Kullu Project

December 2010 - March 2011

2011-02-17T18:05:00.003+05:30

We had certainly enjoyed the first three months in Kullu. In mid December Anine has completed her project and Modestas continued his own work until March.

It was difficult to adjust mylelf to the new emotional environment, as I inevitably felt lonier and lonier as time went by. Besides the children, to whom I would speak at school and Ankit's family, there were little people to communicate with.

However, ten days after Anine had left, me and Panki travelled to Delhi and a attended a conference called the training programme on counseling skills on children protection. For five days we were taught counseling and empathy and active listening and how to make an Asian PPT presentation.

Panki was my guide around Delhi for five days. He is a really warm and interesting person. He showed me the biggest electronics market in Asia. He took me to the biggest hardware market in Asia. And, finally, he told me of the biggest vegetables market in Asia, which we I haven’t had my honor to see.

Both of us found the conference interesting in one or the other way. I personally enjoyed all the ladies speakers. They were great communicators, and I have to admit, Indian women have beautiful eyes and smile. Once they are activated together, people tend to be lured into listening, subconsciously. The male speakers positioned themselves firmly into the chairs and gave us the “lecture”. I am glad that I have learned how to understand children's mind. The conference material is very applicable when dealing with the children in Kullu.

Kalyehli

Remember those thirty naughty boys living to together in Kalyehli? Well, it turned out that they liked Anine too much and I was no good substitute for her charms. Therefore I devised a new plan how to reach out for them. Firstly, by combining the forces of Hollywood and Bollywood I managed to increase their attention span. And whilst I taught them some Geography and English they secretly awaited the movie. I made lots of promises to them. A movie, a game and an opportunity to see me cooking in the kitchen... Even I loved travelling back to childhood when watching Disney animation (I must confess, I have never seen Disney movies as a child!) such as Mulan, Beauty and the Monster or Hindi movies like Salaam Bombay and Lagaan.

An interesting observation, the negative temperature change decreased their metabolism rate (?) and as the Himachali winter came, the boys slowed down – all for my pleasure! Also, in the previous post we complained the “Save the girl child” performance was called off. To our surprise we got to know that the boys have translated the play into Hindi and the resulting performance guarateed them the 2nd place prize in Shimla!

Mount Everest public school

Also known to us as the Nepali immigrant workers children school in Manali (NIWCSIM), it was closed for the winter holidays before the New Year and will never be hosted in that building again. It is looking for a new residence building in Manali. Aslo, Sonny, the main teacher, had left Himachal for her native Andhra where people eat rice and idlees.

KAB school for blind in Sarwari bazaar

Lots of changes have taken place in this institution. I had continued working with the primary section children until the end of January, when the youngest ones returned to their own homes for five weeks.

Before that I met a generous toy shoy owner who kindheartedly donated an Indian alternative for Lego toys. The children loved construckting the bricks, and their visuo-motor cortexes loved this activity as well! Actually, once the young ones were gone, we played with the elder students, as they showed great interest into expressing their inner selves. Once again big thanks to Anine who has nurtured the idea of action kinesthetic learning as opposed to the orthodox oral communication. Yet I printed out a book by Hans Ch. Andersen and read it out loud to the children. I still wonder whether they really liked my fairy tales reading time, but I did so for shure!

I have long thought of empowering the local plastic resources i.e. the bottles. I cleaned and dried (sapf oor sooki) 20 of them in various sizes and shapes. After all this laborious experience I left the children alone of putting the necessary (according to their superior hearing abilities which I lack) amounts of rice, chick peas, beans and plastic. Not surprisingly, rice had once again proved its reputation as the Universal Accoustic Matter (UAM).

On the winter mornings, I would find the teachers and their students cosily sitting around the stove. Despite the prevailing darkness where the stove stood, it was amazing to see teachers like Shakuntla , Sapna or Puja teaching their students. Trully intimate and personal sight, which I won't forget.

Nowadays, when the little ones are at home, I come to the blind school to see my old friends and record. I am constantly praised for my, here exotic, Eastern European accent.

Bharat Bharti public school

As always I start my visit to Bharat Bharti by climbing/hiking the Sultanpur and Dhalpur hills. Back home I will tell my friends that I was mounteneering in India quite a lot. This physical exircise is an insoperable part of Kullu. And besides, once at Bharat Bharti – I get a generous lunch offer.

Someitmes I recive a plate with four giagantic momos, or two sidos, or chao ming, or maybe potato chips and cookies (so much of the hiking experience...)

Nowadays I was assigned to work with the 9 graders who are really quirky. It is also much easier to establish my authority and control that gang of 30 students. And they really turn up in great numbers compared to the teenage angst symptomatic 11 graders. What we do I do with my new class?

To start with we played a variety of initiative and leadership games, trying to raise their self-confidence. It still shocks me to realize that the public education system is the true No.1 self-confidence killer. It's reversible of course. Additionally, we tried out making a theatre performance, but after two consecutive classes the final result lacked quality. Some of the children were less then eager to express their thoughts (and say those lines) most of the time.

We have also tried to attempt a few discussions about the soaring numbers of Indian students suicides and womens' rights. This time poor English skill were emegent, and once allewed to discuss it in Hindi, the students seemed eager to share their ideas. And in the end, Bharat Bharti's children are my best friends here in Kully, especially the 11 graders Diwia, Tejender and Tenzing.

I am eager to observe where will the Kullu project sets its sails to once I am gone.

Best regards,
Modestas (^ ^)

Our Presentation

2011-02-16T20:03:00.001+05:30

The Kullu Project

View more presentations from Sunshine Himalayan Adventures.

2 Days in the Kullu Valley with the KULLU PROJECT

2010-12-07T19:06:00.003+05:30

Hi all , this is my delayed entry for the blog for the Kullu Project, I went down for a very short visit in November 2009. As I was in India for only a week, I was offered a great opportunity by Ankit to go up and film the kids and volunteers at the orphanages. It was a long journey up the mountains, but I was warmly welcomed by 2 UWC volunteers Eloise and Kitty who had been staying up there for a few months.

I stayed with them in their small and cosy flat in Kullu where I had many warm cups of chai (tea) made by the girls. I was briefed on their efforts at the orphanage and was very impressed at the dedication and work they had achieved in the months they were living there. As young students on their gap year, they had a very responsible role in managing their own time and planning activities and programs for the children in various orphanages in Kullu and Manali. It was up to them to arrange their own time which completely differs to other organized gap year volunteer programs in India. The students here also only paid their rent and daily living .

On the first day I followed them to one of their regular visits to the Kaleyli Boys Orphanage. As it was my first visit to an orphanage, I did not know what to expect but on arrival I was greeted with a group of very happy and well looked after boys. The boys were alive with enthusiasm and excitement on seeing the volunteers arrive .A group of boys proudly brought out their medal for me to see as they had recently won the best skit in a nationwide competition. The boys were happy with their achievements and politely introduced themselves to me referring to me as ‘didi’ , which is sister in Hindi. It was heartwarming to see such a great home with children who have a lot of potential and also the most hospitable welcome. They very proudly presented their award winning skit and song and dance which the volunteers help them organize for the competition. It was great to see that the volunteer program was producing great results for the boys. It was obvious winning the skit was a great boost to their self esteem and morale. It was sad to say goodbye to them as it is one of the few places you can get such a warm welcome and actually have so much fun participating with them in their song and dance and listen to their stories, see their homework.

The next day I followed the volunteers to the Bashing Orphanage , where most of the volunteers work was centered on assisting the reconstruction of the management of the orphanage and looking for a new property for them in Kullu. There were fewer children in this orphanage and it was obvious these children needed a new property for the orphanage and were in dire need of funding for materials and sponsorship for their education and counselors. I was able to pass them some toys that I had collected in Singapore and take some great shots of them playing games with the volunteers. It was also good to see, that the volunteers time with them did make a difference for the children as it gives them something to look forward to in the day. The volunteers who have stayed there for a few months have established really good relationships with the children however it would be good to have someone permanent for them and hopefully funding can come in for this orphanage so they can at least experience some permanency in their lives.

The 2 days I had in the valley was truly a heartwarming and enriching experience, its was a good eye opener into volunteering, as it is something I have been wanting to do and the 2 days there have convinced me it is indeed a very rewarding experience. The Kullu and Manali region is also home to very beautiful landscapes and scenery. The mountain area has a completely different culture and atmosphere to the main Indian cities such as Delhi or Mumbai. It felt much safer especially for a young woman. I took a day bus up the mountain and a night bus back to Punjab, though a very long journey (10 hours) , it was safe and there were no problems.

I do hope more organizations/individuals would be interested in volunteering, the children look forward to the activities organized and one can learn so much from them as well.

Introducing Anine and Modestas

2010-11-20T16:19:00.022+05:30

Since September we, Modestas (Lithuania) and Anine (Norway), have been volunteering in the Kullu Project. We both spent the last two years of our high school at the Red Cross Nordic United World College in Norway. There we engaged in various social services ranging from the Amnesty International club to table tennis classes or yoga sessions with the adjacent rehabilitation center patients. Flying to India for a 6 month volunteering program seemed like a natural continuation of our UWC education.

At a first glance, coming to a place just a few miles away from the Himalayas was quite stunning, with its colorful rickshaws and loud atmosphere vis-à-vis the humdrum daily European routine. But after two months in Kullu we feel like home – people are the same everywhere! So far we have worked in the following institutions: Bashing and Kalyeli orphanages, NAB School for Blind, Drug de-addiction and rehabilitation center in Jiri, school for Nepali immigrants’ children in Manali and Bharat Bharti Public School in Dalphur. Living in Kullu and assimilating to the local culture brings its own challenges (especially linguistic barrier!), but let us firstly elaborate on what exactly we do on each and every institutions.

NAB School for Blind

Students here are being taught Braille and Computer lieteracy from a very young age. Elder students who’d mastered Braille reading, writing and calculations attend a regular Hindi medium school. However, it would be naïve to expect the blind children’s’ performance at school match the one of a median Kullu student. That’s where the dedicated teachers step in – after the regular classes children repeat the same syllabus in the blind school. In the end, they are putting as twice as much effort to learn the same material!

However, the young ones, aged 4-10, are just getting their feet wet with the school routine and receive little attention from the teachers. Hence we have four 3,5 hour long weekly sessions together, starting at 10 am. Also, by the end of each session we receive a pleasant bonus – free lunch!

Our activities mainly consist of teaching the basic spoken English. In the first few days we were taken aback by their linguistic abilities, the only question they were bale to respond to was “What is your name?” However, through everyday practice we taught them how to introduce themselves in a “polite British” manner. Whether visited by the sponsors or simply meeting the fellow students, they master phrases “What is your age? How old are you? Where do you live? Do you have any siblings?” Whilst some might ridicule this “lesser” knowledge, but teaching a gang of 12 children these phrases is a milestone for us and took no less than a month. Knowing these phrases comes handy when the sponsors are visiting, so that they can see that the children are really learning and sometimes surpassing the English level of the fellow students in the public schools.

You may start judging us inadvertently, but besides some “polite” phrases we engaged into music, too. To start with, we were happy to find out that the previous volunteers made simple musical instruments: empty 0,5l plastic bottles filled with rice. Visually impaired enjoyed singing the Old McDonalds, Adams family, Kangaroo Joe and other popular children songs. Similarly, songs helped us to “slow down their batteries” and regain focus for more thinking intensive learning.

Also, twice a week we’d go to a local park, just 200 meters away from the school itself. What broke our hearts where innumerable amounts of thrash: potato chips bags, cigarette packs and glassware.

Sometimes I’d start picking it up myself, and when I see a child throwing away a candy wrapping onto the floor, the poor guy’s got to be in trouble! Kullu is to beautiful a place and saving the pristine environment is doomed, without teaching some “basics” first.

Finally, each Saturday is dedicated for the crafts. So far we have made paper hats, friendship bracelets, tasted various fruits, massaged each other whilst listening to Chopin and “cooked” our own playing dough from water, salt and oil!

