The farming team harvested 5 kilos of turmeric, 8 kilos of ginger and a massive 10 kilo pumpkin in the winter sun this week.

We rejoice at being able to work with the Kangra Youth Charitable Trust to help provide a hot meal to over 500 attendants of patients at Tanda Hospital last Sunday and with the Saadho Sangha Foundation to distribute much needed blankets to the very poor in our area. Thank you to both organisations for stepping forward to ease the chill of winter.

Nishtha Internal Complaints Committee was set up to address any incidents of sexual harassment or abuse in the workplace, under the direction of Kamla Bhasin nearly 10 years ago. As several members of the committee had changed, we revived the committee this year and now have 5 standing members who felt that it would be helpful to engage Aatreyee Sen, an expert in child and human rights to explain the purpose of Nishtha ICC to the staff. The meeting last week involved all the staff who fully participated in a lively morning of activities and discussions. Everyone who attends Nishtha programs will also be made aware of their rights and the complaints procedure.

The library has had an infusion of new exciting books published by Tulik and Pratham. They were curated by our guest Mithila who worked with Ravindra and Vijay to display them and then on Monday held a lovely reading session with the children. A great way to spend a cold winters afternoon.

We are delighted to have been able to upgrade the 7 very old computers used by the children and students in our community centre. Thank you to the UK Trust cyclists for allowing us to use their left-over funds for running the trip to do this! Thank you to Brian for doing all the hard work of ordering and installing the new components.

Nishtha students decided to see in the New Year on the hillside above Tatri village where there is an old shepherds hut and a glorious plain grassy meadow. They had a wonderful time hiking, cooking, singing and dancing around the camp fire, and in the morning warming up by playing cricket and pitu, the local sport of knocking down a pile of stones with a roll of socks.

Our Christmas Day sports program was a huge success with an additional 65 children from the surrounding area joined the 70 who we had invited from our 6 local Primary Schools to take part in the medley of games on the Rakkar Ground. Our sponsorship students contributed enormously to the smooth running of the activities and making sure that every child was fed lunch and went home with something. Thank you to our Nishtha Trustees for providing their support and appreciating the childrens dance performances that rounded off the day.

Great excitement as we prepare for our Christmas sports program. After holding preliminary programs all week in the local 6 schools we are expecting over 70 participants in the major event tomorrow. We are so grateful for all your gifts which help to make it possible to hold such events for the children!

As the traffic on our local roads increase, recycling Dr Barbara’s railings we have installed a decorative fence to stop the children from the Nang Mandir creche from running onto the road. Its been a tough job and taken considerable work but it is both effective and attractive!

10 girl and 4 boy members of our sponsorship program for children of single parents, usually mothers, participated in this year’s 3 day gender awareness workshop led by Manju Devi. This topic is very powerful because gender identification continues to pervade society and greatly effects what young people can achieve in life. Many of the students talked emotionally about the difficulties faced by their mothers when they became widows and how disparaging remarks by relatives and neighbours made them feel outcast. Providing a safe situation for youngsters to share their feelings and develop bonds of trust and friendship is extremely valuable.