Congratulations to our sponsorship students who won second prize for their traditional dance performance in the Block Level competition yesterday.

No longer do the rats and mongooses raid the food and play things in Mohli village kindergarten! In response to urgent appeals from the staff, Nishtha repaired the window grills and screens to make the room safer and more hygienic for the children.

Luisa, one of our two new Austrian volunteers reports on the single women’s workshop on domestic violence and a workshop for teenage girls, both held in Nishtha community Centre.

Here are the links of two reports:
http://nishtha.ngo/pdf/Domestic-Violence-Workshop.pdf
http://nishtha.ngo/pdf/SOCH-Workshop.pdf

Wonderful to see Vijay Bhadwaj back in top top form teaching dance to our sponsorship students.

Arushi, Sanjoli and Priya spend the day in our community centre along with their carers. We are delighted that Sanjoli is enjoying her new wheelchair!

Keeping ahead of the jungle during the monsoon: Our team on the farm, cutting rampant lantana on the playground, and stuffing bags with collected waste plastic.

Following Nishtha’s presentation at the State Waste Management Workshop in Shimla, a team of 32 Block Development officers, Junior Assistants, Technical Advisers and the Pardhans of 20 villages from Una and Hamirpur Districts visited Nishtha this week. Despite heavy rain we explained and demonstrated our program and they expressed interest and considered how they might implement our education, plastic collection and block making. We feel very encouraged that some progress has been made towards controlling the plastic waste in a wider area.

Vijay Kumar and Vijay Bhadwaj attended a waste management seminar held in Shimla. Their presentation of our work to educate people, collect plastic waste and make blocks suitable for construction was admired and other Panchayat’s are being encouraged to follow our lead.

21 students are now enrolled for Nishtha’s college sponsorship. Last Sunday the computer room was crowded, everyone anxious to learn from Vijay and Ankush. Later Puja came for English class which was a lot of fun and so wonderful to see the students all talking!