Trip to Solang Nallah

A week ago, we went to the Solang Nallahl ski resort (15 km from Manali), which was yet to be covered with snow, but proved no less exciting. The blind school is organizing that kind of trip only once a year. I was pleasantly by the amount of noise, dance and rhythm which dispersed in our bus. By the way, it was a generous family of Anine who donated the money for the bus. Unfortunatelly, Anine couldn’t participate in the trip due to illness.

I felt partially deaf after a two hour ride with the drums echoing in my cochleae for a few days. Afterwards, we were elevated by a thousand meters right on the skying slope. Children drunk chay and enjoyed touching the ice.
After descending, we had a free lunch with a local sponsor, but before that, our children performed singing and dancing. Finally we joined the pilgrims from all around India at the Madimba temple in Manali. Children, especially Satish and Gotam, loved pictures being taken of them.

Bharat Bharti Public School

At RCN UWC in Norway, we have been instructed how to perform the First Aid. We expected to teach the Kullu Project institutions some First Aid as well, but in reality, due to their poor English proficiency we couldn’t instruct any. However, one day we paid a visit to the Bharat Bharti school, and met a wonderful couple running a prive English medium school. They kindly invited us to give two hour-long weekly classes, on Tuesdays and Fridays 3:30 pm.

Until now we were focusing on the spoken English, as the majority of students are spending their first year at an English medium course and show little confidence speaking English, although their writing is impressive.

Each week we’d introduce them to a different topic, make a short presentation on it and a class discussion afterwards. So far we have touched the legacy behind the corporate punishments at schools and home, honor killings and marital traditions, US political system and recently – Barrack Obama’s visit to India. We were happy to see at least six 16-17 year olds who spoke fluently in our class, however the majority remained shy until a few classes ago. After all, we are working with them to build some confidence.

Besides these popular media activities we ran a few linguistic competitions, and when it comes to competition Indian students definitely stand out! After each class, some of them would insist on staying for a longer time, therefore we’d play the initiative and ball games.

Overall, Bharat Bharti not only permits us to teach the First Aid, but also gives us insights into the young peoples’ lives in India. It’s a great asset to our project. Not to mention the fact, that the management is really lenient towards volunteers and before the each session we are treated with a plate of local Indian dish.

School for Nepali immigrant children

We have only been in contact with the Mount Everest Public School in
Manali since the beginning of October. The school is for children of
poor Nepali and Tibetan immigrant workers in the region, and so
provides teaching in their native languages in addition to Hindi and
English. Since the families of the children are very poor the school
is run mainly on charity from generous local people in the
surroundings of Manali, raised with the work of a small handful of
committed Nepali and local people. However, shortage of money is a
recurring problem. Some months the teachers have had to go without
pay, and in the worst cases there has not been enough money to pay for
the petrol for the school van and the children have had to remain at
home. A good thing that has helped the money cycle go round is that
the rent for the modest classrooms has been unnaturally low due to
that the building is still under construction. The back side of the
coin is that the standards are lower, for example no electricity or
outside space to play games. However, we have still managed to play a
bit of unofficial basket ball in the lunch break in the small entrance
space outside the classroom doors. This about 2 meter wide outside
corridor is the only space the children have to play and eat their
lunch. In contrary to government schools the children have to bring
lunch from home, and every time we are visiting it is always some kids
that have no lunch and have to go hungry, which makes the aloo
parantha brought from the local street shop taste a bit less tastier.

We felt that this institution, in addition to Bashing, is one that
needs us more than any. And so we decided to do some fundraising in
addition to weekly visits. The most urgent thing they needed was a
closet to store books in, especially after a generous donation of
educational books from a school in England. In addition, the school
does not have any other teaching materials than the books, a
blackboard, chalk, and homemade posters on the walls, nor any toys for
the nursery children. So, with the money left after the simple iron
closet was bought, we agreed with the main teacher to buy a globe and
a colorful building toy.

When it comes to our visits to the school, unfortunately, the school
is 2 hours away from Kullu with bus, so we had to limit ourselves to
go there only once a week, on Wednesdays. However, we stay the whole
school day and so can get a lot done each time, and it feels that it
is worth the humpy bus ride (and sometimes hitchhike ride, which is to
recommend as it is faster and less humpy!). There are only about 20
kids in the school, the number varying each time depending on the
families sending the children, and the age range is wide, from nursery
starting at 3 years and up to 12. We decided to focus our time with
the oldest ones, mainly due to the language barrier and that we feel
they could pick up things more easily. We would do a mix of English
exercises, - games and songs, the usual “head and shoulders”, “Old
McDonalds”, I spy, hangman, and so on, and some geography, the solar
system, and simple natural science. We would also try to break up the
teaching with some arts and crafts, drawing, friendship bands and
mehendi painting on the hands, which they would really enjoy.

Kalyeli Orphanage

Located a few kilometers from Bhuntar, Kalyeli orphanage houses 30 boys, aged 5-15 years. It is run by the government and receive additional money from the private donors. We really enjoyed speaking with the married couple who are running the orphanage, and as we found out it has a strong material base compared to the other institutions.

We got there each Monday and Thursday at 1700, and stay for at least two hours.
Children had better language proficiency compared to the Bashing orphanage, but still only the elder ones could express themselves in an understandable manner. Therefore, our initial activities consisted of language games.

Later on we were informed about a state wide skit, dance and song competition. We decided to make a skit called "Save the girl child". It is known that a high percentage of female infants are subjected to cruel death due to their gender. Also, many dismiss women as less intelligent species, who brings loss to the household when the dowry has to be paid for the husband's family. We discussed these and other issues with the boys. They promised us to love and take care of women.

So, me and Anine have written a script for the play and assigned major roles. Boys showed great interest in rehearsing for a month or so, but afterwards their interest declined. Eventually we were informed by the management to stop preparing for the skit.

Besides that, we'd engage into watching nature's documentaries. They've particularly enjoyed BBC "LIFE" with David Attenborough! Afterwards we could name the animals they saw in the documentary.

Finally, we learned how to make Chapattis , and received a generous dinner offer each time we came there. Truly interesting place, but recently we felt like loosing authority over some elder students, a problem which is yet to be solved.

Bashing Orphanage

We started out working in Bashing orphanage immediately after we got to Kullu. This is the main focus of the project and as previous volunteers have described the children don’t have much here. A positive change in the situation now has been that Sarla, the one looking after the children full time, has been joined by another girl Pushpa, a local student coming here part time. Pushpa has a bit of a stricter hand and have started to discipline the children more, but they can still be quite naughty to each other behind your back.

We would go to Bashing four times a week from 4.30 to 6.30, except for
Sundays when we would stay most of the day. On the weekdays we would
teach some simple English, as their English skills are really low. we
would start with the alphabet, do simple things as colours, bodyparts,
days, favourite fruits, foods, subjects, and conversational English,
and combine it with English games and songs much as described earlier.
We would also put in some simple geography, looking at a map even
learning north and south was new for them, and natural science, and
put in some drawing and paper plane folding with flying competition.
We would break up every session in the middle with about half an hour
of games outside on the nice spacy grass field they have available.

On Sundays we would bring a laptop and watch a cartoon movie, which
the children would really love. As we would spend most of the day at
the orphanage it would be a relaxing atmosphere, just hanging out with
the kids and Sarla and Pushpa, do games on the grass outside, or
drawing or simply listening to music and dancing inside. Also, just
bringing a camera, taking pictures and letting the children try to
take pictures is very appreciated. Sarla and Pushpa are both very
sweet and it is always a pleasure to see them, and on Sunday
afternoons when we have extra time just chat and show each other
pictures of family and friends on their phones and our laptops :)

Kailash Bodhi School, Rangri by Thangamma Cariappa

2010-09-02T17:14:00.003+05:30

The words "Kailash" and "Bodhi" translate to mountain and enlightenment respectively. The school for Tibetan and Nepali refugee children in Rangri echo these very words. I was definitely inspired and enlightened by the teachers, who depending on the weather would be forced to teach two classes simultaneously!
The school has a limited infrastructure and it's four classrooms are occupied by 8 grades.
Every morning select children practised karate after which the school assembled for morning prayer. Interestingly, the Tibetan, Nepali and Indian National Anthems are sung, followed by an oath in English.
The first period starts at 10 am and school closes at 3 pm. I volunteered to teach all the grades which included the pre-primary children, aged 3 years, Lower Kindergarten and Upper-Kindergarten. This proved quite a challlenge because of the language barrier but they took quickly to learning action rhymes and songs.

I was able to do beading activities to hone hand - eye co-ordination and finger dexterity skills with all but the littlest children. We also played games, coloured shapes and drew pictures to depict each alphabet.
The school also has a well stocked library and I was pleasantly surprised to find "The Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle. The books were very useful for Grade 2 to 5 and the children looked forward to reading and listening to stories. Apart from constructing simple sentences, drawing and writing about themselves, the older children also did activities related to the Hungry Caterpillar story and palyed vocabulary games. Grade 4 and 5 were also introduced to the use of the apostrophe ie: My father's name is .... as opposed to "My father name is ..."

Over all the children were very diligent and eager to learn. Teachers were helpful and supportive and sunny days resulted in classes under the tree! The medium of instruction in the school is Hindi but they also learn Nepali, Tibetan and English!

June 2010 - Michael and Katherine

2010-06-27T16:27:00.000+05:30

June 2010 - Michael and Katherine

2010-06-27T16:22:00.001+05:30

We are Katherine and Michael from Newcastle (England) and are staying in Kullu with the Kullu Project for only a very short time of 5 weeks. The first thing we have to say is that 5 weeks is not enough! We spent our first week visiting the different institutions, planning our activities and doing a little bit of volunteering at some places. We have now spent 3 more weeks working at different places and now only having one week left we feel like time has gone too fast and wish we had longer! However that said, we have managed to keep a jam-packed schedule allowing us to make the most of our short time.

We have focused our time mainly at Bashing orphanage, Kaleyli orphanage, the blind school and the drug and alcohol rehab centre. Katherine was most interested in doing arts and crafts and Michael wanted to do sports with the children.

So we spent Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday evenings (5.30 -7.30) at the Bashing orphanage. We split the two hours into two sessions most of the time, doing one hour crafts and the other sports. The different arts and crafts we did included painting (finger painting flowers, printing leaves, symmetrical butterfly etc), name badge making (this was very useful to do at the beginning so we could get to know their names quicker), friendship bracelets, crown making, face portrait collage, papier mache masks (difficult for the small ones, extra help needed for them but all enjoyed the masks once they had finished them), picture frames, sewing and just coloring in some times. Details of methods and equipment for these activities are given in our portfolio for future volunteers to follow if they wish. The second part of the session was usually sports and games. Bought them a cricket set which they adored, also a football and badminton set and skipping ropes. Most of the time we just left them to it, with a little bit of instruction, however they aren’t used to sharing or playing anything by its proper rules, they just like to mess around and play. We jazzed it up some times by attempting circuits and adding a few games in there too e.g. the clapping game, hockey cokey (which they loved!), heads shoulders knees and toes, mingle mingle, musical statues (having an ipod and speakers with a Bollywood movie soundtrack is a great idea – we had Love Aaj Kal and it went down a treat!), sleeping lions etc etc , for more game ideas check out the volunteer handbook. An important point to make about Bashing is that the children are quite undisciplined and you need to watch out for them slapping and hitting each other behind your back! Sharing is also a problem, as is taking turns – make sure you establish a queuing system or else you’ll just have the big kids playing an the little ones stood around being left out. Also the age range is quite broad so keep in mind similar activities for the younger ones, carrying crayons and paper will do the trick. Overall we have had a great experience here, it’s been one of our favorite places to go to and the children really do deserve some fun as they have so little. Sarla, the full time care worker here is a lovely girl too who helped us with the activities and joined in as well, she is a fantastic girl who has become a good friend.

