Two three day gender awareness trainings for adolescent boys sponsored by SMILE de were held in the Community Centre last week. Rahul our special trainer from Pune led the very intense and lively sessions. Our team put huge effort into mobilising the boys and making sure they were fed really well. They all look great in their Nishtha T shirts!

Dr Barbara explaining the benefits of ear acupuncture to villagers in our Outreach health education camp

Our single women activists met together in the community centre this week to complete their annual reporting of all the work they have done. We are proud of how they tour the villages advertising the Nishtha health education camps. They contact widows and other single women to join in local meetings in which they help women to apply for Government benefit schemes and to know their legal rights.

The cycles are cleaned and serviced and the children are out on the ground having a wonderful time learning to ride in preparation for our UK cycle group tour this coming November!

We rejoice in the pretty kainth (wild pear) and glorious flowering cherry that fill our fields with blossom, that some trees have survived the local winter sport of cutting down trees not regarded as useful with modern chainsaws. Our staff are busy plucking the plantain which also fills the fields before it too is removed by the farmers. Azad makes it into a wonderfully soothing cough linctus with bay leaf and natural brown sugar.

Our trustees were delighted to attend the reception hosted by the British High Commission on the first day of the India vs England match and to meet Deputy Commissioner Caroline Rowett. Thank you to Mr Arjun Dumal for providing tickets for Shaksham and the cricket enthusiasts on our team to attend the 3rd day of the test match. Sadly the match ended early so they could only visit and admire the beautiful Dharamsala stadium.

With winter receding and the pretty white blossoms of the wild pear trees emerging across the valley heralding spring, our team enjoyed a picnic lunch and party followed by our weekly staff meeting out in the open air.

Despite our sign on the Rakkar bridge asking people not to throw their trash in the river, here are our team cleaning up the mess. Water is so precious and yet people have no respect for natural resources. What can be done to make people more aware?

On a rainy afternoon Ravindra encourages the girls to read and enjoy the story books in our Library. Reading has the power to transform our minds!

We were happy to welcome Mr Abid Siraj from SIT (School for International Training) and his group of 12 US Students who were eager to learn about the work Nishtha does in the rural villages of Himachal Pradesh. Dr. Barbara welcomed them into the clinic and described the variety of patients we see and the very particular holistic treatments we specialise in. Vijay Kumar then took them to the Community Centre, introducing them to our library and computer facilities which are available for the groups of children and young people who join our programs. He also introduced our environment program and fascinated them with our plastic block making

machine.