestic product(GDP) to be committed to health andeducation.

On 14th February Nishtha organized a smallrally with the participation o the local school children,

Nishtha staff and 13 single women to join in the Internationalcampaign against violence initiated by Eve Ensler called OneBillion Rising. We marched down the Rakkar Road to themela ground where the children danced, sang and perormeda play based on violence. Te kids released some balloons

with Hindi and English slogans written on them including:‘No More Violence!’ and ‘My sister wants Freedom, Mymother wants Freedom, We will have Freedom.’

International Women’s Day, 8th March, is normally abig event in Nishtha’s calendar, however, this year we werepreparing or the 20th Anniversary and so Kummo, Shilpa andGhayani instead attended a women’s day program organisedby our local sister NGO, Jagori Grameen in Dharamshala.Tey very much enjoyed the program!

NATIONAL FORUMGroup Co-ordinator Radha, as a member o the NationalForum or Single Women attends the National Forummeetings held in Delhi. On 10th to 12th September, 21members rom 7 Indian states attended to discuss asking the

government to provide land or poor single womenso they can grow crops and ruits and thus

make a living. It was tabled that singlewomen should have the right to get

some share o their amily land.Tey should also get preerence

in MGNREGA, government jobs and be availed o low

interest loans. In Novemberthe meeting discussed singlewomen’s pension and landrights demands.

Later the same monthRadha, Pammi, Kummo, and

Sunita participated in the EkalNari summit held at Amritsar

along with 10 members romRajasthan, Punjab and Jharkhand.

Te objective o this meetingwas to review the ull year’s work in

Punjab. We had some achievements butthe conclusion is not very satisactory because

very ew single women in Punjab have become involved

in the programme. We discussed the use o various ideas howto mobilize the single women in the State. Tere are a greatmany documentated cases o single women in the Punjabbeing abused and not being able to claim their basic rightsbut they are not yet coming orward to orm a goup.



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Nishtha’s clean village project was started in May 2012 inRakkar village with the aim to make people aware o howto manage their household waste. Te project was inspired

by Mohinder Kumar our project manager who has workedor the last 10 years with the local youth and school childrenconducting regular clean up days in the area, monsoontree plantation and vermicompost workshops. He has alsobeen very active in holding meetings with groups o youthand women and has built a good relationship with thecommunity.

Over the years Nishtha has set up about 10 garbagecollection bins in the village in an effort to keep the villageclean. However people were putting their waste into thebins without segregating it so it was a challenge to manage

it. Tere is no garbage dump site but large amounts ore-cyclable waste are collected by the local rag pickers –an unseemly job i all the waste is thrown together. Anincinerator was built or the medical and dirty waste whichis still in use or our clinic waste. However, it was clear thata new approach ocusing on educating the community howto manage their waste was needed.

In May 2012, with new employees, we startedmobilizing a target o 100 households in the upper part othe village. Maps o the village were created dividing thewhole spread out village into 5 manageable areas. Handouts were distributed and each house was visited with theaim o talking to the women and girls because they are theones who are dealing with the household waste every day.

Our talks explained the negative consequences oallowing waste plastic in particular to accumulate in thestreams and fields and the damage it does to the people andanimals living here. Tis is a relatively new and growingproblem in India because 20 years ago there was very littleplastic packaging and everything was wrapped in morenatural materials that easily degraded when it was thrown.Tereore people don’t know what to do with their wasteand either throw it or collect it and burn it which gives off

dioxin which is very dangerous to health.Our approach is to ask people to clean and collect their

waste plastic rom their household in bags which can thenbe picked up by our green-workers and brought down to the

Nishtha collection point. Te plastic should be kept cleanand separate rom ood waste which can be ed to animals orcomposted and recyclable waste such as glass, tin and hard

plastic which is collected by the rag pickers. Te collectedplastic was taken by jeep to the Public Works Departmentin Dharamshala who had a machine to process the plasticinto material to use in road construction. However, afer aew months this broke down and we were orced to thinko new solutions how to deal with the approximately 80 kgo sof plastic waste which we collect rom even this limitedarea o the village per month.