We went to the Drug and Alcohol Rehab centre every Monday and Wednesday afternoon from 3:30 – 4:30, this is in Jhiri just past Kaleyli Orphanage, about a 40 minute bus ride from Kullu. This centre makes a great change from the schools and orphanages as there are about 60 men aged 14-60 to entertain in a very small room. They are all very disciplined due to the nature of the rehabilitation centre, but very grateful for us to be there adding some variety into their very monotonous schedule. They’re a great bunch and we have had a real good laugh with them. The institution is very interesting because as you get know the staff they will tell you more about the ‘inmates’ as they call them, their rare escape attempts and capture. You also learn from the guys themselves, their experiences with drugs and how it has affected their lives. They are very open about their experiences and it’s a real eye opener if you haven’t worked with a group like this before, but they are really friendly and the staff look after you really well. As for what we did here we mainly focused on team building activities splitting the 60 odd of them into more manageable groups of about 5 to 10 to do activities such as Balloon Structure, Minefield, Blindfold Point, Egg Drop, Survival Scenario, Bridge Building, Bottle Lift, Truth or Lie and Show and Tell (More details of these activities in our portfolio). These went down really well, obviously it got them working together doing something creative, a little challenging, often requiring thought and planning. They all told us how much they enjoyed these sessions through our really helpful translator Manish (Former Inmate and escapee after a lonely valentine’s day, long story!), though Manish is only a volunteer now after finishing his 6 months and will soon be moving back home we are sure a member of staff of former Inmate will be there to help you out (and give you all the gossip on the inmates and the centre!). This is definitely a worthwhile place to volunteer as it’s a great learning experience for both parties, us volunteers and the centre itself. Highly Recommended!

Kaleyli orphanage we went to only on a Monday and Wednesday evening from 5 -6.30 after the drug and alcohol rehab centre. Compared to the children at Bashing Orphanage they are well looked after (8 care workers instead of 1) and are well disciplined. There are a great deal more of them though and can be quiet a handful, but there are a wide range of characters and there is very much a family feel! Our activities here were limited as we only had eight sessions but we managed to do name badge making, face portrait collage and a few papier mache masks (a lot of popped balloons!) for the craft sessions and cricket, skipping, circuit training and some team exercises e.g. bottle lift, mine field, balloon structure etc. Doing sports here however is very difficult as they only have a tiny court yard at the front, an a little dusty yard/driveway to the side. But they love cricket and have their own cricket bat, however this is looked after by the management and we don’t think they get to use it very much when volunteers aren’t around. There are a lot of them and you don’t get any help from the staff so advice to volunteers is to plan carefully. In general the children are enthusiastic, energetic and a pleasure to entertain.

A much larger proportion of our time was spent at the Blind school, we went every weekday morning from 10 – 12 here. This was also the most challenging project we undertook, as a previous volunteer said, ‘They are very small, and blind’, plus there is always the language barrier making it more difficult. However this was also part of the challenge and we were happy to put a lot of effort into it. After a lengthy chat with the manager we sorted out a structured plan which involved Friendship Bracelet making, face portrait collage, crown making, weather chart with a lot of repetition. We basically repeated each exercise every week at the managers request as they in particular need the repetition and time to learn anything properly (Simply putting glue on the paper in the right place rather than on the table is difficult for them to learn.). In our activities we tried to incorporate as much touch related objects as possible e.g. Face Portraits used wool for hair, straws to outline the face, buttons for eyes, shell ears, cotton wool nose etc. Although this may sound repetitive and tedious it is incredibly rewarding, especially after trying for over two weeks to teach one little girl to tie knots to make her friendship bracelet and now she can whizz through them no problem, even now adding beads!

Life in Kullu:

Thought it would be useful for future volunteers to know a little but about what its like living in Kullu. Kullu itself is a very typically Indian town, very few tourists stop here making it a more wholly Indian experience. Most volunteers now stay at Mr Bhapas house, in his unused downstairs rooms, which is just a minutes’ walk from Ankits (Local Coordinator) in Akhara Bazaar. For how much you pay its extremely decent, just a bedroom, hot shower, optional kitchen, what more do you need? It’s a good location too, as said it’s close to Ankits and just 10 minutes walk away from all of Kullu, plus the local buses drive straight past, very handy! There is a local market in the centre (Upper Dhalpur) where you can buy almost everything you will need for the projects, we bought books, crayons, cricket bats, stationary, craft materials, skipping ropes etc etc. As for restaurants, we ate out all the time as we didn’t use the kitchen at Mr Bhapas, we found this was ok but if you’re staying a while longer you may want to pay for the kitchen just so that your diet doesn’t get too repetitive, there is only so much daal and rotis you can eat! A more detailed restaurant guide will be added to our portfolios to help newcomers out. The people who run the restaurants are all very friendly and we have made many good friends with many of them which meant we could have a few goes at making our own dinner, we have to admit that our chapatti making leaves much to be desired though! You will find that as you settle in to life in Kullu you will get to know many people who are more than willing to make you feel like Kullu is your home! If we could have improved on our time here we would advise maybe bringing along a laptop and plenty of books as there is not much to entertain you in the evenings. However making friends with Papu next door or anybody else in Akhara Bazaar will ensure you get plenty of invites for chai and a chat.

Hopefully as you can tell from this blog we are thoroughly enjoying our time in Kullu, both with our varied and interesting projects and with homely environment everyone has made for us!

Katherine and Michael

p.s. We will try and add more photo soon!

June '10 Katherine & Michael

2010-06-27T13:28:00.002+05:30

FUNDING NEEDED- DONATE THROUGH AMMADO

2010-03-08T09:31:00.000+05:30

Funding needed for The Bashing Orphanage Project
08 Mar 2010 03:48 GMT - Published
The Kullu Project has embraked on a mission to rehablitate 12 kids of the Bashing Orphanage. We have devided our strategy into two goals
LONG TERM GOAL :

Building a permanent home for the Bashing Orphanage KIds . Required amount

Rs 10,00,000 ( I million) / USD 25000 / Euro 17000 / UK pounds 14500

Time Frame : March 2010 to March 2011

Finding 12 Sponserors who would donate $ 500 a year / Rs 20,000. Here is how it goes

STEP I : You provide me the email and postal address of the family who has expressed their desire to sponsor a kid.

STEP II : We send the host family an email confirming their sponsorship. We would also like to know a bit about the host family and the commitments involved so that we can tell about them to the Kullu project board as well as tell the host family about the Kullu Project.

STEP III : The host family will be provided with the full detail of the kid , his hobbies, talents , photographs and with the Bank account number of the Kullu Project with the swift code and the dates on which both the transfers of $250 have to be done. The year begins with school on March 15th 2010 to March 2011. The dates of the payment thus should be around March 15th and September 15th.

STEP IV : The local coordinator makes sure that there is regular exchange with the host family and the kid through emails, letters and cards which will be at least one in a month.

STEP V : We let the host family know about the monthly progress of the kid . All the emails are copied to you as you are one of our root connection keeping you in the loop.
Short Term Goal :
Relocating Kids to a new temprary home
Here is a break-down of the long-term and short-term funding needed for The Bashing Orphanage Project.

Investment Cost

This is the one-off cost needed by May 2010, it includes:

*

Furniture
*

Bedding
*

Upholstery
*

Kitchen Equipment and Utensils
*

Bathroom Equipment and toiletries
*

Paints
*

Heating and fans
*

First aid Kit
*

Clothing

The Total : USD 4200

Two Day National Workshop on Postive Mental Health & Well-being of Children in Institutional Care

2009-12-05T14:09:00.001+05:30

Together with Udayan Care, NCPCR held a Two Day National Workshop on Postive Mental Health & Well-being of Children in Institutional Care. At this workshop different organizations working with children in institutional care were invited to join in on the discussions of mental health and to learn on a more professional level about the minds different stages after traumatic events.

Seeing as the Kullu Project is to help out with Bashing (or Kullu) Orphanage, this weekend would turn out to be very helpful indeed in terms of contacts and examples of good structures of orphanages. The first day focused mostly on defining mental health in terms of personal experience and in accordance with society and one’s environment. We also learned much about how to recognize when someone goes from the state of a positive mental health to the state of mental illness, especially concerning Post Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD).

Further children’s own capability to deal with their mental health was discussed. We were informed of ways to teach children on how to deal with stress and events that reminded them of a trauma they have experienced. This was very interesting as different psychologist’s methods were presented. Soon we realized how important it will be to try and get hold of a psychologist that can visit the orphanage on a regular basis so that the minds of the children can develop in a healthier manner after being abandoned by parents etc.

The second day, some organizations came with personal stories and explained their structure of the management and how it worked. Again, very helpful in terms of deciding what will be best for the Kullu Orphanage and its management structure. During tea breaks and in the evening we got to speak with many who gave us good advice and whom I hope will be useful contacts for the future if in need of help.

Overall we gained much insight on how to deal with the minds of children with PTSD and the importance of having caretakers educated about these topics so that the children will have a good, stable environment in to develop.

2009-11-23T11:13:00.006+05:30

Hello from the Kullu Valley, sorry it has taken so long to update the blog. We are now five volunteers: Kristina (Norway), Aslak (Norway), Alf (Norway), Eloise (Spain) and Kitty (England). Fiona ( France) left this weekend after having spent over 5 month in the valley, and giving us an amazing amount of help settling in. We have been here almost 2 months now and are having an incredible time. Winter is truly setting in, snow has been falling on all the mountains and in Manali. We’ve been here for two exciting festivals Dusshera and Diwali.

The main focus of our time here has been at the Bashing Orphanage (previously known as the Kullu Orphanage)

Kaleyli Boys Orphanage
We visit the boys around three times a week. We began doing lots of English and games in our first few sessions and then planned a time-table involving first-aid sessions, English lessons and computing lessons. This was all interrupted though as the boys were invited to a state competition for orphanages in Shimla. They had to prepare a song, dance and five minute skit. We worked with the older boys preparing a short skit on the theme of pollution. They were fantastic and worked very hard – we taught them it in English. This involved lots of practising and costume making but it was all well worth it, them came second out of the 450 children involved for the skit and first for their dance! So they are now the proud owners of two much deserved trophies.
We began to teach them basic first aid, which due to the language barrier involved lots of shouting help! and rolling around on the floor. The boys really enjoyed it and we are all excited about starting the programme again tomorrow. The Orphanage has been given one computer and couple in charge are keen for the boys to learn computing skills and for us to type up the boy’s files into a more permanent format. So once we have completed computerising their records we will begin giving lessons in Basic computing skills.

Blind school Music lessons
Alf and Aslak have been attending the blind school on a regular basis and will be posting an update about this shortly.

Drug Rehabilitation centre
Near Kaleyli there is a Drug Rehabilitation centre which we have begun to visit on a weekly basis. This is a new initiative and we hope it will become a more permanent part of the project as the residents have very little contact with people from outside the centre. There are almost 60 men at the centre and the programme of rehabilitation provides a strict daily schedule. We have only been three or four times, where we have organised discussion based activities and games. It is challenging to work with a group this size and age range, especially as there is only one main room in the centre. But many of the men are very keen to share their stories and make us feel most welcome.

