Look down on the ground as you walk through the fields and see the masses of garbage casually dropped, washed into the drains and floating in the newly flooded fields. Its easier, I know to walk head in the air, looking up at the beautiful mountains gently brushed with cloud and pretend it’s not my problem.

The children are loving their holiday program with dancing and skits organised by Puja and Aloka and creative drawing classes with our wonderful artist friend Rony.

Eight new enthusiastic students, 5 girls and 3 boys were interviewed and have joined the group of college students sponsored by Nishtha. We are very grateful to Puja Anand for interviewing them and leading the first Sunday session with them last week.

Dr Shreya, Ravindra and Vijay have now completed 3 workshops for adolescent girls from the villages organised by our single women activists. So far 60 girls have been able to benefit from information about their health and lifestyle and have been encouraged to think seriously about their futures. For most, it was the first time they had ever attended such a session and they were really inspired and energised. They are all signed up for the series of Wenlido workshops to be held here next month.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED! No, this is not a set up photo. Unbelievably someone dumped their fancy waste right under the Waste Warriors board, directly outside Nishtha! We ran to pick up the plastic packets before the cow could eat them and block up her digestive system. This causes so many cows to die. Who could be so thoughtless? We urgently need local energetic and enthusiastic part time volunteers to help us collect plastic waste going from house to house explaining to people how to manage their waste. Are you interested to save our environment? Please contact Mohinder: 98822 26638

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.