PROGRESS DURING 2014Nishtha Clean Village Programme now covers 420

households rom the Chatwan/Khanyara area at the topend o the village where the channels which eed the villagestart, down to the Nepali and middle class section o the village hal way down the Rakkar Road. By starting at thetop we are making sure that the water channels are cleanand i no plastic waste is coming down rom above then thelower people don’t immediately eel it is normal to throwwaste into the channels.

70% o the households we deal with are very basicarming amilies who produce very little plastic. Te 30%middle class households are the big plastic producers andhave been much more difficult to work with. However,gradually we are gaining their confidence and most peoplewithin our area now keep a bag o clean waste or our teamto collect every 2 weeks.

We now have the support o our village panchayat/government who have designated the area o land wherewe already have the incinerator and a garbage bin orthe Rakkar village garbage project. We have enclosedthis and are developing it as a garbage management anddemonstration unit.

PLASTIC BRICK MACHINEInspired by a design which we got rom the internet roma project in Haiti by Harvey Lacey, with the help o ourintelligent and helpul blacksmith and a car manuacturerrom Jullundur who produced the screw rod, we have

NISHTHA CLEAN VILLAGE PROJECT


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Over the years we have developed a strong interest ingrowing organic vegetables and herbs and have conducteda number o workshops and trial plots with some success.In order to encourage local people to value their traditionalknowledge and to grow herbs, in past years we organiseda number o herbal gardening workshops and visits to theHimachal Government Nursery in Jogindernagar withgroups o young people. However, this project did not takeroot among the local people because o lack o interest

and space or production. We are thereore keen to linkthis project with the need to provide sustainable incomegeneration opportunities or destitute single women byestablishing an organic demonstration arm.

o this end we are cultivating a 4 kanal plot o land behindthe clinic. Tis has been enced and we are graduallyconverting what was commercial agricultural land intoan organic arm. Tis requires careul tending o the soiland planting with a variety o plants to both experimentwith what will grow well and to help to clean the earth.For the first ew months the clinic and community centrestaff have been working the garden but since January wehave engaged a local single woman with good experience

o local agricultural practices to be in charge o managingthe garden. We hope that in the coming year we will getgood crops o vegetables and success with certain herbsand medicinal plants.

NISHTHA ORGANIC FARM

created a hand operated machine to compress plastic intoblocks suitable or simple construction. We sew downcement or animal eed bags to the correct size to fit into the

machine. Te bags are stuffed very firmly with the collectedclean sof plastic waste. Te stuffed bag is put into into themachine, the lid closed and the screw turned to compressthe bag. When they open the machine the bag is only 1oot long. It is then firmly tied with wire. Each brick weighs

about a kilo so i we expect to make around 80 bricks amonth rom our immediate village waste.

We will use these bricks as wall filling in construction

o stores or boundary walls. Tey will be packed firmlybetween vertical columns and sealed on both sides withplaster on chicken wire netting. Tis is a very excitinginnovative programme which we hope to take muchurther this coming year.

NISHTHA CLEAN VILLAGE PROJECT


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Nishtha is ully committed to working with the GovernmentSchools to ensure that each child gets the best start in lie,thrives and develops to his or her ull potential. o this end

we run a rich afer school programme or children in ourcommunity centre offering a library ull o books or children,creative activities, tuition, sports and computer trainingto the poorest o the local children. We strongly ocus onenvironmental and health issues, encouraging the children toshow their amilies how to segregate waste and to appreciatethe natural environment.

NISHTHA COMMUNITY L IBRARY Since 2010, Nishtha library has been completely re-madeinto a child-oriented space and stocked with over 1,000books or children and young people in Hindi and English

in easily accessible display shelves and boxes. All the booksare organised into categories or easy access and a bookborrowing card system is in place. Children carry theirbooks in special Nishtha book bags to protect them. Regularstory reading and creative writing sessions take place in thelibrary and children are assisted and encouraged to read anddevelop a love o reading. Adults are also very welcome in ourlibrary and find plenty o interest rom history and fiction tocompetition success manuals and cookery books.

More than 20 children rom nearby villages come to thelibrary everyday to read and borrow books. All the childrenhave their own cards on which they write the names and

accession number o the book they want to borrow and signit back in when they return it. Te library is also used by over40 adults, including our sponsorship students rom different villages to borrow novels and read the magazines in the library.

