Nishtha – Rural Health, Education and Environment Center

The Nishtha Rural Health, Education and Environment Centre is a non-governmental organisation nearby Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh, India . The preferential target is the improvement of life conditions of the rural population, especially of women and children.

In the Nishtha clinic approximately 30 patients are treated daily. The patient database includes meantime over 5,000 patients of the region. As Nishtha is pursuing an integral philosophy, allopathy in addition to homeopathy, Ayurveda as well as acupuncture and curative massages are utilised for treatment. Many of the patients are unmated women, migrant labourers and “sadhus” (wandering monks). The treatment is for them free of cost and furthermore medical as well as laboratory or other check-up expenses are refunded.

The Nishtha community centre shelters a library, a computer room and a big Community Hall, in which meetings of single women organisations as well as cultural programmes and sewing courses are held. Moreover, there are enough accommodations for long-time patients who need a special care all the time and should be integrated more in the actions in the community centre. A further guest room is available for course instructors or for guests of the clinic. Environmental themes are especially discussed in the youth club that organises periodical cleaning days and plants new trees in the village one time per year.

History

Nishtha was founded by the Viennese physician Dr. Barbara Nath-Wiser, living in India, in the thoughts of her deceased husband. In the year 2004 the community centre was built beside the clinic. Since that time, courses and various events as well as workshops for woman’s rights, self-help, health and environment are increasingly taking place.

Since 2002 the Austrian Service Abroad delegates regularly servers abroad to Nishtha, who serve their service abroad within a yearlong social programme.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 5/13/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.