Bashing Orphanage Project

We are in the process of assisting the reconstruction of the management of the orphanage. We have taken on this project due to concern about the children’s current living situation. This is obviously a huge project and we are often left feeling useless as a change this big takes a lot of time (and work from Ankit.)
The plan for the orphanage is as follows:
• Finding a new property within Kullu for the children (they previously resided here)
• Supplying equipment and materials for the children
• Securing long term funding for monthly recurring costs
• Finding sponsorship for their education
• Employment of Staff
As for the current situation, we are searching for a property; which is tricky. Today Alf and Aslak are with a local politician who has agreed to help find a suitable residence.
The staffing situation has been greatly improved due to the re-employment of the lady that worked at the orphanage when it was situated in Kullu. The kids have a huge amount of respect for her and we have already seen a dramatic change in their behaviour. She will continue to work there when the orphanage moves to Kullu.
This morning some of the children sat the first part of the entrance exam for Bharat Bharati English-Medium School. It was an incredibly hard exam and they came out looking a little forlorn but some toffees from the principal soon cheered them up! We shall here about the result tonight, but to move from Hindi-medium to English-medium is very challenging so we are researching other schools we could send them to in Kullu. We are also attempting to find and English (and maybe also Maths) tutor, to teach the children on a regular basis.
Also, we are planning to find a doctor to do a full medical check-up on each of the children, especially now that the cold is setting in. Kristina, Fiona and Ankit made an exciting trip to Delhi for a conference about children’s mental health (Kristina will be posting an entry about this) and came back brimming with interesting information. From this we have decided to try and find a Psychiatrist to make a Psychiatric assessment on each of the children and possibly make regular visits to the orphanage.
After extensive work on Fiona and Ankit’s part we are in the process of registering the project as a small NGO. After much discussion we have decided this is necessary for two key reasons. Firstly, for the safety of the volunteers as if anything should happen (touch wood!) whilst volunteering there is no-one that would be responsible as there is no record of our work here; meaning we are on dodgy legal ground. Secondly, the Bashing orphanage project requires extensive funding to be successful. Therefore, it is important to have a legitimate bank account for donations to be received; this is not possible to set up without the project being an NGO. The registration should hopefully be completed within a week, which will mean the fundraising can begin. We would like to add that the registration of the project will not mean that any changes to the way it works occur. We have designed a webpage with a more extensive explanation about the Bashing Project and will be launching it once the bank account is set-up. We need all the support we can get so any fundraising ideas etc. would be gratefully received.

Vashist
The focus of our project has been very much in Kullu and we have only visited Manali four times. Therefore have done little work with Vashist and Mrs. Suddershana’s Orphanages. We have visited Vashist several times, doing games with the children there and being well fed by Mrs Narnada. She has been helping us with the Bashing Orphanage project by providing information about the children at Vashist’s daily schedule, menu, after-school tuition etc.

OLS – Kaleyli social service link
This was a great initiative set up by Maya, Nabila and Juliana which continued long after they left. There are now a different group of students involved in the social service group, Fiona and Anja met with the children to discuss going to Kaleyli on a weekly basis and they were all keen but it has since proved difficult to organise. The OLS children wish to go on a Saturday but the Kaleyli Boys are only available on the second Saturday of the month. We did arrange for the OLS children to come to Kaleyli on one of their holidays but only the staff member showed up due to some communication difficulties. We hope to meet with the principal to discuss this further and suggest that every second Saturday the social service students visit Kaleyli.

Bashing- Vashist trip
After hearing lots of wonderful things about the trip to Sai rupa we hope to take the children on a day trip one Sunday in December, but we have yet to decide on a destination!

2009-08-19T18:36:00.002+05:30

HELLO!

This is the first entry of Kullu project volunteers Anja and Fiona. Sisters from France, British nationality.. 20 and 21. We’ve been here for just over a month now.. and haven’t been that efficient at updating the blog.. sorry about that! But we do therefore have lots to tell now!
We feel like we have settled in nicely to valley life, we enjoy our outings to all the different structures immensely!
Things aren’t perhaps as hectic for us as other volunteers, the two weeks to a month (depending on the school) summer holidays kicked in mid July. We are occupied most days, focusing on the orphanages who have plenty of free time for us to try and fill, but it must be less running around to all the different institutions than others have had it.
We went to the Blind school, GSSS, and Bahart Baharti before they broke up for holiday, a few times each. But if not our time has been spent in Kahlehi, Bashing, Vashist, and Manali (Mrs Sudershanas), the four orphanages.
We also had the fun experience of taking the Vashisht and Bashing guys to Sai Ropa, near the Great Himalayan National Park. That was on the 25th of July, for 3 days 2 nights. It was an extremely good weekend all round! Thanks to Ankit and his many ideas there was never a dull moment: absailing, hike, trout farm visiting, and swimming in a waterfall ( photos will be put up of that, it was so much fun). Ankit and his friends made the camp really brilliant by providing all that fun. The day we did the huge walk up an almost vertical hill, we admired the kids. None of them moaned once about the climb. Even though we were completely melting in the sun, and it got loooong towards the end, the older ones were carrying the little ones, and they just kept on marching...The waterfall at the top which we all dived under was enough of a reward to forget the tiresome effort... But we realised how independent, and easy to look after these guys are. They get on with stuff, stick together, and don’t make a fuss if it gets hard. We did evening activities, sketches were a hit, the older ones were funny, and a few team games. The last evening was campfire evening, people took it in turn to sing a song for everyone, some of the girls were amazing. Fiona played guitar and sang away in French. Then our cook for the weekend busted some moves, and got everyone dancing. EVERYONE! The food was amazing for the weekend we should add too! Huge Breakfast, tea and biscuits, lunch, tea and biscuits, macaroni for snacks, soup, evening meal. Plentiful.
As for what we have been doing with the children every week, we generally have been sticking to the classic team building, fun and games in English..with both of us having some experience in English teaching back in France.. we are able to plan some basic English lessons (verbs, adjectives, tenses, pronouns and all that jazz!) we prepare and then photocopy some work sheets for each visit to the orphanages ! (All the Kahleli and Kullu kids, and the elder ones from Manali and Vashist) At the moment our favourite activity is the memory game!! Where first everyone helps making the game by drawing two identical pictures (+ English word) on cards, coloring in and all and then lay all the cards out and in turn each reveal two cards and the aim is to find the matching pair! Classic, much loved! Honestly , they always ask to “play again play again” even if it may not sound that riveting... 
We have been dreaming up topics for discussion at Bharat Bharti too, and are hoping to start there again this week. Confidence building type things (with their English, and generally with speaking in front of scary amounts of people) : acting, improvisation (give them an object each and they have to try and “sell it to us”) , big quizzes in teams...
We are enjoying it all so much, and want to thank all the previous volunteers for paving the way for us! The kids at Kahlehi remember you guys Ance and Baiba really well, they have huge smiles when we ask about things you did with them, and taught us a game that you did with them the other day, with much enthusiasm (the secret action changing game!)!
As for friendships we’ve made with our neighbours, we get on really well with the daughters of the tailors next door, they remember you guys Nabila, Maya and Julianna very fondly! We’re really happy that we get on so well with them, they help us cook Indian food, and decorated our hands and feet with mandi the other day. They showed us the things you gave them, the atlas seemed to be a treasured gift.
Until next time! Au revoir , fil me lenge

19 June 2008

2009-06-19T17:47:00.000+05:30

Hello! This is Katie and Chimi from the UWC-USA. We are staying in Manali right now, working with Mrs. Sudershana’s orphanage. There are around 25 kids at the orphanage, ranging from 3-14 years old, and all are a pleasure to work with. Nine of these kids attend Delhi Public School, the best school in Manali. (The money is fundraised by a previous volunteer, Katherine Foster.) However, there is not enough money to send the others to school, so the government has sent a teacher for the daily lessons at the orphanage. In addition to Mrs. Sudershana’s “kids”, there are about 15-20 more children who come only during the day for school lessons because their parents cannot afford to send them to the government school (where there is still a small fee plus the purchase of uniforms and books).

Of the children who do not go to D.P.S., there are two groups, the younger ones and the older ones. The younger ones are pre-school aged to 2nd grade. They usually work on writing the Hindi and English alphabets, writing and saying the numbers, and singing songs and rhymes.

The older ones are 3rd grade to 8th grade and they have a bit more experience. Most can write both Hindi and English letters with ease, but reading is sometimes a struggle. Before we came, they mostly practiced reading and writing from a Hindi workbook because the teacher was working with the younger children. Now, we spend most of the lesson time teaching them English. All have made tremendous progress, being that no one spoke any English before we came. The five oldest kids are now learning numbers, days of the week, months of the year, saying the date, asking questions, and the very basics of conversational skills.

Sometimes the teaching can be difficult because some of the older kids have only been attending lessons for a year. Therefore, they really have no concepts of so-called classroom etiquette. Much time is spent just getting the children to listen to either the teacher or their peers. Also, the younger ones like to come into the hallway where the older ones are studying and distract them, usually resulting in a small fight.

Typical classroom time is from 10:30am-12:30pm, with lunch at 1pm when everyone finishes lessons to eat. This is an added benefit for the day-students because they are also able to receive a meal. The next hour or so is usually playtime spent in the nearby yard. During this time, we teach English lessons to the teachers sent by the government. It is rather confusing because everyday there is somebody new, but there are two regular teachers. Around 3pm, the teachers have to go home and the D.P.S. students arrive. The next few hours are spent reading storybooks or playing. Also, the D.P.S. students sometimes have homework to finish.

Talking about work...

2009-04-10T16:50:00.004+05:30

Here we go, finally, with a new blog entry.
This time we shall focus on telling about the work we’ve been doing here.
We are visiting some schools, as well as orphanages. All the institutions, except for one, are in or around Kullu.
OLS School – being one of the best schools in the area, this school has been a great challenge for us. Students here are very competitive and that also puts an extra responsibility on us. We’ve been going to OLS around twice a week. We’ve had sessions with different classes (age 12-16), those include team building activities, games, problem solving tasks and discussions. To be honest, the older the students the more we enjoy the session. Grade 6 has nearly made us cry and question our role in this project, whereas grade 9 has absolutely proved their maturity and thoughtfulness putting a rewarding smile on our faces again.
GSSS – this is the first time Government Senior Secondary School has been involved in the Kullu project. Since me and Baiba both have interest and experience in basketball, we thought it would be great to use our knowledge and enthusiasm to teach children here. Believe it or not, Indians do know how to play other sports, not only cricket! We chose GSSS because it has a great and large basketball court. We go there twice a week and have a 2 hours practice with a group of boys (14 years old and younger). Sometimes the language barrier is disturbing but when you smile and join in doing what you love nothing else really matters.
Bharat Bharti – this is another school where we will start our sessions this coming week when the students come back from their break. We plan to do three types of sessions – English through Film (watching a movie and having discussions about it afterwards), English through games and basketball.
Kalyeli – this is an orphanage where we absolutely love to go. The boys are fantastic here, extremely sweet and good hearted. So far we’ve done some games, drawing, we’ve had a photo session and we’ve been making bracelets and paper planes, done some rhythm games and some dancing too. It doesn’t really matter what you do there, you just come and be with them. We hope to organize a camp or a picnic for the boys some day soon.
Bashing – this is the Kullu orphanage. We’ve started visiting the kids there just a couple of weeks ago. We’ve been there 4 times only and we’ve just started building a closer relationship with the children. The same as Kalyeli boys, we feel these boys and girls ask for no more than our attention. We do some drawing, some games etc. In addition, we try to teach them some English through games. Sometimes it works quite well but often they can’t focus on one thing for more than 5 minutes.
Mrs Suddershana’s Orphanage – this is the only institution in Manali that we are visiting. We go there every Saturday and we’re really happy we can do that. It is not only a very nice institution that we as volunteers can work with, it is also a great weekly bus ride with spectacular views and loads of new faces, places and happenings. We do similar things as we do in the other two orphanages and mostly we very much enjoy the time spent with the children. Some of them speak quite good English and they are really keen to improve their skills.
To conclude this entry, we could just add some general comments to help you understand the feeling we get while working on this project. It does sometimes seem that we are losing control or that we are misunderstood or not understood at all. Recently we had some doubts about our input and while reading about the work the previous volunteers had done we feel as if we don’t do enough. However, from time to time we are assured we do have some impact and that it’s for good.
That’s it for now. Next time we’ll tell you about the ways we entertain ourselves.
Always yours –
Ance & Baiba.

Holi

2009-03-11T10:51:00.006+05:30

Have you ever heard of the Color Fesival in India?
This is what happens (according to Indians) – people all over India celebrate a two days festival called Holi. Though tightly connected to Hindi believes it carries through a message of the good celebrating victory over the evil. Colors are used to highlight the happiness.
This is what actually happens (our view) – people go crazy! Or else - they lock themselves in their houses and don’t come out for 2 days. We’d have done the same unless, of course, someone wouldn’t have knocked on our door early in the morning, waited for us to open it and then generously applied some red color on our faces saying „Happy Holi!”. For good or for bad, this meant we’re IN.
The rest of the day we spent going around Kullu getting more and more color all over, receiving some cold water baths from people up on their roofs and fighting with little boys and their water guns. Despite our initial scepticism about the festival we must now admit we hadn’t had as much fun for quite some time. Of course later on we had to face the consequences and clean ourselves and our clothes. Never in my life have I so much longed for a washing machine.

