In a joint venture, Nishtha and Aviskaar organised a 2 day science fair at the Govt. School in Rakkar. The Aaviskar team arrived on day 1 with brilliantly prepared materials and taught the 7th and 8th class kids basic science concepts using very clear, practical illustrations. The following day the 2 classes split into small groups who each displayed and with growing confidence and delight explained the models and concepts to the numerous other students and visitors who came to see what was going on. What a wonderful event.! Thank you Aaviskar for your input
Photographer Nurith Wagner-Strauss
A glimpse of what goes on everyday in Nishtha clinic from our long term friend and photographer Nurith Wagner-Strauss who joined us for 3 weeks to take photographs for our forthcoming calenders and train our staff in photography. Look forward to a spectacular 2017!
Nishtha Annual Staff Picnic
Nishtha staff and Trustees chose Baba Baroh, a famous white marble Radha Krishna temple situated high on the hills South of us for their staff picnic. Traveling through winding back roads to get there, Vijay Bhardwaj and our women staff filled the bus with their singing. After visiting the magnificent temple we all sang and danced and then enjoyed a delicious lunch offered by the temple staff. It was a great day relaxing all together and everyone enjoyed taking lots of trendy selfies!
Garbage awareness after school programme
Over 40 children in our after school programme were very happy to meet Sagar, a theatre artist from Pune who, together with 2 friends presented a riveting and inspiring play about the problem of garbage in our communities which causes illness and environmental degradation. It was so impressive that our staff organised for them to perform at Chakwan and Andar schools on the mountainside. Everyone really enjoyed and learned a lot from it. Thank you Sagar and friends!
Theatre Workshop
We were delighted to welcome a professional theatre workshop facilitator and ex-student of Kishwar Shirali, Farid Azad to Nishtha last week to give an 8 day training in theatre and expression to our Nishtha staff and children. We learned a great deal through performance exercises, creating and working together and finally producing a little play which we performed on the final day. Thank you Kishwar for organising and participating in this wonderful programme!
Health Outreach Clinics
Some villages we go to on our Health Outreach Clinics are very remote and down very difficult roads. Reaching Bhatti village near Kangra we got stuck and only through the amazing help of the whole village did we manage to reverse the car out of a gravelly depression with no way forward. Thank you everyone from Bhatti Village!
International Women’s Day 2016
The Nishtha Team celebrated International Women’s Day 2016 along with friends and supporters in the village. Our chief guest Dr Kishwar gave a warm welcoming speech reminding everyone of the significance of celebrating this day. Taking the theme of ‘Completely Clean Rakkar’, the single women’s team performed a meaningful play, Vijay Bhardwaj, who manages Nishtha’s garbage programme gave a speech and then sang a song about managing personal waste hygienically. The Nishtha women sang heartfelt songs about women’s issues and finally our students performed a traditional Gaddi dance which enthralled and involved the whole audience. Thank you to everyone for a wonderful afternoon!
DGL nuns health training
Tenzin and Jagsen, health worker nuns from Dongyu Gyatsal Ling Nunnery joined us for one week intensive training with Dr. Barbara and Dr. Kusum. They joined in our clinics improving their skills and learning a lot of practical medicine from seeing patients. It was lovely to have them with us.
Sponsorship students Gaddhi dance
Our sponsorship students did us proud by dancing in honor of Barbara’s birthday in full gaddhi costume. They will be performing again on March 15th when we celebrate International Women’s Day in Rakkar Village.
Nishtha tuition program
As the exams approach in March, suddenly Nishtha tuition program is crowded with kids from the local government school. Ashwani who has completed his MA in economics and is able to teach our local children while he is applying for jobs, is very sincere and dedicated to helping the children perform their best in Maths and English.
