Nishtha Sixth Transcultural Homeopathic Dialogue led by Dr. Nandita Shah

Nishtha sixth transcultural homeopathic seminar offers you a unique opportunity, through homeopathic practice, to plunge into the very heart of Indian culture. You will experience a different way of thinking and expression, and thereby gain a particular access to India with all its cultural diversity and beauty. Through training in our Clinic you will have a unique opportunity to treat and assist needy local people and to gain insight into their culture and way of life.
Himachal Pradesh is a stunningly beautiful and culturally fascinating mountainous region of North India. In order for participants to make the most of their visit to India, an optional 11 day jeep safari of the region from 27th April - 6th May, preceeding the seminar, is being offered.

Download Seminar Information PDF
Download Jeep safari Information PDF (german)

International Women's Day - 8th March 2009

Like every year Nishtha celebrated the International Woman's Day on the 8th of march. The theme of this year was violence - a topic which is sadly very often closely linkt to women's rights.
On Sunday, the 8th of march Nishtha invited all women of the surrounding villages to come to the Rakkar Ground and spend an afternoon together in order to celebrate what has been achieved and to gain new strength for everything what ist still to come. Dr. Kishwar Shirali, Dr. Barbara and the Chairwomen of the village, Aruna Ram, addressed the gathered woman and we danced, sang, played and laughed. In the end of the afternoon we served samosa and chai (snacks and indian milk tea) for all the woman, so that the get more strength for another year of struggle for more women's rights. In the evening we continued our program with a candlelight march through Rakkar and Sidhbari to a close by temple. We were very happy that so many young boys and men joined us on this march where we walked silently, but with candles, banners and leaflets through the village.

Gallery

Padyatra - Protest March to Simla

On 31st March 312 women from the 30 panchayats covered in our single women's programme joined a 3 day Padyatra organized by SUTRA of over 2,000 women from all over the state to march to Shimla. They demanded social recognition, equitable pension policy, legal rights for abandoned or divorced women, the provision of land and income generating opportunities for economically weak single women who are capable and eager to work and free health care facilities. The organization of this was immense: In January, February and March we had extra village level meetings to mobilize women and disseminate information, Each individual women's physical and mental condition was assessed in order to permit them to participate and of course, fund raising. The cost of transporting all the women to within 30 km of Shimla and back again was covered by donations and some input by the women themselves. Two First Aid Training sessions for 35 selected leaders of the panchayats and 3 volunteers were held on 15th and 24th of March at Nishtha community Centre. Nishtha provided supplies of medicine and energy rich refreshments along with our jeep which accompanied the marchers. The marchers themselves, despite heavy rain on two nights, kept up their spirits by chanting slogans and with lots of dancing and singing. It was a remarkable and inspiring event. We hope that the government's promise that the women's demands will be looked into will be upheld.

Gallery

Nishtha Fourth Transcultural Homeopathic Dialogue led by Dr. Nandita Shah

Gallery

Ichi Go Ich E Training

Ichi Go Ich E, literally “Here and Now”, is a Japanese discipline which incorporates exercises from Shintoism, Judo and Aikido and aims to teach us to “value the moment” through an integrated adventure for the body as well as the mind.

Four participants engaged in a seminar which was conducted by experienced trainer Heinz from Austria in Nishtha Community Centre from 8th to 18th April 2006. The Physical Training began each day at 6am when all participants met outside to practice Qigong facing the Mighty Dhauladhar Range while the sun gradually rose and give us a warm welcome for the day. This was followed by a delicious Indian Breakfast. We made it a point to serve traditional dishes for all meals to introduce our guests to the wonderfully varied and nutritious Indian vegetarian cuisine.

Continued...

Women's Day Celebrations

This year the women's day celebration was a well organised medley of cultural programmes, plays, songs and dances put on by Nishtha Youth Club, the Jagori girls, the local women's group, Nepali dances and songs and three wonderful classical dances by Ria Dass. Nishtha cultural programme trainers Vijay Bhadwaj & Vanderna Sharma and the girls culture group also performed 3 times opening of the ceremony, then the gaddhi dance and finally a marriage ritual dance. Snacks and tea were offered and a good time was had by everyone.

Photo Gallery

Staff Outing to Amritsar

Most of our staff have never been out of Himachal Pradesh so a visit to the Sikh Golden Temple in Amritsar was a rare and wonderful treat. They stayed overnight in the temple accommodation and were able to join in the voluntary work in the morning and evening, experiencing the ceremony of putting the holy Sikh Book to rest for the night. Returning the following day they were unanimous in their feeling that it had been an extremely worthwhile and interesting trip.

Proposal Writing workshop

Highly experienced trainer Dianne Aigaki held a Proposal Writing workshop for 20 participants from a wide range of organisations from as far a field as Kerala and Gujarat. This five day programme was extremely intensive and resulted in the production of 16 excellent proposals for beneficial projects such as for Nishtha youth club and single women’s movement, Jagori education project, one for the Sacred Heart School’s new playing field and many more.