REFRESHING NISHTHA L IBRARY During the months leading up to the school exams in March,the children are occupied with tuition classes so the lull inlibrary attendance has been used as a good time to rereshour stock o illustrated children’s books. Our aim is to providenew and interesting fiction and non-fiction Hindi, Englishand dual Language books in the library or the children tokeep their interest in reading resh.

Having gone through our stock and the publishers lists wewere able to see what we needed to replace and what new weshould buy. In January we ordered 57 Hindi and 50 English

books rom the Children’s Book rust in Delhi. Ravindra hasbeen busy entering them into our system and catagorisingthem. Once these are complete we will go through the other

most popular publishers in our library such as National Bookrust, Pratham and ulika. Te new books will be launchedinto the library afer the exams in March.

READING FLUENCY PROGRAMMEIt was noticed by several o our volunteers that many childrenloved to flip though our picture books but ew really took timeto sit and read them cover to cover. Tey did o course loveto be read to! It was clearly necessary to help the children todevelop the reading proficiency to enable them to discoverthe joy o reading or themselves.

With the help o a series o books produced by NCER we

introduced a programme in which individual children taketurns to sit with Ravindra and gradually read through thisexcellent graded series o story books. Ravindra encouragesthem gently to spell out difficult words and rewards thecompletion o each o the 4 levels with a treat. More than30 students aged 5-11 years have so ar completed theprogramme. We are now planning to do the same, using adifferent series o books that we have yet to find to encouragetheir English reading.

CREATIVE ACTIVITIESTis year we have had some excellent creative activities or the

children provided by our valuable volunteers. Tree youngartists working with an organisation called Art Reuge spentsome time with us in April 2014. Tey got all the childrencreatively drawing as never beore! When their programmeclosed in the ibetan Reugee Centre, they very kindlydonated several child-sized tables and lots o art materials tous or our children. Tank you Art Reuge!

Sangeeta, a volunteer rom Delhi who specialises in theatreand story-telling spent almost 2 months with us between Apriland June. As well as helping Ravindra with the anganwari visits, she worked with the children to create a puppet showdrama on the need to take care o the environment. She andthe children made all the puppets themselves and then madewonderul masks.

Jude, a visitor rom the UK, came and taught the childrenhow to make papier-mâché bowls and plates.

CHILDREN’S PROGRAMMES


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SCHOOL C HILDREN’S TUITIONBetween September and March when the school exams take

place, we offer tuition classes or the local school children to givethem a chance to do as well as their more well off neighbourswho engage private tutors to get through the exams.

In 2014 the tuition classes started in October and wererun by the same two well qualified and enthusiastic teacherswho taught the children last year with very good results.Tese teachers are riendly with the children and have made a very good relationship with them. We ocus on two subjects:Maths which is a problem or all the children regardless owhether he or she studies in the Government or a privateschool, and English, which is very difficult or Governmentschool children because they do not get a lot o exposure to it.

Te children going to the local school are rarely wellmotivated to attend extra classes because their parents arepoorly educated and do not see the value o it. However, in thefirst three months, 30-35 students attended the tuition classes.In January, ewer children attended because it was really verycold this year and when it gets dark early parents want theirchildren home quickly. Tose students who have a long walk toget home had to stop attending. Nishtha provided a room heaterand good mattresses to sit on so some students did continue toattend the classes or a while, but in February we had to closethe class because one o the teachers got a job and the weathergot even worse with cold and heavy rain or days on end.

Despite this, when the students got their results, all whohad attended passed with good marks. Te teachers wereparticularly pleased that three boys who have been regularstudents o Nishtha tuition classes or the past our years gotfirst position in their standard this year.

NISHTHA COMPUTER CENTRENishtha computer centre was re-made three years ago and

contains 7 neat desktop computers with small flat screens.Te room is set up with purpose made tables and swivelchairs with a whiteboard and projector and screen so ourteachers can use a variety o teaching methods. Te childrenare organised into regular one hour classes and they lovelearning typing tutor, MS word, excel and using paintbox withour teachers. Vijay who is incharge o the computer roomputs a great deal o effort into maintaining the computers,managing the power back up system and preparing teachingideas and programmes.

