The Nishtha Team celebrated International Women’s Day 2016 along with friends and supporters in the village. Our chief guest Dr Kishwar gave a warm welcoming speech reminding everyone of the significance of celebrating this day. Taking the theme of ‘Completely Clean Rakkar’, the single women’s team performed a meaningful play, Vijay Bhardwaj, who manages Nishtha’s garbage programme gave a speech and then sang a song about managing personal waste hygienically. The Nishtha women sang heartfelt songs about women’s issues and finally our students performed a traditional Gaddi dance which enthralled and involved the whole audience. Thank you to everyone for a wonderful afternoon!
All posts by Nishtha
DGL nuns health training
Tenzin and Jagsen, health worker nuns from Dongyu Gyatsal Ling Nunnery joined us for one week intensive training with Dr. Barbara and Dr. Kusum. They joined in our clinics improving their skills and learning a lot of practical medicine from seeing patients. It was lovely to have them with us.
Sponsorship students Gaddhi dance
Our sponsorship students did us proud by dancing in honor of Barbara’s birthday in full gaddhi costume. They will be performing again on March 15th when we celebrate International Women’s Day in Rakkar Village.
Nishtha tuition program
As the exams approach in March, suddenly Nishtha tuition program is crowded with kids from the local government school. Ashwani who has completed his MA in economics and is able to teach our local children while he is applying for jobs, is very sincere and dedicated to helping the children perform their best in Maths and English.
Special thanks to Gaban
Special thanks to Gaban who completed his year-long Austrian civil service with us last month. His hugely creative contribution to the garbage facility and our kids play equipment is a source of enormous delight and inspiration.
Rakkar Government school function
Nishtha Director Dr. Barbara and Mohinder our Project Manager attended a very lively annual function at Rakkar Government school where they enjoyed colorful musical performances by the students. The Principal gave special thanks to Nishtha for providing extra nutrition, shoes and sweaters for the children. He requested further help to provide a midday meal for the 9th and 10th classes who are not provided for by the government. Dr Barbara agreed to fund raise to be able to do this so these two classes do not sit on the side hungry while the lower classes eat at lunch time.
January Sports Programme
Nehru Yuva Kendar along with Nishtha youth club organized a 2 day sports programme on 16th and 17th January. This first time event in Rakkar village rallied 6 volleyball teams, 14 Badminton players and 15 athletes who stunned the spectators with their enthusiasm and hidden sports talents. This year the boys put on a fabulous show – next year we hope the event will include the girls of the village.
Nishtha Cricket Tournament
On a chill but bright day the final of the Nishtha Cricket Tournament in which 20 teams took part was held with Dari team beating Yol team by 5 Wickets. The awards were presented by Trustee Radhika Sharma and Dr Barbara along with two of our newly elected Panchayat Members. Well done Mohinder for organising such a great event!
Winter clothing for kindergartens
66 little children in the 6 local kindergartens Nishtha takes care of also received winter clothing in the form of brightly coloured hoodie wool jackets, crocs and socks to beat the winter chill!
Sweaters and shoes for school children
Good shoes, socks and woolen sweaters are expensive essentials that most of the poorer families struggle to afford. Through generous donations Nishtha has been able to distribute these to 236 children in 5 small local schools as the cold weather here in the Himalayas sets in.
