GREENING THE DESERT - A REPORT

3rd Spiti Gold Residential Project and Adventurous Journey from 7th - 23rd June 2013 at Spiti, Himachal Pradesh, A participants report

Our group of 25 Gold participants left New Delhi for Lahaul-Spiti as part of the Residential Project and Adventurous Journey on 7th June 2013 reaching Kaza on 9th June, completing the road journey by bus and jeep. Our project work started on the 10th with a briefing about Spiti and the region at the Ecosphere office.  We formed four groups, each with six participants, one instructor and one escort.  After lunch we went to Kungri village situated 25 kms from Kaza, along the Pin Valley. We stayed at the village monastery known as Ugyen Sanag Choling Monastery, Kungri, along with 70 lamas who stay there.

Over the next four days - 11th June to 14th June - we worked on the construction of a greenhouse at the project site, situated 1.5 kms from the monastery. Every day, three groups worked at the project site while one group had kitchen duty, in rotation. We made mud bricks for constructing the greenhouse and cleared away the stones.  

On 15th June we left the monastery for a trek, hoping that the mud bricks would dry while we were away. The Ecosphere team briefed us about the trek and we left for Langza which is at an altitude of 4400 metres, with a population of 137 in 33 households. From Langza we trekked to Komik village at an altitude of 4585 m, situated about 25 kms from Kaza. We had to stay in home-stays in different houses of village.

On the 16th we started our trek to Demul village at 9.30 am, but after completing 3000 m, due to heavy snowfall and high speed winds we had to return to Komik village and spent the night at the home-stay.

We spent the next day cleaning the snow from our home-stay along with the families who were hosting us. 

On 18th June, after two days of heavy snowfall, we trekked our way through Hikkim, Langza and reached Kaza, covering a distance of 17 kms in 8 hours along a mixture of snow and mud flaked roads and stones. 

We went to complete our greenhouse at the project site in Pin Valley on 20th June. We brought the dried mud bricks, and used bamboo and wood sticks as a support post like a roof truss model. We tied the bamboo and wood sticks as a support for the polythene to be used as the roof of the greenhouse. We then placed the polythene and put mud on three of its ends, the top and two sides.

And that's how we completed the greenhouse, which had a dimension of 30 x 16 feet, with 1 door, 1 window and one rooftop ventilation.

The next day - 21st June, we started out journey back to Delhi via Manali and finally reached Delhi on 23rd June 2013.

report by Sumankit Pandit

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SPECIAL PROJECTS ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY - A REPORT

5 June 2013 - 10 June 2013 at Tumling, Darjeeling

The train slowly whistled out of Kolkata station carrying a group of 23 Gold and 3 Silver aspirants, all set to complete our qualifying Adventurous Journey. The enthusiasm was unbeatable as some of us were boarding a train for the first time and some will be seeing the mountains for the first time.  We, a group of 11 Awardees from Emmanuel Ministries, 4 from All Bengal Women's Union, 2 from Sarada Math, 4 from New Market Boys School and 5 from Pavement Club, along with our instructors, reached NJP station at 11 am. After a quick breakfast at the station, we drove up to Manebhanjan in cars. The view was breath-taking. It rained all along the six-hour journey. Finally, we reached and settled down in our allotted rooms. Ashim sir took a survival session and briefed us about the Tumling trek and mountain etiquette.  

Next morning, we started our march towards Tumbling. It was doing to be difficult. The sky was cloudy and it was still raining. It didn't seem like it would stop any time soon.  Dragging our bags and ourselves, panting for breath, we reached Chitrey, three kilometres away from where we started.

The route from Maneybhanjan to Chitrey is the steepest trek. The road was covered with moss and the 'short-cuts' had been eaten up by overgrowth of bushes. After a hot cup of tea and a bite of yak-cheese, we carried on with our journey. Next stop was at Lamedhura. The trail went up and down like the waves in the ocean, and we followed it. The forest seemed unaware of our presence, blooming with bright flowers and the song of birds. We were exhausted by the time we reach Lamedhura. None of us had undertaken such a trek before. Moving slowly, we took another good three hours to reach Tumbling. The clouds cleared,-opening the lovely Singhalila Range in front of us. We stayed in the Mountain huts (Shikkar).

The next morning was fresh and clear. We started walking towards Jobari. From Jobari, one gets a good look of the Singhalila National Park. We returned, packed our bags, took lunch and set out again and trekked down to Maneybhangyang via Meghna and Chitrey. We stopped for tea at Chitrey. This time downhill, back to Manebhanjan. While walking down, the only thought that lurked in our head was 'how did we walk up all this distance?' That time we understood the true nature of the words 'pushing one-self to get to greater heights.'

Next day after having our breakfast at Maneybhangyang, we loaded our baggage on to the Landrover and made our way down to Mirik. At Mirik the participants went shopping and sight-seeing. Then we continued our journey onward to NJP and stopped in between for lunch. We arrived at New Jalpaiguri station at 2pm and all of us rested at the waiting hall till we boarded our return train. This experience will be unforgettable. None of us could have thought that we were capable of completing the trek. But we did. We pushed ourselves. We learned. We shall ever be grateful to the Award to present us with the scope to discover ourselves. 

-   As narrated by the Awardees.