COMPUTER CLASS REPORTTis year we had seven students, 4 boys and 3 girls romamilies o migrant labourers who are presently working inour area and attending the local government school. Tey visit the afer school programme at Nishtha every day and are very enthusiastic to lear though also very shy. When they firsthad the chance to sit at a computer and turn it on they were very hesitant and not at all sure what to do, but our teachersgently showed them and gave them courage to discover thewonders o the computer. Communicating with these childrenis not easy because they are very weak in English and evenHindi is not their first language, but with painstaking effort theteachers have worked to maintain their interest in computer

by changing the activity requently and giving them differentkinds o un games.

Besides these children we have 11 students who havebeen attending computer classes regularly. We divide thegroups according the standard o the students. New studentslearn how to type and use paint and word. More advancedstudents learn how to sur internet, send or receive mail, howthe antivirus works, make charts and graphs in excel andpresentations in power point. Unortunately these classes arestill dominated by boys as girls are expected to go home andhelp their mothers with housework afer school whereas boysare ree to do as they please. We try to talk to the parents toexplain the value o learning the computer or girls but we arenot always successul.

In addition o this our computer lab is used by some collegegoing students during the day time. Tey practice typing and


TUITION CLASS ATTENDANCE

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OCT NOV DEC JAN


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learn how to use word and excel. Our teachers, Vijay andMegha are usually busy in the morning with their office workso can’t always have have time to guide them but wheneverthey can they help these students to increase their skills.

YOUTH PROGRAMMESYoung people in the village experience tremendous stress in

their teens, when they struggle to reconcile the ever increasingdifferences between them and their parents in what theyexpect out o lie. Our Youth Programmes offer a wide rangeo activities and interesting events or young people includingsports, outings, trainings, cultural events, computer educationand a library o movies and books. We are also ully engagedwith protecting the local environment and developing the village ground.

FIRST AID TRAININGIn conjunction with the St. John’s Ambulance team romWales, we hold regular first aid trainings or young people

and our clinic staff to enable them to actively step orwardand help people in times o medical emergency and to giveour ancillary staff the confidence to act quickly to helppatients who arrive in the clinic with severe burns, woundsor dog bites.

We were very pleased to receive the St John’s AmbulanceFirst Aid raining team rom South Wales again this year.Tis team has now been visiting Dharamsala or 10 years andhave been collaborating with Nishtha or the past 8 years. On30th October 2014, 26 participants attended the programmeheld in Nishtha community centre hall. Tey included 14Nishtha staff, 10 Sponsorship students and 2 officers rom

the CID Department who happened to visit us that day. Teteam headed by our old riend Des Kitto, demonstrated andthen had us all practice how to respond in an emergencyto save lives. Tey showed us how to use the ‘ABCD’ code:A- Airways, B- Breathing, C- Choking,- D- Danger and R-Recovery, which is very useul or us all.

We learned how to do emergency dressings, what we cando i someone has a heart attack, is bitten by a snake, is burned,or alls and breaks bones. We never know when we mightsuffer some natural disaster in this area so we should all beprepared. Tis was the first time the sponsorship students andthe CID officers had undertaken this training so the Nishtha

staff who received this training on previous years helped thenew participants. Snacks were provided to all the participantsand trainers.

At the end o the session the participants expressed their

appreciation or the personal trouble and dedication o theteam to come all the way rom South Wales to provide us withthis valuable training. It was agreed that we should plan to doa series o village outreach training programmes so that wecan extend this knowledge into the villages.

CULTURAL TRAINING

Our local village population is largely made up o Ghadditribes people who have a rich cultural heritage o stories,music, songs dances and traditional dress. Although Indiaencourages it’s diverse cultures, with the increasing impact oBollywood movies through television, there is a grave dangerthat this heritage will be lost. We thereore encourage andprovide training or our young people to learn the traditionalsongs and dances, to tell the traditional stories and we havemade a set o 6 Female and 4 male traditional dresses in whichthey can perorm locally.

Tis year Vijay Bhadwaj and Bhandana Sharma heldregular training sessions with our sponsorship students on

Sunday afernoons in the community centre. By the time itcame or our 20th anniversary we had an excellent troup operormers who put on an excellent perormance.

