Dear Friends,
This letter comes to you with our 2020-21 annual report, which we have just completed. We are rather surprised and proud of what we have been able to achieve in the face of unforeseen challenges and are very grateful to all of you who so generously contributed to support our committed work in the villages.
We suffered a virulent wave of COVID in May and June this year, during which many people fell ill and we all know people who sadly are no more. Nevertheless, we are very happy to let you know that we at Nishtha have weathered the storm, helping people medically as much as we could and keeping very busy contacting and providing food packages to the neediest families around us. We are very grateful to a German organisation called SMILE and relief funds from Nishtha UK Trust, which enabled us to make up and distribute more than 240 food relief packages to those worst affected by loss of income due to the lockdown.
As things opened up and we were able to look further afield, we decided that it would only be possible to extend the program of food relief to a wider area by giving food vouchers worth Rs.1001 each to people who have very little. These include single women and people with disabilities, as well as those families who have lost their income and so are unable to buy even essential food. The general economic slowdown and loss of employment during the second huge wave of the pandemic this spring has resulted in widespread food insecurity here in Kangra District of Himachal Pradesh. Very heavy rains in July again disrupted the flow of tourists into the state, while many people lost their homes and possessions in the floods.
Our reach into the villages within an approximate 30km radius from Nishtha is assured through our team of six single-women activists, who are able to identify those in need in their areas. The activists are responsible for establishing a good understanding with reliable grocery (karyana) stores in convenient locations in the villages. These shopkeepers then allow holders of our vouchers to purchase goods to the value of Rs.1001.
Security of the vouchers has been assured by printing them with a watermark and numbering them in font that is difficult to copy. The activist who hands out the voucher writes the name and Aadhar (personal ID) card number of the recipient on the voucher. These details are checked by the shopkeepers, who submits the vouchers to Nishtha for reimbursement. We pay them for the number of vouchers they present by direct bank transfer, which makes everything easy to manage. People are very relieved to have this support. Normally a family of four will spend around Rs.2,000 a month on dry goods, so a Rs.1001 food voucher makes a real difference.
This program has been running for the past month supported by funds donated for COVID relief through the Austria Trust. During this time the team of women activists has distributed more than 350 vouchers. Recipients are often people who have difficulty leaving their houses. Activists have arranged either to collect the goods they require for them or to bring the individuals to a shop to make their choice. We are very grateful to our activists for their conscientiousness. We would like to be able to continue to provide vouchers to more people during the coming year, so any donations into this fund will be most gratefully received.
By outsourcing our food relief program to our single-women activists we have enabled the Nishtha community centre staff to resume preparing packages of nourishing snacks for children. These consist of a carefully chosen variety of tasty, nutritious treats including roasted chickpeas or peanuts, dried and fresh fruits, supplements such as jaggery (raw cane sugar), soya nuggets and easily digestible dals. They are delivered every two weeks to more than 150 children from seven primary schools along with exchangeable books. This helps us to stay in close contact with the children and to gain a better understanding of their problems and needs.
Elementary school children (6-14 yrs) have now been off school since the end of March 2020 – that’s 17 months of no school! The novelty of this unexpected period of ‘freedom’ has worn thin. For many children it has meant being confined to their homes, dependent on very inadequate remote learning through WhatsApp on their parent’s phones. There is a risk this impasse will seriously impact their development.
Last week, staff in our community centre who administer children’s programs discussed what more we might think of doing for the children. We are only now beginning to feel sufficiently confident that the virus has receded enough to allow us to think of re-starting community centre activities again.
Ankush enthusiastically suggested reviving the cycling program once the monsoon recedes. He suggested using a site above the village that has been set apart as a little used helipad. The ground is flat, is more accessible to children from higher up the hillside and there is less likelihood of attracting a crowd.
We agreed to start calling small groups of children to the community centre from 15th of this month for well-organised activities that we hope they will find stimulating. Vijay will research and present a series of science experiments and we hope to develop enjoyable programs to encourage maths, writing skills and creative play. These have all been neglected during the months of relying only on smartphones. Such programs can easily be run by our staff, supported by donations that we have received from you via the Nishtha Trusts.
One big plus is that most of the village children have been playing outside whenever the weather is good, so they have had lots of physical exercise. The Rakkar playground has really proved its worth during this period and each evening lively children, as well as quite a few women, have gathered there. It is a place for people to come simply to get out of their houses. Our staff have suggested that children who live on the hillside would derive much more benefit from so much free play time, if we were able to build small basic playgrounds for them closer to where they live. We have identified four locations that we already visit when we deliver packages of snacks. The cost of each playground with a set of three swings, a slide and a climbing frame is estimated to be Rs.120,000 if sturdily made by a local blacksmith. We would be very grateful for any donations towards this program.
In the meantime, Dr. Barbara and our clinic staff have had to deal with a number of very challenging cases. Several close friends and old patients have died. Others are suffering long-term effects of COVID or terminal cancers. We are very fortunate to have added two doctors to our team. Dr. Deepanjali, an experienced homeopath, specialising in women’s problems and health education, joined us in June. She has taken up the outreach clinics, which again re-started in July organised by the single women activists. They are going extremely well, attracting groups of 30-40 people interested in learning more about their health issues. They ask lots of questions!
Dr. Sara, who was with us two years ago, has returned and her MD qualifications and considerable experience with covid and cancer patients is of very great help to us now. We have also taken on a young, very energetic and dedicated part time physiotherapist who is working with our children with special needs as well as some patients. We have been particularly grateful for a donation of three oxygen concentrators, which, as well as providing support to recovering COVID patients also give significant relief to those who have cancer.
As we get used to living with COVID and the ongoing restrictions that prevent us from meeting with our friends and supporters, we once again appeal to you to support us in keeping our programs running. Every drop of help you give through our Trusts enables Nishtha to meet the real needs we encounter. We are sincerely grateful to each and every one of you for your kindness and interest in what we are trying to do.
We hope you will enjoy the photographs and thorough descriptions of what we have been doing in our 2020-21 report.
Please click here to download Nishtha Annual Report 2020-21 (4.9 MB, PDF)
With sincere wishes for your good health and happiness,
Barbara and Philippa
