Dear friends,
I am very happy to be able to share with you our 2019-20 annual report, which is like a glimpse into a past world now! This year we decided to take a different approach to our presentation and show our activities month by month instead of project-wise. We have also taken the opportunity to include some photos of our local environment to remind those of you who have been here about our area and how special it is. We hope you enjoy it.
Thank you so very much for your generosity in supporting our projects, which we truly appreciate. This year especially, when we are cut off from outside visitors, we really appreciated the warm response we received to our COVID-19 appeal. We have been working hard during these difficult times to keep as many of our programs running as we can and we have extended ourselves to provide assistance to people who are really in trouble.
We have managed to keep the clinic running throughout, offering medical services to local people, as well as to those who are chronically ill who often come from further afield. However, we have been unable to conduct more than a few very controlled outreach clinics because gathering large numbers of people together in small spaces is just not viable these days. We have, nevertheless, been paying particular attention to our single women, initially providing emergency food rations to the neediest to make sure everyone could eat. Now, our activists are able to visit the outlying villages, very often on foot because of a lack of public transport. They confirm that all the women are insured and are getting their government rations and pensions. They help them to fill in application forms and most important of all keep in contact with them so they don’t feel so alone.
Unable to hold our usual children’s programs or the school nutrition program because the children are not in school, every two weeks we have been taking packages of nourishing snacks to the primary school children on the hills above us, as well as here in the village. At the same time, the idea we had to provide drawing, activity and reading books has been really successful. It is a delight to see the joy on the children’s otherwise downcast faces when they are presented with new books. We are also drawing the children into our efforts to collect plastic waste. Those who bring a nice bag of it to us receive a bar of chocolate as a reward!
Our survey of the more remote communities on the hillside and in our area has revealed who is seriously in need. We are consequently paying special attention to the teenage girls, who sadly are very often malnourished. Nutritional supplements and health education are really essential for them. This month we are venturing to hold our first socially distanced Wenlido training for our sponsorship girls. If the situation permits, we will continue holding them for the teenage girls later this month.
In our sponsorship program we now have 18 BA students, five doing MA, one B.Ed. and one doing an advanced computer diploma. They are all waiting either to take last year’s exams or for the colleges to re-start so they can begin their courses. It is a really frustrating time for them. We have been calling them in small groups in the mornings to the community centre where Ravindra teaches them a little yoga and refreshes their self-defence skills. Alternatively, Dr Kusum gives them some health education when she has time out of the clinic. They can use the computers and help making up the nutrition packages for the children’s program or join our clean up and plastic block making project. It has been lovely to see them after so long and they really appreciate the opportunity to get out of their houses!
Because several of the girls are holding tuition classes for small groups of children in their villages and others are interested to do so, we held a meeting to encourage them. We promised activity books, stationery and money to top up their smart phones so they can assist children, who otherwise have no access to the school programs on WhatsApp. After all these months, work is still scarce for people in the villages who were dependent on domestic or hotel work. Many taxi drivers, restaurateurs and small shop keepers in tourist areas are out of work so the men resort to whatever labouring work they can get. Money is short for most families.
However, we have bright news as the monsoon starts to lift, our playground, carefully kept in good repair by our staff, is crowded each clear evening with 50-70 children playing on the swings, slides and climbing frames. The boys are keenly playing football during this season and everyone drinks from water filters we installed! Our environmental programs and care for our special children continues as best we can. We are all looking forward to when this period of uncertainty has passed.
We hope you and your family are all keeping well and content and we anticipate the day when you can visit us again.
With very best wishes,
Dr. Barbara Nath-Wiser & Philippa Russell
Please click here to download Nishtha Annual Report 2019-20 (6.9 MB, PDF)