Namastay

2009-02-27T16:33:00.002+05:30

This is us – the 2 new volunteers from Latvia.

We left home early morning February 10th to commit ourselves to 3 months volunteer work in India. It took us a long time to reach the Valley of Gods. We arrived in Kullu February 12th. It’s been 2 weeks since we’re here though it seems like we came only yesterday. It was for certain that coming to India will be a great cultural shock for both of us. It takes time (longer than you expect) to get used to the crazy traffic, spicy food, staring local people and numerous other things. One must learn to view the world from a different angle. Slowly but surely we learn.

Coming from a country with its highest point of 312 m we both find the Himalayas breathtaking! Hiking in mountains has become one of our favourite activities (accompanied by our project coordinator Ankit). The weather is also very pleasent – sometimes even too hot for us. But then we just get a fresh orange juice (for a price 5 times lower than it would be at home) and live happily again! It’s also amazing how kind and open are the local people here – a stranger would invite you for a cup of chai just like that.

The project itself involves schools and orphanages all over the valley but we have settled down in Kullu and will be working here for most of the time (if we were a larger group we could split and do some work in and around Manali as well as Kullu – it’s definitely better to come in a group more than 2).

Since most of the schools have their exam period now during which they aren’t really keen to collaborate with volunteers, we are now spending most of the time planning and enjoying ourselves. There’s just one school we work with now (O.L.S. School). Our schedule would change when the exams finish (mid March) – then we’ll be visiting three orphanages as well as two schools if we manage to plan our time well.

Apart from continuing what the previous volunteers have started (EXCITE workshops in schools and visits to orphanages) we also hope to make a short documentary about the project. There’s loads we want to do but, as mentioned above, it would have been much more effective if we were more people. We shall hope the word about this project spreads and more volunteers join in the future!

Ance & Baiba

Biolaya Organics

2008-12-05T17:50:00.001+05:30

The following article was also written for our magazine to promote the work of a local conservation NGO

Cultivating an economy of sustainability
The economy on the Kullu Valley has two major drivers; agriculture and tourism. Over time agricultural practices have changed dramatically. Subsistence farming has been pushed aside to accommodate cash crops such as apples and cherries. In the past, local nutritious food staples such as red rice and kodra, a grain similar to barley which produces a rich brown flour, are now only brought out for special occasions as more and more land is developed for crops with a higher economic yield. From any viewpoint along the valley you will see terraced slopes, originally created for rice and grain production now supporting acres upon acres of fruit orchards. Contemplating how local crops and their place in the local diet are being lost, some would argue that it is a false approach to economy to put all your seeds into a fruit basket to raise money to spend on imported food products of lower nutritional value than those previously grown on your doorstep.

There are those in the valley working towards maintaining and supporting traditional agricultural pursuits and establishing a balance between protecting the rich variety of local flora whilst ensuring the economic security of those dependent on it for their livelihood. A good case example is the pioneering work done by Biolaya Organics, a small local company, into medicinal herb conservation. The company formed in 2007 following on from the three years of research done by the same group previously named the Seyhog Research Group and are based at Dashal village close to Naggar.

To those like myself, not so familiar with horticultural issues, it is worth pointing out that the definition of a herb stretches much wider than those small fragrant plants which we occasionally try to spice up our cooking with, but can cover any plant, tree or root which can be put to a medicinal or culinary use. In India especially, there is a rich tradition of herbal medicine, prevalent through the Ayurvedic system, which delivers natural treatments for many health conditions. Demand for alternative and complimentary treatment has also surged throughout the western world as people seek natural remedies for illnesses rather than relying on pharmaceutical interventions and has led to a huge market growth in this area.

The Western Himalayas is a hot-spot for rare and valuable medicinal herbs but unsustainable harvesting and trading practices have led to many species becoming endangered. Biolaya has been working steadfastly to conserve these unique plants through a multi-factor approach of attempting large scale cultivation of endangered species to negate the need for wild collection alongside promoting the sustainable collection and value addition of alternative herb species and other non-timber forest products which grow in abundance. Combine this with research and documentation of indigenous herb species and their properties, the delivery of educational programmes for collectors, farmers and consumers on herb conservation, organic farming and wider biodiversity issues and you start to get a picture of the wide ranging contribution this grass roots organization is working to impact locally.

One of the main difficulties facing Biolaya is the challenge of cultivating herbs in a way to produce a viable livelihood for those involved in their harvesting. The additional costs added to cultivated crops, which require a three year growing cycle and full time staff versus the traditional collector whose product costs merely rests in the time taken roaming the hills to find the species, mean that cultivated herbs prices will be vastly inflated against those brought to market by wild collectors. The hope is that by establishing a mindset with consumers, that although sustainability comes as a higher price it ensures long term availability, a viable market can be created. In addition to this, the government has also taken steps to help conservation and endangered species have been banned for export unless they are produced with a ‘certificate of cultivation’ from the Forest Department; this presents opportunities in the export market where herb companies do not have legal access to the cheaper wild collected herbs. Organic certification further increases the value of the herbs in the export market.

New research and development into new uses of more common herbs such as wild oregano has a potentially huge role to play in conservation initiatives. The properties of the oregano’s essential oil as an antibacterial agent, which could plausibly be used in the wide scale prevention and treatment of bacterial infections such as MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), opens exciting new avenues and opportunities for income and conservation. If a feasible market can be created for this product, then local collectors can be employed to harvest this abundant herb and sustain their incomes whilst also negating their reliance on the collection of endangered species.

All of these initiatives remain in their preliminary stages and the outcomes as yet remain uncertain. Many years of hard work, dedication and patience have been invested by those pioneering this experiment into methods of conservation which represent a holistic approach, working with local people to encourage them to work towards the preservation of the natural wealth of their environment. Next year the results of the Biolaya Organics experiment should start to emerge and conclusions on the practicality of their initiatives can be drawn. Successful or not their work demonstrates a valuable lesson on how conservation can be pursued in conjunction with local need and helps prove that conservation does not need to run counter to economic sustainability.

For more information about the work Biolaya is doing for local conservation see their website at www.biolaya.com.

To Teach and Be Taught, adventures at The Chander Abha Memorial School for the Blind.

2008-12-05T17:31:00.001+05:30

The following article was written for our community magazine by Meadhbh O'Donnovan who spent eight months this year volunteering at the blind school in Kullu.

To Teach and Be Taught, adventures at The Chander Abha Memorial School for the Blind
I arrived in the bustling town of Kullu, after an arduous but spectacular bus journey from Delhi, early on a February morning earlier this year. Shortly after the first, of what was to be many, cups of chai, I was introduced to the staff and students of The Chander Abha Memorial School for the blind. The adults and children who were to become my new colleagues and family for the forthcoming months.

I was shown around the three storey building which houses two Non Government funded organisations, The H.P. Mahila Kalyan Mandal (Women’s Welfare Organisation) and The School for the Blind, which is the State level Branch of the National Association for the Blind (N.A.B.). The School for The Blind was established by the M.K.M in 1997. It started with three students who are all now still attending the school and are in their final years of school.

Today there are thirty two blind and Visually Impaired (V.I.) students, ranging from the ages of six to twenty three. The students live in the hostel on the top floor, which consists of two bedrooms a bathroom and a small kitchen. The senior boys have a separate bedroom and bathroom on the first floor. The school, one classroom and one computer room, is on the ground floor. There are five teachers employed at the school and they work on a staggered timetable to cater for the Primary and Senior students.
The senior students are integrated into the government school but take classes here with specially trained teachers every evening. The students rise early and do self study. This hard work by teachers and staff has really paid off which was clearly visible this summer by the students end of year results. Some of the boys received top results out of all students in the government school.

My role at the school since February has been as teacher for the preparatory class. I came here prepared to give my time to the school in any manner that could be useful.

Unfortunately, because the school is funded only by donations and the annual fee paid by the thirty or so members of the governing board, the school has to function on a very tight budget. The school does not take fees from the students.

The teachers here have to divide their time carefully to ensure all students get the time and attention they need.

I was promptly entrusted with, the then six students, of Prep class. It is the starter class which is taught orally, but within it are students between the age of six and eighteen. They are of very mixed learning abilities and are all blind or with very low vision. But there has never been a dull moment with them and some very entertaining ones, especially when it has come to Hindi.

The students also take part in extra curricular activities such as music classes. Something I was immediately struck by, was the children’s affinity for music. Within my first couple of days here I realised the superb musical talents, in particular for drumming and singing. This talent has been recognised on a local level in the Kullu Valley and the students are very often asked to perform at private and public functions and have picked up many well deserved awards along the way.

There are not many facilities at the school apart from the absolute necessities, but the dedication and resourcefulness of staff ensures an optimum learning environment.

If you or anyone you might know is planning a long term stay in Kullu and would like to get involved with the school, volunteers are always welcome, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
If you are not staying but would like to donate to the school, items like toiletries and children’s shoes and clothes are always needed and of huge value. The gratitude displayed by these students for something as simple as fresh fruit is aspirational.

It was an immense change of culture moving from Ireland to India, but the spirit, laughter and voices of these children has ensured there was no reason to feel homesick. It has been an enriching and educational experience and I would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone whose mind the idea might cross.

Kullu Project Website

2008-11-16T11:38:00.002+05:30

The Kullu Project recently launched its new website.

To get a fuller view of the project, for information about volunteering and how yuo can help us in our work please click the following link.
http://kulluproject.web.officelive.com

Dussehra Festival

2008-10-20T12:26:00.013+05:30

From the 9th to 16th of this month The Kullu Valley celebrated the Dussehra festival in its typically elaborate style. In fact this region is famous all over India for it's special Dussehra celebration, Gods from surrounding villages and valleys have their big week out here. Each village carries their God to the ground at Kullu on foot to meet the local King and go camping for a week. It's incredible to see all the Gods arriving and roaming around the fair ground. The gods all have their individual personalities and many don't like each other, a fact which apparently resulted in several of them getting arrested last year. There seemed to be less trouble this year however, and all the locals came to see their gods and shop.

In addition to the religious aspect the Dussehra also comprises of a massive market with stalls selling everything from local clothing and food products, to cheap chinese imported clothes and household items. There is a huge fairground with a variety of rides, including the motorbike wheel of death, all of which look rather precariously below European health and safety standards but are enjoyable for the kids nevertheless, who don't worry about these things. There is a brilliant local food area serving up the local stuffed, steamed flour patties called sidu in addition to plenty of momos, chowmein, tikki and pizza.

On the last day of the festival, myself and six of the vocational boys staying with Sudershana took a day trip to visit the Bijli Mahadev temple and the Dussehra. Bijli Mahadev sits at 2,450 metres ontop of a hill with stunning views of all the surrounding valleys. At the end of the road you take a 45 minute walk up through pine forests to reach the viewpoint at the top. The temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva and is one of the oldest in the valley and a very important site for Hindus.

We had a really good day despite the rain in the morning and luckily the clouds cleared when we reached the temple and we could see accross the valleys and down to the Dussehra ground with all its tents and stalls. The boys really enjoyed the chance to see this important monument and perhaps even more going around the huge market to browse round the stalls and also see and mingle with the crowds of people and take advantage of the activities there.

New Volunteers to the Valley

2008-08-25T16:06:00.001+05:30

Who in their right mind would pass up the opportunity to work for a good cause in the Himalayas? For this reason four new volunteers arrived in the valley this July to work with the project helping disadvantaged young peoples around Manali and the Kullu Valley area.

The phenomenon of gap years has gained increasing popularity with more and more young people taking a break before university to travel and do social projects abroad. The Kullu Project was set up in 2002 by just such a group with local family ties to the valley. They have been working ever since to ensure a regular stream of international volunteers to the valley, putting them in contact with local schools and orphanages.

