Tara with SIHI

Activities of SIHI

May 21 : The SIHI group was invited as honoured guests at Mrs. Suchitra’s house. They were welcomed with the traditional tika ritual, then shared stories of their families, had a delicious lunch, and played some games. After this fun afternoon, they once again ventured out to Rajpur Road bazaar for an evening of shopping, circus visits, and religious observations. On the way back to Samagra, the students joined a jagran – an all-night prayer celebration – for a taste of local culture and festivities first hand. The students enjoyed the lights, canopies, decorations, and live music.

May 22 : The group viewed a presentation about Samagra’s current and past endeavours for the community, then spent the rest of the day packing, doing laundry, and preparing for their week at SIDH.

Activities of SIHI

May 19 : The SIHI group visited a school in Smith Nagar colony to observe and learn about their regular day school and their afternoon tuition classes, sponsored by Samagra for underprivileged children. After lunch, the SIHI girls got a change to try on Indian wedding jewelry.

May 20 :This day was a rest day in preparation for the group’s week at SIDH (Society for Integrated Development of the Himalayas). Some of the SIHI group students joined Akanksha at her dance class.

Activities of SIHI

May 18: The SIHI students visited Uttarakhand State Solar Park where several interactive exhibits introduced solar power, biogas, wind energy, and electricity generated by mechanical work (human movement). They also visited Indresh Hospital – a charitable hospital located in Dehradun that is committed to low cost, high quality care. There, the students met with an audiologist, an ear-nose-and-throat doctor, and a child psychologist.

Activities of SIHI

15Th May: The day was assigned for local site seeing in and around Dehradun. During morning SIHI visited the Tapkeshwar Shiv Temple which situated on the banks of a rivulet, in the Garhi Cantt. Area. and is named Tapkeshwar as water droplets, originating from a rock, fall on the Shivling placed in the shrine.

In evening SIHI went to the Mindrolling Monastery which is one of the largest Buddhist centers in existence today and exhibits architectural marvel. A center of excellence, this monastery is dedicated to learn the Buddhist scriptures and other fields of academic interest such as Tibetan lunar calendar, astronomy, Traditional Tibetan medicine and calligraphy.

16th May: SIHI started the day by collage making activity. Everybody used their imagination and creativity to portray their experiences in India till now. In the evening they had an interactive session with Dr. Dheeraj Goyal (Homeopath).

17Th May: SIHI visited two sewing training centers run by Samagra in Telpur and Baniawala, interacted with the ladies and also saw some samples made by them. Then they went to Gurukul situated in Pondha, Dehradun. There they learnt about the Gurukul system of education of ancient India. They also took part in the Yagya, which is performed by the students of the Gurukul daily followed by a dinner with the students.

Activities of SIHI

14th May: SIHI started the day by visiting the Forest Research Institute of India (FRI). First they met Mr. Ratoori from the NGO, Pramukh, which is involved in garbage cleaning activities around the city and learned about their activities in detail. Then they visited the Museum located at the FRI.

Activities of SIHI (13th May)

The SIHI visited to Mr. Ramlal's place. Mr. Ramlal is a social activist who is a part of the Jan Sanchar organization which is involved in spreading awareness in the society through the medium of puppetry, theater , folk dances etc. SIHI had an interactive session with Mr. Ramlal , learned about puppetry and also made a few puppets.