SIHI students are with Dr. Sachin Srivastva in Harbartpur Vikasnagar 

'Samagra' team with Ms. Suchitra  inaugurated  a new Cutting and sewing program in a slum called Shastri Nagar Khala. Total 21 girls and women have joined this program.  All the trainees come from very poor socioeconomic section but most of them are studying in schools and want to be self dependent to lead a life with dignity on interesting their about their teacher has Renu is that she is the bread earner to the family because her father who used to work as a Gardener is no more til to do this work.  As she is the oldest child and earning bread through working as a lady tailor from home only.

Opening Cermony at Sewing centre Ladpur

These are photos from the opening activities for a sewing program in the Ladpur slum.  Samagra's fieldworkers have already spent a few months talking to the women and girls who are participating in the program.  Today's program was the orientation for the program itself in which Suchitra went over the overall structure and the specifics of how the program would operate (eg finding a place to hold the classes).  Having Suchitra run the orientation helps show the participants that Samagra is committed to the classes it's offering.  I've posted more thoughts on the SIHI 2013 blog (link to the right).

-Simon

SIHI VISITS TIBETAN VILLAGE AND KKM.

Today was a busy day for the SIHI group. We first visited a Tibetan Village, where we briefly talked with the director of the community about the history of Tibetan refugees in India. We learned about the development of the colony, a brief history of Tibetan refugees in India, how their school system worked, and visited their temple.  In the afternoon we visited KKM, a colony for people who have been treated for leprosy.  They too make handicrafts to both provide them with something to do, provide them with dignity, and to increase their income.  Their colony had children, with whom we played a bit of cricket.  We purchased a few of the handicrafts they made as well.  

-Jae and Simon

This is a Tibetan woman weaving at the refugee colony we visited.  They practice traditional handicrafts to provide work that builds their dignity and supplements their income.  

This is us outside the temple in the Tibetan colony.

Sarah, our star cricket player.  

Jae, focusing intently on the ball.

Link to SIHI 2013 Blog

The link to the SIHI 2013 blog is up on the side bar under Related Links. The students are posting their thoughts and experiences while in India pretty regularly!

Puppet show at Samagra Centre.

Behind the curtains..

Ramlal talking with SIHI

Puppets made by SIHI

Puppets behind the Curtains..

Today was a very interesting day. We met with Ramlal who is a well-known 4th generation puppeteer. We learned the value of proper communication and how it has changed over the years with the advancement of technology. Then we learned how to create our own puppets out of newspapers. We all made different animals, such as birds, a monkey, and an elephant. We then painted them with bright acrylic paint. We also painted a pre-made paper mache puppet face that Ramlal made for us and dressed them in gowns. We received help from a few Samagra children. We then created a story called Friendships of the World and we performed it for the Samagra guests. We want to thank Abhishek for helping us with the music. The children really seemed to enjoy our skit, especially when the puppets danced to the music.
- Christina and Nancy

SIHI students are teaching the children at SAMAGRA centre

SIHI VISITS TO RISHIKESH AND HARIDWAR

Clean Himalayas

SIHI on the boat

SIHI at Chotiwala

Ganga River

The above photos are from our visit to Rishikesh and Haridwar for the past 3 days. Rishikesh is a beautiful city on the banks of the Ganges (Ganga), a holy city considered to be the gateway to the Himalayas. We took a trip upstream to see some caves, and stopped for a bit to dip our feet into the Ganges. We visited a number of temples and did some shopping in the city. We met with Bill and Susan, two Canadians who live in Rishikesh. Susan works with Clean Himalayas, which works to clean up some of the garbage in the area. on Friday morning, we helped Clean Himalayas clean up a section of road. During our stay, we stayed in a traditional style ashram. Our room had a traditional style washroom as well as a Western style one. It came complete with a traditional style dinning room, with signs (that were fully ignored) telling us to eat in silence.  The seating of course was on the floor.  I'm not sure any of us are quite sure what most of the food we ate was there was.  The fruit we had for the first breakfast was delicious, except it ran out and not all of us got some. Although we didn't see the elephants on our trip, we did see monkeys, cows, and monks (unusual sights for us!).  We also saw plenty of other vehicles from our car - so many that we got to experience a traditional Indian traffic jam.

Aarti at Rishikesh

Lord Shiva

Yajna at Samagra Centre with SIHI..

Today we attended the Yajna Ceremony at 4:00 pm. It is a celebration on the first Monday of every month.  It was a very exciting experience as we learned more about Indian culture. Women and children also attended at Samagra.
- Christina and Nancy