December was dominated by Nishtha Youth Club Programmes:

Exposure group – Interaction with youth from other places: group of youth from Prayatn, an organisation from Sanganeer near Jaipur stayed in the community centre to explore the area and interact with the youth of our area.

Sewing group girls farewell party – The 27 girls who completed the 9 month long sewing training course held a party to celebrate as many of them were going to be married this season.

The computer classes during which 18 youth, 9 girls and 9 boys were trained in basic computer and typing skills also closed at the end of November. A smaller number went on to take a short intensive course in launching a web site with an experienced volunteer.

Nishtha Youth Club Festival –- Nishtha Youth Club organised 3 days of fun and sports which culminated in a New years Eve programme revealing such local talent as was never seen in our village before. The first two days were dedicated to sports, involving six local schools and four youth clubs. They all enjoyed races, high jump, long jump, volley ball, badminton and cricket. Chess was also an unusual alternative to the more athletic contests. On the 31st, 130 trophies were given out, 60 for sports and 50 for those who took part in the evening cultural event in which young artists displayed their talents in a programme of folk dances, music, modern dance, classical songs and theatre.

Cross Cultural Dialogue

A Homeopathic seminar attended by 6 European homeopathic doctors along with expert homeopathic physician... was held for 7 days. 8 chronically ill patients were given the special opportunity to have their ailments expertly discussed and considered and appropriate treatment given.

Nishtha Cultural group

Had their first outside performance at the Norah Richards celebration in the village of Andretta on October 28th. This event, held annually by the Patiala and Punjab Universities features drama performances put on by students from these universities. This year our youth greatly enjoyed participating by displaying their Gaddhi tribal dance and music tradition and interacting with the drama students. Their performance was very well received by the local village crowd, many of whom are also Gaddhis and so joined in the songs.

Monsoon children's programme

Review classes held by recently trained students for those who failed key exams, fun classes for kids to keep them busy during the rains, drama training, girls club programmes – the community centre was abuzz with activity! Sunday kids group, English classes taught by a volunteer.

Single Women's meeting

Dr Kim Berry, a research professor from the USA has for some time been working with single women in this area. She initiated the first single women's meeting to be held here in June 2006. Co-incidentally we were contacted by Ekal Nari Shakti Sangatan, and organisation of single women from Rajasthan who were interested in extending their initiative for empowerment and change in social attitudes to single women into Himachal Pradesh. The workshop was attended by single women and was led by an expert gender trainer, Shanti. Since then we have agreed to work under the umbrella of Sutra, the chosen nodal NGO for Himachal Pradesh in a state wise programme to work to contact and work with single women. More information about this fast developing project is available. Regular meetings of the evolving single women's group are held both in the Centre and in the different village meeting halls. Monthly single women's workshops are being held in the Community Centre.

Rakkar village Mela

Nishtha stall was a big attraction offering information about environment, health and nutrition as well as selling our ration bags to reduce the use of plastic bags for shopping.

Nishtha Clinic 10th Anniversary Festivities

Ten years ago we had just completed the construction of the clinic building and moved the clinic which Dr Barbara had been running for some time from her house into the new premises. This year we marked the anniversary by inviting many of our long time sponsors and supporters from Europe to join our staff, friends and the local people in an array of programmes revealing the rich diversity of this local culture. The chief guest was the Austrian Ambassador Dr Jutta Stefan Baste who gave the opening address. Other important guests included Mrs Rinchen Khando Choegyal, director of the Tibetan Nuns Project. The event was inaugurated by a spiritual musical announcement by 6 Tibetan Nuns from nearby Dolma Ling Nunnery. Presentations and speeches preceded a lively programme of music and dance followed by a feast of local food. An exhibition of photographs of local scenes taken in and around Rakkar Village by Swedish photographer Ulf Abramson and a collection taken in 1997 by Austrian portrait photographer Nurid Wagner Strauss adorned the walls of the clinic and community centre. A display and sale of local crafts provided the opportunity for guests to take something home as a memory of an excellent day.

Photo Gallery

Women's Day Celebrations

Were held for the first time on the ground behind the community centre. A great deal of work has been put into levelling and grassing this area which was previously on three terraces. The event was attended by around 250 local women and girls. The theme was about domestic violence and violence in school. A very effective and hard hitting play was performed by Jagori Gramin members and The local Mahela Mandel worked hard to put on a very interesting play about family violence. The crowd was well entertained by several teams of folk dancers and singers including a Nepali dance group, the Mahela Mandel's gaddhi dances and Vijay Bhadwaj and Vanderna Sharma who sang local folk songs. Nishtha shopping bags were given out to all those who performed and offered their time and effort to making this a very interesting programme.

Photo Gallery