On the last Thursday of the month, an important meeting of our Single Women team was held, with two new assistant activists: Manju who has now completed 3 months and Vandhana who has just joined us. It is very heartening to find that the team is working cohesively and effectively and to learn that our most experienced activist Kummo will stay with us, deferring her retirement in order to offer valuable support to the younger members. This meeting was followed by our weekly staff meeting, held in cherished winter sunshine in the Community Centre courtyard.

Last Friday, as part of the local Fridays for Future Campaign , Dharamsala Waste Warriors worked alongside Nishtha in organising an awareness raising program with the students and teachers of the government school in Rakkar. Mohinder gave a talk about how our village is developing so rapidly and the quantity of garbage is becoming uncontrollable. Inspired, the students took an oath saying: “we pledge to be aware of our use of consumer materials and follow the motto: re-use, re-duce and re-cycle”. The students then went out in groups to clean up the village.

Nishtha provided crocks and two pairs of socks to each of the 47 little children who attend the 4 baby creches in the hilly area above Rakkar Village. It is very cold this year so our staff went to great lengths to buy appropriate, good quality shoes and socks so that these children from poor laboring families would be well equipped for the winter. At the same time they bought and distributed sets of blocks, a stacking tower and soft balls for each kindergarten to make the children’s days in the creche more interesting and fun.

One of our local boys who had a serious accident 2 years ago is now recovering and attempting to re-take his 10^th grade exams which he has been unable to pass in all subjects. Now he studying with the help of our tuition teacher Sanjay,who is making it his mission to prepare him for the exams in March. We really hope he does well!  

It’s Cricket Season again! 15 local teams have already signed up and the tournament organised by enthusiastic local boys has been the focus of attention for the village for the past week. Nishtha cleared the ground and brought in tractors of clay to make the pitch. We also provided new kit and a loudspeaker to announce the match points and results. It’s going to be an exciting month!

On Christmas Day, since the school was on holiday our staff decided to take the 15 children who come to our after school program for a full day picnic up on the hillside above Rakkar village. We carried food to make a big pot of khichari with vegetables and curd. While it cooked the children snacked on lots of namkeen and Gachak and played all kinds of games, drawing and cutting out, dancing and loving being out in the clear air in the winter sunshine.

Single Women’s Block level meetings take place every 6 months in the 3 areas our team covers.  This time Nishtha decided to lend support to the women by sending a staff member to each meeting. Ravindra went to Narwana for the Nagrota block meeting, Dr Kusum went to Rait and Vijay went to Gaggal for the Kangra block meeting. All three returned enthusiastically praising the organisation of the meetings and telling how they spoke to the women who attended about the work Nishtha does and how we can support them. They all felt it was very useful and our single women activists were pleased.

A hastily put together Wenlido workshop for 11 Anganwari workers from district Chamba was held in December, organised by Deepa who had met Minakshi, an Anganwari teacher from Sihunta during one of our health camps with Dr. Kusum. Keen to learn, they picked up the techniques quickly and spent up to 9.0 in the evening discussing. Our trainers felt this was a very fulfilling workshop as these women work in very remote villages where there is a lot of violence and confusion about what is and what is not acceptable behavior, especially within families. They were very grateful saying: “We are new women now! We are not the same as when we came. Now we are fearless and confident”.   

Two very valuable two day workshops on Non Violent Communication were held for Nishtha staff and single women earlier this month. A very experienced trainer named Chitra was invited from Delhi who led the groups in a voyage of discovery, thinking and becoming aware of their feelings and needs and particularly about how to deal with their own and others responses to difficult situations.

With winter coming our staff checked the condition of the government primary school children’s shoes and socks and found them to be in very poor condition. They set about taking the measurements of the 113 poor children from 5 local primary schools, ordering new shoes and 2 pairs of socks each. Now, every one of those children have good footwear to see them through the cold, wet months ahead.