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IAYP signed MoU with Punjab Government : Press Release from CM Office

CHIEF MINISTER’S OFFICE, PUNJAB

PUNJAB GOVERNMENT SIGNS MoU WITH INTERNATIONAL AWARD FOR YOUNG PEOPLE TO ENSURE OVERALL DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL STUDENTS

PREMIER SELF DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM TO BE LAUNCHED IN SRI MUKTSAR SAHIB AND BATHINDA AS PILOT PROJECT

CM REITERATES COMMITMENT OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT FOR IMPARTING QUALITY EDUCATION TO THE STUDENTS

PROGRAM TO ENABLE STUDENTS TO COMPETE GLOBALLY

Badal (Sri Muktsar Sahib), May 24-

In order to ensure the all round development of the rural students in the state, the Punjab Government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with an organization International Award for Young people to initiate a premier self development program in the Government schools.

The DPI (Schools) Mr. Kamal Kumar Garg and representative of the International Award for Young People Mr. Bivujit Mukhoty inked the MoU here today in the presence of the Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal.

Expressing happiness over the MoU the Chief Minister said that this was a leap forward towards state government’s commitment to provide quality education to the students especially of the rural areas besides ensuring their overall personality development. Mr. Badal said that in the first phase this program would be started as a Pilot project in two districts of Sri Muktsar Sahib and Bathinda, under which the organization would select 20 students each from the fourteen schools (seven schools from each districts) of these two districts. He said that these students within the age group of 14 to 25 years would be imparted training in community service, skill development, physical recreation, adventurous journey and residential recreation so as to groom their personality for competing globally. Mr. Badal said that the main aim of this program was to build the confidence of the students through motivating and training them in these fields.

The Chief Minister said that this program would go a long way not only in the personality development of the students but also in providing sustainable livelihood to them in the future. Mr. Badal said that in the current scenario the main thrust of the state government was to impart quality education to the students so that they could be capable of facing the competition across the world. He hoped that this program would not only play an important role in fulfilling the aspirations of the state government but would also help the students by opening new vistas of academic and professional training for them in the future.

The Chief Minister said that the Government schools across the state were already fully equipped with the requisite infra structure needed for implementing this program adding that the state government would extend fulsome support and co-operation to the organization for making this program a huge success. He said that after the successful accomplishment of this program in these two districts its ambit would be extended to the other districts of the state also. Mr. Badal further said that in order to facilitate the students the number of schools in every district would also be increased accordingly.

Prominent amongst those present on the occasion included Special Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Mr. KJS Cheema and Deputy Commissioner Mr. Paramjit Singh.

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IAYP SILVER TREK TO HATHIPAON

A report from Award Participants of Hopetown Girls' School, Dehra Dun

On 27th of April a group of Award Participants left for Hathipaon a hilly region. None of us had ever even imagined that a trek could so much fun and the experience of a lifetime! On reaching our destination and after having breakfast we did some physical activities like crossing the Burma bridge and a walk across the Ropeway. These were confidence building activities .

After taking some rest, we assisted the teachers in cooking lunch and had a hearty meal. Then we pitched tents, learnt navigation skills, route mapping and certain rescue techniques in order to rescue ourselves if we ever got trapped in a forest. Then we went for a long walk along some trails in the forest. On the way, we visited the late Sir George Everest's office where he used to record all information about the mountains around. He is known for having drawn the map of Hathipao.  Mount Everest has been named after him. On reaching the topmost region of the hill, we could see the lowlands below us - a beautiful sight. At night all of us sat around a bonfire and listened to 'true' ghost stories told by the people there.

The next morning we left for the Jwala Devi temple after breakfast. To reach the temple we had to climb two mountains, a trek of 8 kilometers. We were extremely fatigued by the time we managed to reach the temple and offer prayers to the Goddess. We clicked a number of pictures and then trekked back to base. In the evening we enjoyed playing some fun group games. On the last night we sat around the bonfire and chatted for a while before going to bed. 

On the last day of the trek we again managed to cook our breakfast which consisted of 'poori --aloo'. After that, we interacted with the residents of the surrounding villages. Meanwhile, a funny incident took place - Jayita (who had been tripping and falling on the trek to the temple) tripped again and fell while trying to catch a sheep! We were in splits because it was such a slight!! Finally, after conversing with the village-folk, we had our self-cooked lunch, packed our bags and left for our return journey back to Hopetown. 

Reality Check! A visit to an Orphanage Home

A report from Wynberg-Allen School, Mussoorie

Imagine a life without parents, a childhood without toys or an adolescence without the support of loved ones! Sounds frightening and disturbing, doesn't it? The Award Participants along with the students of the Wynberg-Allen School's Social Service Club became sensitized to this grim reality after their visits to some orphanages in Dehradun last year as well at the beginning of 2013.

For their recent visit, the members collected sweets, chocolates, biscuits, packets of chips, soft drinks, books and stationery items. They visited the First Orphanage and distributed all the items they had collected during an interactive session with residents. During this session, the children shared their interests with the students and sang songs for them. They were impressed to hear the older children of the orphanage converse in English. Mr Deepak, who runs the orphanage, shared with the students some unhappy circumstances that had accompanied the arrival of the children at the orphanage. One child had been abandoned by the villagers at their doorstep and another had been miraculously rescued from human trafficking. 

Every Saturday the Social Service Club of Wynberg-Allen visits some orphanage and donates items of use. They have visited the Cheshire Homes, Doon Blind School and the Doon Orphanage for Girls during their most recent visits. In addition to being an eye opener, these visits have made the students more appreciative of the numerous blessings they so freely enjoy and take for granted. 

Madhav Bharadwaj