The programmes are kept deliberately open for volunteers, allowing them the creativity to design their own activities based on their particular skills, knowledge and interests. In the past this has led to volunteers providing workshops on Life Skills, First Aid, Photography, Arts and Crafts, Drama, English and Sports activities. The ethos of the project is that through a programme of cultural exchange we can enrich the lives of local people and expand their future horizons. So far the project has supplied over forty volunteers to work with more than fifteen local partners and hopes to continue to expand its recruitment and local connections.

Alison lo, Maya Sikand, Nabila Abdel Aziz, and Juliana Gartner are all students recently graduated from prestigious international schools in the United World College network and are focussing their efforts on environmental work. Their specific skills lie in sustainable environmental management, sound and visual art which should yield an interested response from local youngsters. Asking Maya why she chose the Kullu Valley her response was simple: “going to the India, especially the Himalayas, has always been a dream of mine. I wasn’t even intending to take a gap year, but when I heard about the project I changed my plans”

We wish them every luck in their endeavors and shall follow their progress with interest.

For further information on the Kullu Prject or to volunteer please contact Kris Mackay

Email: kris_mackay@hotmail.com
Mobile: 9882 183 190

Voices of Himachal - A community magazine

2008-07-08T17:37:00.003+05:30

We have recently embarked on a new project to publish a local magazine for tourists visiting the Kullu Valley with a view of promoting the work of local NGOs, voicing the views of local people and also to help those visiting the valley get a better idea of the life and culture of Himachal. We are working in conjunction with two other NGOs, the Himachal Pradesh Human Welfare Organisation and Maison Des Himalayas, a French organisation which has been working in the valley for many years.

We wanted to represent the views of local women and children in particular as these views are often not heard in the mainstream media. To encorporate these we ran workshops at two English medium schools in Manali and asked them to write about either education or environment. The following are the top five of these articles.

Education
Neelanishi Bhatnagar, Class X, Delhi Public School.
Education means to teach and train people mentally and morally. When we think of an educated person it conjures up an image of a smartly dressed, well-mannered and intelligent individual.

There was a time when countries could achieve economic success with cheap labour and low tech manufacturing. Low wages are still helpful but contemporary large scale development requires a sophisticated and at least partly a knowledge based economy. Making people literate is not the end of the road. Literacy not only means learning how to read, write and count but it should help people gain knowledge about our inherent values and a deep seated knowledge about the entire world. Only then will literacy lead to real education.

Education is not a preparation for life, education is life itself – John Deweyow.

Education opens new horizons, provides new aspirations, and develops values of life. The aim of education is knowledge not for facts but for values. It contributes towards growth of society, national income, cultural richness and increases the efficiency of governance. It helps them become aware of why they are deprived and helps them move towards change. Investment in human education yields a return just like investment in physical capital. Educated and better trained persons generate higher productivity resulting in higher income. Not only do the people gain themselves through higher income but society also gains in other indirect ways because the advantages of an educated population also spreads to those who were not directly educated.

A large population can be turned into a productive asset by spending resources on education, training of industrial workers and scientific resources. The government is taking steps to educate people through various educational schemes. For example, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (S.S.A.) is a significant step towards providing elementary education to all children in the age group of 6-14 years by 2010.

The empires of the futures are the empires of the mind – Winston Churchill

A child with investments made on education will definitely benefit from a high return in the future in the form of higher earnings and a greater contribution to society. Educated parents invest more heavily on the education of their children and this is because they have realized the importance of education for themselves. They are also more conscious of proper education and health along with nutrition and hygiene for their children. In contrast, disadvantage persons who are uneducated and lacking in all these qualities keep their children too in a similarly disadvantaged state.

Education promotes self respect of the individual. It results in better health awareness and care. It helps raise the status of women. It not only increases participation in the democratic process but also brings about an awareness of rights. It helps prevent exploitation and improves earnings. It gives individuals greater control over their own lives e.g. they ca write and read letters, sing, fill in forms etc. They are not easily befooled and hoodwinked by clever manipulating people. Education also promotes environmental awareness. Asrightly said by Sydney J. Harvies, “The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.”

This we can say that education helps in the overall development of a state and its individuals. It helps in developing the individual’s personality and increasing their confidence and polishing their behaviour. Their communication skills improve. Not only this, education also enhances peoples dress sense and helps them learn now to carry themselves. They become aware of their role in society and their duties towards the betterment of the country. As Tony Blair has rightly said, “Ask me my true main priorities for government, and I tell you: education, education and education.”

Education
Pankhwu Bhatnagar, Class IV, Delhi Public School

“What does education often do? It makes a straight ditch out of a meandering brook” Henry David Thoreau

Education – the word itself tingles the mind. An educated population is an asset to the country. It yields better return results in both economic as well as mental growth of nation. This is because not only does the individual himself benefit through education but the population of a country as a whole benefits through him. Education opens up new horizons and provides new aspirations, researches and develops values in the mindset of people.

However, we must not confuse education with literacy. We must realize that being able to read and write is not education. Education is one which changes and exchanges our values along with increasing our knowledge about people and places. “Education is what survives when what has been learned, has been forgotten” B.F. Skinner.

But it is necessary to be literate in order to be educated. This can be achieved by developing primary, secondary and finally high level education centres. India has a very large education sector. There are a number of high education and research centres but very few of them impart good quality education. Education needs to encompass the overall development of mind and body of an individual. It develops communication skills, dressing skills and personality development skills etc.

The question that arises is how to impart literacy and education to every strata of society. In the past few years there has been tremendous increase in the number of educational institutions in India.

One of the major hindrances to education is widespread poverty in the country. Due to the high rate of reproduction it is difficult for people to educate their children. The government is trying to help by making primary and secondary education free. It is also distributing free midday meals. Moreover, since people are not educated themselves, they do not understand the value of education. It is necessary that we should not expect the government alone to do something. Literate and educated people should help out; spread awareness for education among the literate people and backwards areas. “Education is the movement from darkness to light”, Allan Bloom.

Thus we can say that education helps in the overall development of an individual personality. It makes him a self-confident, well-mannered personality. It makes him an asset to the society. His communication skills improve. The country as a whole benefits from his knowledge. Here is no limit to the heights a country can reach if its citizens are educated and knowledgeable.

Environment
Pallavi, Class X, Day Star School

“All things are connected with one another, and the bond is holy.”

Our natural environment is in close relationship with the living and non-living components. The living are the biotic components and the non-living are the a-biotic components. The activities done by biotic and a-biotic have some impact or the other on the natural environment. In this world of natural environment, everything is connected with each other. Every action that a human being or animal takes has an effect on one part of the environment, which in turn has another effect on another part. Even a small action on your part may have large consequences.

There are thousands of connections in nature. Of them some are vital for the survival and growth of all organization. Apart from food, organisms need water, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon etc. Such substances continuously move through the environment in cycles. They move from the non-living components to the living organisms, which consume them. Them the substances move back to the non-living part and the cycle continues.

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed”

Water is one of the most important elements on earth and is essential for the sustenance of life. It is the most vital connecting factor in the ecosystem. “Water is the most precious and highly vulnerable gift given to us by nature.”

Water is the most important element on earth, so people should not waste water and should not do such activities as deplete the water. We as humans should make the best use available water resources for human benefit, while not only preventing and controlling its depletion and degradation, but also developing it in view of the present and future needs. The most important aspect in water management is to treat water as an economic commodity to be used in the most profitable and satisfying manner. In the distribution of this economic good both equity and quality must be ensured.

“What would the world be, once bereft of wet and wildness? Let them be left, O let them be left, wildness and wet; long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.”

Forests play a very important role in the life and economy of a nation. Forest vegetation and its occupying soil organisms make up as much as 90 percent of the total biomass of land. Due to deforestation, the stability of many ecological sub-systems has been greatly disturbed. Once forest cover is damaged, severe soil erosion takes place disturbing the entire ecosystem.

As forests provide us with many useful things, we must learn how to conserve them. The increasing degradation of forests, especially in mountainous and hilly areas leads to heavy erosion of the topsoil, erratic rainfall and re-occurring floods. Due to this there is an acute shortage of firewood and loss of productivity due to eroded and degraded lands. The Forest Conservation Act 1980 has been enacted primarily to check indiscriminate deforestation of forest lands for non-forestry purposes.

It is important to provide for the needs of the community for firewood and fodder. Planting of trees will help reduce soil erosion, floods, landslides and most of all, it will help in the restoration of the ecological balance. Those areas that are prone to landslides, areas having steep and precipitous mountains slopes prone to soil erosion and important watershed areas should be identified as reserves. In such areas felling of trees or grazing should not be allowed.

“Man owes the fact of his existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.”

Soil is a complex mixture of weathered rock material and the product of decayed organic matter. It comprises both organic and inorganic substances present on the earth. Soil is developed by formation of humus layers, accumulation of calcium carbonate and cauterization in which silica is removed while iron and calcium remain. It is most important for us to be aware of the indispensability and the need for its proper management in the most sustained manner. Soil erosion can occur naturally, when the top soil is removed by agents like wind and water, or due to inappropriate human activities, by unsustainable agricultural practices, mining, deforestation, over-grazing and so on. Soil is said to be depleted when its productivity is reduced by over-cropping, siltation, leaching, over-grazing, salination and soil erosion.

By soil conservation we mean the restoration, improvement and maintenance of topsoil and soil fertility through various collective measures which include restoration of the soil fertility and stabilization of soil through methods that prevent erosion.

There are many ways by which our environment gets polluted. There are many types of pollution that we all face. Air pollution is the presence of unwanted particles in the ambient atmosphere, generally resulting from the activity of man, in sufficient concentration, present for sufficient time and under circumstances which interfere significantly with the comfort, health or welfare of persons or with full use or enjoyment of property. Air pollution is caused by natural sources and man-made sources. Natural sources include volcanic eruptions and forest fires. Man-made sources include transportation, industries, mining, open burning and many other activities which humans do.

Air pollution can affect our body parts, leading to breathing problems, like shortness of breath, wheezing, chest pain, asthma, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis. Acute exposure to ozone leads to a reduction in lung function and breathing problems. It also causes irritation in the eyes, nose and throat and can cause severe headaches. Water is more vulnerable to pollution than air because it is not as free flowing and is also denser. Moreover, air is available in larger and more widespread quantities than water, that is why pollutants in the air are quickly dispersed by the wind. Every mistake we make shows up in our water in the form of toxic pollution, dead marine life and dried up streams.

Sources of water pollution are industrialized wastewater, street and agricultural run-off, sewage, industries with high organic lead, alkali manufacturing industries, petroleum processing industries, agriculture, mining operations, human and animal and chemical waste. Water pollution causes water borne diseases like typhoid, cholera, hepatitis, diarrhea and amoebic dysentery.

Soil pollution occurs due to physical and chemical changes that occur due to the presence of pollutants that render it unfit for productivity. Soil, when misused or mishandled, deteriorates in quality and results in depletion of nutrients.

Noise pollution may be defined as “any unwanted sound that causes annoyance, disturbance and prohibits concentration. Noise pollution is caused by industrial activities, mining, construction, urban environments, rural environments and transportation.

These are all the problems that humans have to suffer in this world. There are more problems that I did not mention here but these are the major problems. I, as a human, request all other humans not to be selfish and not to think about themselves, but to think about the present and future generations. Not to waste any kind of resources. To utilize whatever they have.

This article will tell you about many diseases that we can face. So, we need to overcome these types of problems so that the present and future generations can live happily, so please work upon this.

Environmental concerns
Tanvi Mehto, Class X, Day Star School

If all mankind were to disappear the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish the environment would collapse into chaos - Edward O. Wilson

Environment is the world which surrounds us, in which an organism lives. It is affected by physical and chemical factors as well as by organisms. The damage caused to the earth by human activities has been a major concern during the last fifity years.

The term pollution refers to the process of making air, water and soil dirty and harmful. Air pollution is the presence of unwanted particles in the ambient atmosphere of substances, generally resulting from the activity of man, sufficient in concentration, present for sufficient time and under circumstances which interfere significantly with the comfort, health or welfare of persons or with the full enjoyment of property.

