News from India: January - February 2024

Shashi Kiran Charitable Trust travelled to Assam for the Mooncatcher Project- we flew into Guwahati and then took a three hour car ride to reach Nalbari in Northern Inda. Needless to say it was quite exhausting, lots of traffic and traveling on dirt roads. Below are some photos we took in this rural area..

Next morning , our first stop was a school where we had previously  distributed  our kits. We got a chance to collect feedback regarding our workshop and kits.  I spoke with two teachers , they said the kits were being used by the girls who found them very effective. In Assam there is no shortage of water, so caring for the pads is easy. We also got to speak to some of the girls, they were very shy.  They did convey that they found the kits useful.  In this school we did the workshop for the new students and distributed  more kits.

We stopped at one more school for feedback and then proceeded to a new school.

This is an area where income is extremely low. The homes are basic hut structures and almost all have a little pond to cultivate fish, a coconut tree and a supari  tree along with a tiny patch to grow vegetables.

Life here moves at a very slow pace. No one is in a hurry. In the schools even though we had appointments set up, we ended up waiting while they got ready. Assamese is the local language, some of the girls spoke Hindi but very few spoke English.

Over three days we visited five schools, one of the schools had just 30 students, 10 of which were girls. The principal there was very grateful for us doing the workshop. He said since his school was so small it tends to get left out.

In all it was a great experience, a completely different part of India from New Delhi where we are based.  Beautiful landscape,  people here live with very little and yet seem happy.

Our kits are of much use in these areas, however the transportation costs have gone up a lot since Covid and many NGOs have lost funds. There is added cost in transporting to the remote schools.

We were supposed to do a community workshop at a tea estate which got cancelled at the last minute due to an accident in the property.

In Chattisgarh  our partner Harish Kumar has been  conducting MHM workshops.  He is slowly moving through the block Manpur trying to get to every school.  We here planning a visit  which was put on hold due to some  weather issues. Here too it is all dirt roads.

In recent weeks, we have been running  MHM workshops in and around Delhi.

A great experience was working with  6th grade schoolgirls, only a couple of them had started their period. It truly was the most informative  session. The girls listened with rapt attention and had lots of questions.  They were excited to tell their mothers about their new found knowledge. 

For March in we are continuing our workshops. Also hope to run a workshop for training women on making the pads.