We have just completed the essential task of levelling our very uneven basketball court on the village ground. It took 5 trucks of clay excavated from the under construction nearby helipad, 24 tractors to cart it onto the play ground and 6 hours work with a earth mover to level and pack it down. The boys from the school joined in during their break helping remove rocks. Now we are ready for the coming rains to settle it all down and enable grass to grow. Come September the village will have a great new court on which play! Well done team Nishtha and thank you to our UK donors!

Last week the Nishtha team were fully engaged in environment day activities. They helped organize and participated with the Dharamsala Environment Preservation flash mob in McLeod Ganj and Bhagsunath on Sunday as well as conducting a very lively local clean up and awareness program here in the village on Monday. Both events attracted a lot of attention so we hope that many more people are now committed to dealing with their waste responsibly!

Despite unseasonal rain, the weather cleared enough that we could put up an attractive stall on the 2nd day of Rakka Mela. Using our newly printed banners and the plastic sitting mats woven during the workshop earlier in the week we were able to display the most urgent points about garbage disposal in the village. It was heartening to see how interested the young people were in learning what to do with their waste materials.

A big thank you to the 9 nuns from Dongyu Gyatesling Nunnery who held a workshop at Nishtha, teaching our staff how to make round cushions out of waste plastic. What a great way of using all those noodle packets!

Our team joined an environmental exposure event at Mandal Senior Secondary School where they engaged 45 students in a rich variety of topics including waste segregation, making compost and the dangers of burning plastic. They showed the students a video on how we compress plastic waste to make building blocks and how waste plastic can be reused as sitting cushions. The students were very interested and keen to get involved.

Azad and Goodie expertly straining our fresh batch of calendula oil.

We are very grateful to special needs teacher Mira Madhavan for joining us last week and for sharing her observations and expert advice to help us offer the very best play situation for our special children.

So much stormy weather has made it difficult for local farmers her in the Kangra valley to cut the wheat crop. Today our team took the opportunity between rain storms to clean up the now verdant playground.

Two workshops for adolescent boys were held at Nishtha by visiting trainer Rahul Kusukar and Nishtha activist Vijay Kumar. In three days, they covered a wide range of topics exploring human rights, gender, sexuality and masculinity. We are very grateful for Rahul’s expert management of the group of boys who really appreciated how he encouraged them to think differently and enthralled them with his interesting sessions which we hope will have a long-term positive impact on their lives.

Are you one of those people who leaves the city and chooses to live here in the village but ties all their garbage in a bag and throws it by the side of the road? After all, that’s what everyone else does. Do you not know it attracts animals and how many cows die from eating plastic bags with food inside? Please compost your food waste.