Shaksham celebrated his 7th birthday along with the other special children who came to spend the day at Nishtha on Saturday. He was delighted with his cake and present and everyone had a wonderful time playing with the colourful balloons and singing happy birthday.

It is the last week of the monsoon holidays and the kids are having a wonderful time – painting bottles with Rony in which to plant seeds, playing endless games and watching movies when the rain pours down. It has been lovely to have them with us all day every day and enjoying a variety of great lunches!

Nishtha Community Center provides a safe and creative space for kids to spend their after school hours and holidays. This monsoon holiday, despite the heavy rains, the kids were busy every afternoon for 15 days preparing English skits and dances. Most of the kids are first time English speakers, but that didn’t daunt them. They were keen to learn and worked very hard to master their lines, indeed they always went one step ahead to make each act even funnier. The dance was their favorite and they practiced it 2 or 3 times every day. Their efforts culminated in two wonderfully joyous shows and we hope to give another performance in the school at the beginning of the new term. We are very grateful to Puja Anand, Aloka and Manchanta for their hugely valuable and inspirational effort.

We are very pleased to have just completed 3 three-day trainings in Wenlido self-defense for a total of 53 young women, most of whom had attended our adolescent girls workshops last month. We have high hopes that they will now be empowered to steer their lives safely and with confidence and as positive influences on their families and communities.

Why throw away kitchen waste when you can so easily make great vermicompost for your garden? All you need is a drum of any size suitable for you, make holes in it, put some stones in the bottom and a hole with a pipe for drainage. Inserting a layer of mesh inside improves ventilation. Set the drum about 30cms off the ground in a shady place on your balcony or in your yard. Start by breaking up some sticks for the bottom. Add green waste, leaves etc. a bit of cow dung and then kitchen waste (without onion) in layers. Get a handful of red vermicompost worms from the Agricultural department or from Nishtha. The contents of the drum should be neither too wet or too dry and must be well-ventilated for the worms to thrive. Keep on adding kitchen waste, green material and occasionally cow dung in layers. Collect the extract that drains out and dilute it 1:10 parts water to use on your pot plants and watch them thrive!

We are delighted with our new dancing boy designed by our dear friend Veronica Leo. Here he is being screen printed in a very basic local studio and then Barbara is working with the Nayi Asha stitching ladies to set it as a pocket onto a folding backpack. These bags will be presented to the adolescent boys who attend our gender awareness workshops.

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.