The local kids are delighted that the playground spaceship climbing frame has been restored! It was created from old tyres by Austrian civil servant Gaban last year – congratulations and thanks to everyone!

Simon, our latest Austrian Civil Servant, after three months working on Nishtha’s organic farm, reflects that organic agriculture is not just about cutting out the use of inorganic chemicals but entails nourishing the earth from which plants take their nutrients. Only if a complex and fine network of invisible helpers in the soil: fungal strands which attach to the plant’s roots to trade for sugars, bacterial communities, which graze for minerals and a huge variety of predatory microbes that keep the system in check is the earth truly ‘alive’ and becomes a truly organic organism.

At Nishtha we are working to cultivate compost rich in these nutrients and microbial life. During recent months we have built more than 100 raised beds and planted a diverse mixture of vegetables and trees. Simon says: “Learning about nature, experiencing as well as developing its beautiful relationships, is making volunteering for this Organisation worthwhile.”

In order to further our Completely Clean Rakkar Campaign and support our tireless workers in their task, Nishtha has put up these bright new posters asking our villagers and visitors not to burn plastic, to segregate waste and to clean without shame. The artwork was done by our Tibetan volunteer Chokey and the slogans were created by the Nishtha staff.

This week our team went to the remote Village of Harnera in Sharpur block. The health education camp was organized by our oldest activist Gyni Devi and our newest activist Ranjana. It was attended by 37 women, both young and old and several with small babies. As usual Dr Kusum led a lively an informative discussion group particularly focusing on female reproduction, joint pains and hypertension. Several women had their blood pressure checked and all received useful information how to ease their pain and stay well using local herbal treatments and exercise.

Suresh is responsible for maintaining the water filters Nishtha has installed in our three local government schools. Every week they have to be cleaned and checked and twice a year we change the filters and replace any other parts that are worn or damaged. In this way we are ensuring clean drinking water for not only the school children but also the local families who have access to this water.

After preparing the cricket pitch using nice clay, the Nishtha tournament started from last week with the local Rakkar team playing the Sidhbari team. During the next month 15 teams will compete on the village ground bringing lots of activity to warm everyone during the chilliest weather.

Nishtha Single Women’s activists tirelessly held a series of important meetings this month including the 6 month block meeting attended by 80 rural women, a training in communications skills and a series of meetings with village council members to try to implement a scheme to get faster, cheaper more effective legal representation for women at Panchayat level. Their work really has effect empowering the most deprived section of society.

Wenlido training for 15 village girls between the age of 10-13 years was held at Nishtha by Ravindra and Prity. The training followed a similar pattern to the adults training , only replacing a few topics not suitable for this age group with some interesting games. The girls were very happy and confident talking about themselves in the group and enjoyed learning new skills and techniques to defend themselves.

Nishtha Diwali sports program for our local school children was held on October 28th, the first day of the week long school holiday, on Rakkar playground. This was an open sports program which means everybody could take part in any game they liked; girl or boy, young or adolescent, everybody had a chance to play. We invited 3 Government and one local private school for this event which our community centre staff had started preparing two weeks ago. Clearing bushes, removing stones from the ground, purchase and checking of sports material, ordering refreshments, preparing prizes and putting together a schedule of games was all done by our staff.

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Last Saturday the Welsh St John’s ambulance team of First Aid trainers spent a very helpful and productive day at Nishtha teaching 25 local young people the basics of first aid particularly for use particularly in case of a local disaster. They learned the ABC of first aid, how to do simple dressings and slings, how to treat burns, how to put injured or shocked patients into the rescue position and how to shift those with serious injuries. Thank you Des Kitto and all your team!