Nishtha 2015/16 winter cricket tournament was innaugurated last week to the delight of the local villagers, with a lively match between Yol Eleven and our local Sidhbari team. On a pitch lovingly created using tractors of local clay and rolling using the Nishtha jeep the tournament is expected to involve around 22 local teams competing for the much coveted trophy.
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Nishtha 2016 Calendar available now
You can purchase this bright and beautiful full colour calender for Rs 250 directly from Nishtha, or:
In McLeod Ganj:
- India House supermarket
- Bedi travels
- Bookworm
- Moon Peak Cafe
In Kotwali Bazzar:
- Sharma photo Studio on the main street
In Sidhpur/Sidhbari:
- Dyaya Ram supermarket by Sacred heart School
- Nam Art gallery
- My Earth Store opp Gyuto Monastery
To order from within India please contact us – cost Rs. 300 each including postage.
To order from abroad please contact us – cost GBP 5, Euro/US$ 8 per copy.
A Tour of the Schools and Anganwaris who receive assistance from Nishtha
by Philippa Russell
Nishtha helps 3 schools and 6 small baby crèches all run by the government by providing nutritional supplements, infrastructure improvements, clean water, equipment, books and toys and regular visits to support the teachers. On August 3rd, the first day back to school after the summer break, I accompanied our team on their round delivering the fruit and vegetables to familiarise myself with how the programme is running. We have also been asked to help one more very small school so I was keen to visit and meet the teachers.
Children’s After School Programme
Simran’s art workshop
Since the exams in March and the start of the new school year, Nishtha community centre has become the scene of lots of activity after school each day, as well as children fully occupying the library and computer room, we have been running special activities including training children to ride bicycles. Nishtha has at present 3 bicycles and it has been a hard job for our volunteer Gaban’s job to keep them in working order!
Nishtha Organic Garden
Sujata, wife of the late Nishtha driver, Subhash has been fully employed by Nishtha since the beginning of April this year. She is an experienced local agriculturalist and along with our other members of staff who are devoted to the idea of organic gardening, she is working hard cultivating the land and growing vegetables and herbs. When the Single Women come for their meetings they also help her. Ram, Suresh and Mohinder pass on their knowledge about composting, and creating enzyme rich nutrients for the soil
Suresh: providing fresh and pure water to the community
Nishtha water filters are regularly maintained by Suresh to provide pure and fresh water for the school children, the village communities and our staff.
Whilst the candles get rinsed every week, Suresh changes the candles in the filters and checks the systems every 3 months. He also cleans the water big tanks every month.
We all very thankful to him for his great job providing so many people with fresh and pure water.
Refreshing Nishtha Library
During the months leading up to the school exams in March, the children are occupied with Tuition classes so the lull in library attendance has been used as a good time to refresh our stock of illustrated children’s books. Our aim is to provide new and interesting fiction and non-fiction Hindi, English and dual Language books in the library for the children to keep their interest in reading fresh.
One Billion Rising 2015
One Billion Rising is a global movement, founded by Eve Ensler, to end rape and sexual violence against women. In 2012, the One Billion Rising campaign culminated in the biggest mass global action to end violence against women ever with tens of thousands of events held. On September 20, 2012, people from 160 countries signed up to take part in the campaign.
Nishtha Cricket Programe
This year Nishtha cricket tournament could not be started as usual in the month of December because of construction work going on by the side of the ground and the Government pipeline was being re-laid cross one section of the ground. Once the pipe was laid and the new shop concrete roof was poured the weather was bad so we were unable to start our tournament until the beginning of January. By then the school was back in session – we can only play cricket when the children are on holiday so the number of matches possible was limited. Therefore only 12 local teams competed in our tournament this year.
Nishtha Homeopathic Outreach
We are pleased to announce that since January 1st Nishtha has adopted SHRI (Shantideva Homeopathic Research Initiative) Free Clinic in the small village of Kotli in Bajnath Block, Himachal Pradesh. The clinic is open 6 days a week and is run by Babita Jamwal Dhom, a young, recently graduated, homeopathic doctor with the assistance of volunteer homeopathic and health care professionals Spero Latchis Dhom. and Robin Jameson.