WENLIDO TRAININGFor young girls and single women we offer Wenlido seldeence training to provide them with the sel confidenceand strength to withstand domestic violence which is verycommon in the villages. Tree day residential Wenlidoworkshops are held or groups o 9-16 women in Nishthacommunity centre, during this year. We particularly ocus onwomen rom outlying areas who we have contacted through

our clinic outreach and single women’s programmes.During 2014-15 three three day residential workshops

were held in July. Te 1st was held rom 18 th to 20th July inwhich 13 girls participated rom the nearby villages o Rakkar,Cholla, Khaniyara and Pallon. Te 2nd was rom 22th to 24th July 2014 in which the participants were rom two areas:Khaniyara and Dharamshala. All were school girls, between16 to 20 years. Te 3rd was held rom 26th to 28th July 2014 inwhich there were 16 participants rom Shahpur village, againaged 16 to 20 years.

All 3 trainings were conducted under the supervision ocertified trainers Deepa Gurung and Ravindra Kaku. None

o the participants had any previous knowledge o Wenlidoor any other sel deence technique. During the three daytraining the young women learned to explore the physical andmental skills to enable them to ace any situation.



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Wenlido helps girls and women to connect with their strength,overturning centuries o conditioning, which convinceswomen that they are the ‘weaker sex’. As much as learningtechniques o physical sel-deense, Wenlido training involvesthe evolution o a women rom a passive victim into a strongcapable individual who can control her own lie.

Te whole workshop is planned with a eminist perspective

and not only deals with physical saety but also with mentaland emotional stability. In the workshops not only do girlslearn to protect themselves, but also to recognize potentiallydangerous situations early on and to respond verballyeffectively when harassed,. Tey become aware o personalboundaries, problem solve together on how to stay sae andget out o the (inner) victim mode.

SPORTS PROGRAMMESOur village ground which we have worked on so careully isnow the regular meeting place or the youth o the village andevery evening kids play on the ground. Cricket continues to

be the most popular sport but anyone who wants to come andkick a ball around will quickly find a happy group o kids jointhem. Sometimes groups o oreign students come and playwith the kids on the ground much to their mutual enjoyment.

November 8th was a big day on Rakkar ground when 150kids rom 6 local schools joined our team o communityactivists and sponsorship students in a ull day o sports,games and un. As the children arrived they were registeredand shown the variety o games in store or them, each wellorganized by one or two o our team.

In school only good athletes get the chance to get involvedin playing games, the others are just spectators. Our ambition

is to provide the opportunity or every child to be able to playany game whether or not they are good at it. Everyone shouldget a chance and be encouraged.

We provided both outdoor and indoor games. Outsidethere was ootball, cricket, badminton and volleyball. Athleticevents including long jump, high jump, and track races.Indoor games included chess, ludo and carom.

At the end o the afernoon snacks and ruit were providedor all the children and helpers. We asked the kids whatthey thought o our programme and they were loud in theirappreciation and begged that it should happen again next year.

CRICKET PROGRAMMETis year Nishtha cricket tournament could not be started asusual in December because o construction work going on bythe side o the ground and a Government pipeline was being

re-laid across one section o the ground. Once the pipe waslaid and the new shop concrete roo was poured, the weatherwas bad so we were unable to start our tournament untilthe beginning o January. By then the school was back insession so we could only play cricket when the children wereon holiday so the number o matches possible was limited.Tereore only 12 local teams competed in our tournament

this year.Te opening match was between the Yol Cantt. andSidhbari cricket teams. Te teams came rom the nearby villages o Khanyara, Dhari, Sidhbari and so on and ratherurther afield rom Naddi and McLeod Ganj. Everybodyenjoyed the matches and the villagers and monks rom thenearby ibetan monastery would spend their day off watchingthe teams play. Te standard was very good and our careullyprepared pitch was much appreciated by the players. Afer theleague matches, the final match was played on 26th Januarybetween Lower Yol vs. Dharamshala. In this very interestingmatch the Dharamshala team clinched the Nishtha Cricket

rophy by 20 runs. Nishtha Director Dr. Barbara distributedprizes along with our 2015 calendar to the winning andrunner up teams.

Next year we will make every effort to start the tournamentby the first week o December. We also eel that there is quitea danger in playing with a hard ball on this ground which isright by the school and children’s playground. Tereore weare considering using a cosco ball which will also be saer andeasier on the pitch. Te great thing is that now every eveningthe pitch is in use by the local youth who are enthusiasticallyhoning their cricket skills so they can perorm well next year.Te pitch will now be in continuous use right up until the

monsoon’s arrival in July.