There are two major sources of air pollution; man-made and natural. Natural sources consist of volcanic eruptions, forest fires, anaerobic decay processes.
The man-made sources consist of emissions of harmful smoke from airways, railways and vehicles. Poisonous gases liberated by major industrial units, industrial estates and medium industries. Pollution caused by thermal power plants, emission from domestic combustion units, chimneys and incinerators. Burning of coal and wastes. Dusts, soot and suspended particulate matles (S.P.M.) causes air pollution. Air pollution can be caused by building materials, micro-organisms, smoking and radon concentration. Other sources are mining and brick kilns.

Air pollution can adversely affect human health not only by direct inhalation but indirectly by other exposure routes through water, food and skin transfer. It affects the cardio-vascular systems, causes diseases like asthma, bronchitis, allergies, lung disease and heart disease. SPM concentrations cause increased mortality, morbidity, pulmonary malfunctioning with increased concentrations of substances. Abatement of air pollution includes control technologies. This involves modifying the fuel as combustion technique or removing pollutants from the fuel gases. Pre-combustion techniques involve the case of low pollutant fuels. To destroy pollution from the point of source the most important abatement is to educate people.

Water is more vulnerable to pollution than air because it is not as free flowing and is also denser. Unwanted particles in the water are called water pollution. The sources of water pollution are industrial wastewater, street or agricultural run-off, sewage, industries with high organic load, agriculture, mining operations, human and animal waste and chemical waste. Sewage wastes include organic and inorganic compounds. Industrial effluents having high organic load with high B.O.D. values cause depletion of the fish population in rivers. The other sources are water from oil refineries and steel industries. Water pollution causes many diseases like typhoid, cholera, hepatitis, diarrhea, amoebic dysentery and malaria to name a few.

Water pollution causes many illnesses in sea creatures. The leakage of toxic pollutants into the water leads to the death of sea creatures. This can cause diseases in human being when they consume the fish. Abatement of water pollution includes good technologies. The industries should be built far away from the cities. Emissions should be stopped at the point of source. The people should be educated, there should not be any oil spillage.

Soil pollution refers to the pollution caused by other pollution, i.e. water pollution, air pollution, radioactive pollution etc. The sources of soil pollution are polluted water and dumping waste. Substances which are biodegradable in nature, such as food scraps, wastes from food processing industries, human and animal excretions, slurry, organic hospital wastes and farm and poultry waste. Monomers used in polymer manufacture, heavy metals like lead, copper and arsenic cause bioaccumulation in plants and enter food chains. Lead affects the brain and nervous system in children and interfered with the development and maturation of red blood cells. Abatement of pollution can be started by farmers not using chemical fertilizers.

This article has talked about the different types of pollution, their sources, their effects and abatement. I’d like to say that in developing countries, due to lack of finances, awareness and technical know how, abatement of pollution will have to involve international help to overcome the mounting pollution levels. We need to overcome these problems so that our future generations will not have any problems.

Save your Surroundings
Tenzin Youdom, Class X, Day Star School

There is a bond between nature and human beings and this is such that if it breaks, there will be no life on this planet. We have to maintain this bond if we wish to survive. Nature herself tries to keep this balance by providing by providing various species of plants and animals which depend on each other and which are necessary for their survival.

But what did man do to keep this balance? In order to satisfy his greed he not only destroyed this balance but also endangered human life. Man has been exploiting the land and its resources. He has been clearing forest lands for agriculture. However, over the years agriculture practices have undergone a great change, which is creating an adverse effect on the planet. The demands of growing population for recreational activities, transportation and economic activities have added pressure on the land-use pattern.

In order to meet the demand for land, natural lands are being converted to other land-use patterns, resulting in destruction of land cover. Man is being so selfish that they only want to fulfill their demands, whether it results in the destruction of resources for future generations.

But today the problem is not that of resources but that of excessive exploitation of natural resources causing an imbalance which is not a good sign.

The adverse effects of this imbalance are already showing their presence. Global warming is one of the chief results of this environmental imbalance. The rapid increase in temperature results in the melting of ice and reduction of glaziers causing loss of life’s property, loss of vegetation etc.

People are interfering with nature in the name of development which had in fact brought more problems than doing good. Frequent floods, landslides, wasting away of agricultural land are the few problems which are easily seen. Besides, the damage to flora and fauna is not measurable.

The solution for these all mentioned problems is to preserve and protect the environment and put all your efforts into protecting it. If you are cutting down trees put five trees in for every one removed. Keep your environment clean. Use the land in a good way. Forests give us many things like medicines, fruits, shelter, habitation etc. and we are not aware of the real necessity of the environment which will not be good for human life in the future.

So, save the earth for your own sake

Our very own photographer

2008-07-03T19:39:00.004+05:30

We've been incredibly lucky to have had Ana Grillo, an American photographer working with us on the project. Having met up with one of our volunteers, Katherine, in Southern India she was looking for opportunities to use her photography skills with worthy projects in India.

During the four weeks she was here Ana worked ceaselessly to meet all our demands. She took photos of all the children at Sudershana's orphanage from morning til night to compile a day in the life photo documentary series to present to our sponsors. In addition to taking photos for all the articles featuring in the magazine we are currently compiling she also performed miracles turning my holiday snaps into professional looking photographs. We now have an extensive collection of photos of all our work and also life in Manali which will be invaluable as we develop our website and move the project forward.

The kids absolutely loved having her around and all became budding photographers for the duration of her stay. They were over the moon when we took a slide show of all their pictures and Ana's to show them. We're incredibly grateful for all her hard work.

Ana is planning to stay in India for some time and continue her cause to help small grass roots NGOs like ours develop their resources and we wish her every success in her this task.

More of Ana's work can be seen on her website http://web.mac.com/anndgrillo/Site/Welcome.html

2008-05-28T18:55:00.004+05:30

Kailash Bodhi School

Lynn and Kevan have been working for the last two months for two afternoons a week in Kailash Bodhi School in Rangri. This is a Buddhist school that teaches children of Tibetan and Nepali origin, most of their parents work as stone cutters in the area and their life expectancy is in the early forties (see the profile for more information). We took two classes together, giving us seventeen children with ages between nine and fourteen for English and Art. The level of English was quite varied within this age so we began with correcting common mistakes in speaking English as a foreign language through games, quizzes and grammar exercises. After this, classes had to be tailored to suit the mixed abilities to keep all kids interested and stimulated.

The kids here are full of energy and enthusiasm for learning and it’s been a pleasure to teach them. As most art lessons in India seem to consist of copying pictures from books, we decided to try and make it more inspiring for them to try and bring out their creativity. They really enjoyed sessions like mask making, illustrating stories and creating their own comic strips during this time. The final session with them consisted of a team competition with everything from pin the tail on a donkey to testing their English and was equally as fun for us as it was for them! Next year most of the older children will go onto class VI in other schools if their parents can afford the tuition. The KEF (Kullu Education Fund) hopes to sponsor two children a year to carry on their education to a higher level if they would otherwise be sent to work by their parents to earn money for the family. It is very important these kids get the opportunity to continue in education to increase their opportunities for their futures..

Burning plastic is drastic

2008-05-15T11:55:00.006+05:30

To say that India has a problem with rubbish would be a massive understatement. Common practice dictates that once your bin is full you can take it out and throw it in the nearest water course, down a bank or for a bit of variety wait until a big pile has built up then set fire to it. It is such a shame that so many areas of outstanding natural beauty are tarnished by the huge amounts of litter when it is such an easily avoidable problem. Of greater concern however, are the health issues raised by having such large piles of rubbish for dogs and children to frollick in and the pollution to streams and river which people bath in and sometimes drink from.

To raise awareness of this issue we ran a series of workshops with the children from Mrs Sudershana’s orphanage in conjunction with Delhi Public School's Environment Club. During the first session we took the children out to pick up litter in one of the Nature Parks near to the school. We filled bags to take to the refuse collection point and saved all the clothes and shoes. The second session involved using the shoes and clothes to make a scarecrow and the children painted banners which we displayed around the local tourist sites to promote environmentally friendly practice and encourage them to take their litter away with them.

Despite some of the children looking at us like we were insane when we told them what we had planned, they all got really involved in the project managed to remove twenty large sacks of litter out of the park and had lots of fun getting messy with paint to make the banners. The Environment Club has done lots of good work and has plans to petition the local government to put more facilities in place for waste management and recycling.

Aborigine funday

2008-04-30T12:35:00.007+05:30

Last week, we organised a day with an orphanage that the project has worked a lot with with since its beginning in 2002. Seventeen children between the ages of six and sixteen took part from the Vashist orphanage in this session that took place in the main park in Manali during their holidays. We wanted to give the children an active and fun day, increasing cultural awareness in a stimulating and creative way. As the level of English is very mixed, we chose to use the visual Aboriginal symbols with simple English to encourage all the children.

Session structure

Intro-brainstorm Australia; animals, climate, sports, people etc.
Brief history of Aborigines and their use of symbols. Flash cards were used- the children guessed what the different symbols meant.
Quiz- Prepared sheets (in resources) were given to groups and they had to match the symbol with what they thought it represented. Peer marked by other groups.
Hunt- In advance cards with symbols drawn on were hidden in the forest, under rocks, in trees etc. Groups were sent out to find as many as possible then re-grouped to judge.
Making symbols- We then spent some time with our groups creating symbols learnt from collected stones in a guessing game and suggesting objects for them to try and represent with the stones.
Art- Contrasting colours and shapes of dhal can be used to make representations of the symbols by generously gluing (use PVA) to pieces of cardboard collected from old boxes etc. Alternatively, you can just draw a selection of the symbols on templates of boomerangs depending on level of drawing or materials.

The kids and all of us enjoyed the day greatly, we wore ourselves out and we felt it was a very productive session; we definitely earned our ice creams!

Photo's from around Manali

2008-04-10T17:22:00.008+05:30

The scenery around Manali is absolutely fantastic. Every way you look there are towering snow-capped mountains and it really is a hiker's paradise. We have managed to find house to rent right at the top of Old Manali so are getting a good workout every day getting to and from work. The town itself is incredibly touristy and the New Manali skyline is dominated by neon hotel signs. Everywhere is still pretty quiet at the moment but in about a month Indian and foreign tourists will descend on the area in abundance. However, we are still enjoyinh the peace and quiet and below are some of the beatiful sights we see every day for your perusal.

Old Manali Village

The view from our porch

Solang Valley

Sunset seen from New Manali

Who we are working with

2008-04-10T15:25:00.014+05:30

Mrs Sudershana’s Orphanage, Manali
This orphanage has recently expanded and there are several ways in which the project can get involved to help.

The main orphanage houses seventeen children aged from two to sixteen years old. A previous Project volunteer is sponsoring nine of the children to attend a local private school where they are all doing incredibly well. We are working with then in the evening doing a homework club to help them with English, maths and science as well as doing life-skills workshops on a Saturday and in holidays.

In addition local street children attend the orphanage during the day for food and some education. These children do not go to school as they have to go around collecting plastic and other recyclable rubbish from the streets to sell and make money for their families. We are planning to work with these children during the day to help them with English and do arts and craft workshops.

In the last week eight boys aged seventeen and eighteen have arrived in Manali from another orphanage in Shimla to receive vocational training. Mrs Sudershana is co-ordinating their education, helping them to find work placements and managing their accommodation. We are going to run English classes for these boys incorporating life skills activities and take them for sporting activities.

Vashist Orphanage, Vashist, Manali
This orphanage was one of the original institutions supported by the Kullu Project and is a wonderful success story thanks to the efforts of the manager Mrs Nervada and the support they receive from locals and international sponsors. They were originally in a very poor position but have developed over the years to become a very well managed, structured and efficient organisation. There are twenty children at the orphanage aged between seven and eighteen all attending either government or private schools.

Outside of school they have a yoga teacher attending the school daily in the morning and a science and maths tutor attends for an hour every evening. The orphanage is now well facilitated with a television, video player, DVD player, computer (no internet), music, some outdoor space, books, games and sports equipment.