CHILDREN’S PLAYGROUNDTe swings and slides are the most popular element o Nishthachildren’s playground and it has become a regular meetingplace or the mothers o the village. Nishtha staff regularlycheck and do any necessary repair work including re- fixingthe tyres, adding extra support bars to the apparatus and re-grouting the swing stand. We were very grateul or the helpo the Peddie School students or giving it all a coat o paintin March.

In response to the overwhelming popularity o the

playground, with the help o our new Austrian Civil service volunteer Gaban who is a trained architect, we have big plansto extend and improve it by adding new swings or youngerchildren and more adventurous climbing equipment.



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ENVIRONMENT DAY o celebrate 2014 Environment Day a puppet play “Bhagwat”was prepared by Volunteer Sangeeta with 14 local school kidsto promote Nishtha’s Clean Green Rakkar program which issuccessully unctioning or over 200 households in Rakkar village. Te theme o the play was how the animals gettogether to revolt against the human race when they realizethat human beings are polluting the river and not segregatingtheir garbage and disposing o it properly, so it becomes athreat to animal lie. It touched on the most important localissues: water pollution and garbage segregation.

In addition, an illustrated handout was producedwhich explains how to segregate household waste in three

languages: Hindi, English and ibetan. Tis handout willbe given to every household involved in this and utureprogrammes as well as to the local shops, schools, templesand so on.

Although it is not easy to perorm a play in severalplaces on one day, we wanted to maximise the interest in theenvironment by showing it to as many people as possibleon June 5th instead o 6th which was a Sunday. Te first showo the day was perormed at Rakkar School at 11:00 am. Weset up our stage and perormed to 78 kids rom the middleand primary schools. Tey really enjoyed watching how

the puppet moves on the stage and the different voices othe characters, especially since the perormers were mostly

their classmates. We then talked to the children aboutgarbage management and handed out the new leaflet.

At 1:30 pm we arrived at Chakwan School where 65kids and their teachers were waiting eagerly to see thispuppet show. Tey were very happy at the end o this showand all joined in the dance with the puppet show team. Wehanded out and explained the leaflet beore rushing off to our last venu o the day at Norbulingka in Euro Kidsschool. Tere 30 to 35 Local kids and some oreigners andlocal people enjoyed the show. Beore starting Mohindertalked to them about our Clean Green Village project andhad an interactive session on how to segregate their waste.

By the end o the day we were tired but we elt we hadmanaged to contact as many people as we could and make

this day meaningul.

ONE BILL ION RISING 2015One Billion Rising is a global movement, ounded by EveEnsler, to end rape and sexual violence against women.In 2012, the One Billion Rising campaign culminatedin the biggest mass global action to end violence againstwomen ever, with tens o thousands o events held. On 20September 2012, people rom 160 countries signed up totake part in the campaign.

On the 14th o February 2015, Nishtha celebrated this

global event on Rakkar Village ground. All the Nishthastaff, a group o our single women, the Nishtha sponsorship

EVENTS

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students, kids o Rakkar, Chakwan, and Samlekhanagschools, our special needs students, the stitching womenand a crowd o people rom the village came to participatein the movement.

We made a round circle, where we discussed what isOBR and why we celebrate it. What is the significance orthis kind o movement or us? Te single women’s groupsang some songs and acted a play about non-violence. VijayBhardwaj and the students sang a song about violence thatdestroys our lives.

We then marched down the road in procession as aras Druni Mata emple carrying banners and balloonswith slogans and cut outs o doves to signiy the peace wewish to find in our lives. When we reached the emple all

the children sang with great enthusiasm. wo kids romChakwan school sang the wonderul amous song “O richiraiya” which everybody loved. We all sang and dancedwith joy.

When the programme was over we enjoyed healthyrereshments and walked back to the Rakkar ground whereall the kids played together and then went home. It wasa wonderul morning and a great celebration on this OneBillion Rising world movement day.

RAKKAR MELA

Our local village ete is held on 31st May and 1st June everyyear. It is a big event or the village when everyone comes to

enjoy the un o the wrestling, side shows, trinket and oodstalls. Nishtha puts up a stall there in order to make thelocal people aware o what we do, to advertise our socialprogrammes.

Te Nishtha stall was d

nishtha annual report 2014-15

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