Kailash Bodhi, Rangri, Manali
This Private English Medium School is mostly attended by the children of immigrant labourers from Nepal or Tibet as there is no provision for free education for this group. The school has ninety-six children aged between four to thirteen years, five teachers and four additional staff members. The school has some use of the government land on the other side of the highway for sports activities but is not able to run any additional out of school activities. Previous Kullu project volunteers have done mostly arts and games with some English Teaching. This year the school has asked us for arts, games, English grammar, letter exchange, inter school activities, books and any funding to get their new school built (they are struggling greatly financially).

At the beginning of March the Kailash Bodhi School was evicted from their rented accommodation as a hotel chain had bought the land. On the small compensation they received they are currently renting a four bedroom house for 3,400 rupees (₤43) per month. They had just started laying foundations for a new building (again on rented land as Mr Phuntsok is Tibetan and cannot buy land) when a land possession dispute broke out. They are awaiting the conclusions of the case which begins on the 27th March. The cost of the new build is estimated at 800,000 rupees (₤10,127) and will be guaranteed for ten years. The Kullu Project is also trying to sponsor two or three students each year to continue into higher education although this is sometimes met with opposition from the children’s parents as continuing at school leads to a loss of potential income to these poor families.

Himilayan Budhist Cultural School, Rangri, Manali
This boarding school currently has two-hundred and forty students from all around the local valleys but is planning to expand again in the near future moving to a new site next year with facilities for five-hundred children. The school is well supported by its parent institution, a Buddhist group from Delhi, and also received some international financial help. The children have access to television, DVDs (Sunday showings of cultural films and cartoons), cricket and others sports, four computers (no internet at present), a cassette player/ recorder, a CD player and access to the school yard.

The main activities we are hoping to run with them this year are inter-school activities with the neighbouring Kailash Bodhi School.

The Blind School, Kullu
The Blind School in Kullu is associated with the National Association for the Blind and is one of three blind schools in Himachal Pradesh. The school has three teachers working with thirty-five children across seven age groups. There is no space to appropriately split the classes which makes teaching difficult. The only play space available for the children is on the roof, is not very big and inevitably presents safety concerns. The school has many structural gaps in the timetable where the children are present at school but are not doing anything constructive, especially for the children who board at the school.

They currently have one western volunteer helping out as a teacher for the younger children. She has identified poor concentration and lack of response to teachers as issues affecting the children. There is also a need for functional education for the older children to help them prepare for independence once leaving school. A new school is currently under construction outside the town. This will provide for the children at the Blind School and also for other disabled children within the valley. There will also be a program of functional education especially for housebound children and there families. This scheme and the current school would both benefit from extra funding and long-term volunteers.

Sarswati Bal Balika Purnavs Trust (SBBP), Kullu
This relatively new orphanage houses eleven children aged four to fourteen. They live in two rooms with one toilet/bathroom. The orphanage is funded through pledges from the local shop owners in Kullu of 50 or 100 rupees a month but they still have very limited facilities. They all attend local government school in Kullu. Although we are mainly based in Manali this time, we plan to try and go to Kullu once a week in order to run workshops with these children and help get them extra facilities for arts, creative and sports activities.

This orphanage would certainly benefit from long-term funding to provide facilities and long-term volunteers to help the children develop necessary life skills.

Bal Ashram, Kalehli, Kullu
This orphanage houses thirty-two children aged six to eighteen. The children all attend the local government school. The Kullu project previously worked with this orphanage when it was based in the town of Jibhi, but has now moved back to Kullu. Situated right on the side of a busy main road the children have little access to outdoor play areas although they have a limited supply of indoor games and a television. The orphanage is funded by local child welfare societies and receives a small amount of funding from local businesses.

Again we are hoping to run weekly activity sessions with this orphanage when we visit Kullu to help these children gain access to outdoor play and creative activities.

Naya Sawera, Drug and Alcohol Addiction Re-Habilitation Centre, Kullu
This centre is currently working with 38 addicts aged between ten and sixty-five years old. Most patients stay for six to seven months but some inevitably return when they have relapses. Around 90% are non- consenting admissions and are brought by family members. The centre is managed by a very dedicated team who work very hard to help straighten out the addicts under their care. Several are themselves ex-addicts and are very committed to putting the international Narcotics Anonymous re-habilitation program into action.

We hope that we will be able to help this centre either through funding or running team and confidence building activities with the patients.

Volunteers still needed!

2008-03-24T14:23:00.003+05:30

One of our aims whilst in Manali will be to get as many volunteers (both local and international) as possible involved in the project. We have a few potential volunteers arriving soon, but please send anyone you think may be interested our way! We are looking both for people who want to work directly with children, and also for people who can help with structural improvements (e.g. doing research, meeting local contacts and recruiting even more volunteers!).

Below is the piece we have written to try and get more people involved:

The Kullu project
The Kullu Project is looking for enthusiastic volunteers to take part in the project. Volunteers will work with orphans and poor children from India, Tibet and Nepal. The Kullu Project is different from Gap year agencies as there are no administrative costs. Because the project has a team living and working in the Kullu Valley, volunteers are able to work in the poorer schools that big companies overlook.

Volunteers will have the opportunity to work and exchange experience with other (local and foreign) volunteers and the chance to help children in creative and productive environments. They will be free to use individual expertise to create interesting and varied workshops within the Kullu Project’s flexible framework.

International Volunteers
For international volunteers, costs are minimal as accommodation and food in the valley are very cheap. The structure is not rigid and there are no ready made placements so there is a lot of scope for groups of volunteers to capitalise on the interests and skills of individual group members.

Central to the Kullu Project’s International Volunteer Program is Cultural Exchange. By encouraging different cultures to meet and share their traditions and ideas we can work towards greater understanding and help promote the ideas of an increasingly global community

Local Volunteers
The Kullu Project feels that the long term needs of disadvantaged children can best be met from within their own community. In 2008, we are hoping to recruit as many new volunteers as possible from the local community.

Through encouraging local volunteers to get involved we hope to strengthen local involvement with the project and increase the children’s participation within their community, helping all involved move toward sustainable solutions for deprivation and poverty. Local volunteers can get involved by giving their time and sharing their skills which will have a lasting impact in the children’s futures.

We have arrived!

2008-03-24T14:17:00.002+05:30

Having arrived in Manali, we have spent the first week or so visiting the local schools and orphanages that we are going to be working with, and compiling profiles of them all to see what they need and how we might be able to help them. We have also spent a lot of time around the table discussing our aims and vision for the project, which we have summarised below:

Our Vision
The Kullu Project was started with the intention of helping local schools and orphanages in the Kullu area. Over the years it has developed to include a number of initiatives which aim to generate new and exciting educational experiences for young people in the valley.

In 2008…
The Kullu Project is working hard to make lasting structural changes in order to become a more solid institution for its community and its volunteers. We will begin by focusing on a small number of schools and orphanages in Manali, where we will develop socially aware and educationally valuable sessions which deal specifically with the needs of each establishment. The format for the program will therefore vary, but the overall aim will be to develop ‘life skills’ for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Various subjects will be included under this theme, all of which will develop children’s basic social skills such as confidence, imagination, energy and the practical abilities needed to integrate into their community. A conjunctive aim will be to see progress in English language skills and international understanding.

Our Programmes
More specifically, the workshops will use some or all of the following areas of focus in order to impart life skills:

Performance/Drama
Creative (Art, writing, reading)
Sports/games
Discussion groups/ English workshops
First-aid and Team-building workshops
Parties and events

In addition to the focus on life skills, we will be encouraging an atmosphere of exchange during our work with the children. We recognise the importance of identifying a child’s skills and qualities as a method of building self-esteem and confidence. By encouraging children to share their skills, whether linguistic, practical or creative, we hope to inspire them to value themselves both at school and in their lives in general.

A Long Term Commitment
Once established, the structure of the programme will be in place to enable future volunteers to continue the work of the Project both in the current locations of focus and elsewhere in the local area. Part of our aim this year is to recruit both local and international volunteers to help achieve this, and concurrently we hope to establish roots in the local community that will enable the project to make a lasting impression.

Dream a Dream Foundation

2008-03-04T16:05:00.009+05:30

Our trip to the Dream a Dream Foundation in Bangalore proved to be very worthwhile. Lynn and myself (Kris) visited on the Tuesday 25th March and had a long chat with Namrata the Volunteer Manager of the project who gave us background on the project. Dream a Dream has been running for eight years and was started by 11 young volvunteers who wanted to give something back to their community. Initially this involved taking disadvantaged kids from orphanages or from hospitals for those suffering from HIV and AIDS out on day trips, for a picnic or to the cinema. Good news spread and soon enough more people wanted to get involved and the project took off to the degree that it had to formally set up as a charitable organisation in 2001. They now work with children aged 6 - 18, helping to provide them with the necessary skills for life, with the firm idea that these skills are transfered through fun learning techniques rather than a serious study environment.

They work directly with 6 partner schools and orphanages in Bangalore and have a great support from local businessed and othr NGOs and charities working in the area. They have worked with over 500 children and run a bank of 700 volunteers from within the community. Their projects involve arts and creative programs, IT programs, sports programs, social programs and mentoring. All benefit from high levels of professionalism. We were able to go along to one of the sports sessions and th kids in their official bright orange Dream a Dream foundation tracksuits certainly seemed to be having fun anihilating us at table tennis.

This gave us a lot of inspiration and ideas for ways to help take the Kullu Project forward, especially in terms of involving the local community in volunteering and hopefully sponsorship. We left with a renewed sense of enthusiasm to get moving with our task ahead and will be ready to start implementing our ideas after arrival on the 11th March in Manali.
http://dreamadream.org/

Delhi to Bangalore

2008-02-23T15:16:00.008+05:30

It is an overwhelming experience arriving in Delhi. Even if you think you are a seasoned traveller, little can prepare you for the noise, colours, smells, liveliness and poverty. Mine and Lynn's first taste of India was the taxi ride from the airport which seemed to be undertaken at breakneck speed, barely avoiding other road users including buses, cars, rickshaws, auto-rickshaws, motorbikes, bicycles and cows. The main (possibly only) traffic rule being whatever is biggest has right of way apart from the cows, which are sacred and can go anywhere.

The first few days were challenging, learning how to bargain and how to avoid the touts and shopkeepers determined to part you from your money. There is no room for politeness and you soon learn to give an abrupt 'no' or just completely ignore them. To counter this, you also meet many lovely people who will show you the way, talk to you, bring you chai (tea) and make you feel very welcome. After the initial insanity you settle into the rhythym and can take in the many sights to be seen on the never dull busstling streets.

Our first task is to visit the Dream a Dream Foundation in Bangalore, so after a few days in Delhi we boarded the 40 hour train and headed south. This is a brilliant way to travel. You stay in one place, see loads of countryside as well as having the opportunity to nap at leisure; perfect sightseeing.

We are not due to visit Dream a Dream until Monday so have taken a few days to visit Mysore, a small town (only 700,000 people) near Bangalore. The weather is incredibly hot for us but apparently cold for the locals. We have learnt how incense sticks are made and have been divulged the secret scent of CK1 perfume!
So we will head back to Bangalore on Sunday to see the project. Phil will join us on Wednesday and then it's back to Delhi to pick up the last of our team Kevan on the 7th March.

New Beginnings

2008-02-06T18:30:00.000+05:30

Well the 2008 leg of the Kullu Progect is about to begin. From the 14th of February Phil Freestone, Lynn Shuttleworth and Kris Mackay will all be in India and ready to start the project. The project is now in its fifth year and out plans are to build on all the hard work of the previous years and help to move the project forwards towards charitable status. Our plans are to advance and develop proceedures already in place, co-ordinate volunteers and have as much fun as possible in the process.

This blog is in place to allow all those interested to track our progress and all those who generously sponsored us to see what their money is contributing to. After a short stay in Delhi our first task is to visit a project in Bangalore before heading up to the valley to get down to business.

Watch this space.....