Good harvest

Jeet in Spiti says the barley harvest has been great this year. The weather is lovely blue sky - bright sunshine.  The work is now over and its party time, weddings, birthdays, and a time for celebration before the winter sets in.

Water pump in Mane village

Our Water Pump  Project is going well. Now that the harvest is over the villagers  of Upper Mane are working to finish digging the trench for the water pipes before the land freezes for winter.  This covers a distance of 320 meters up a steep hill. We hope this will ease the water collection in winter for  the 450 people of the village.
We are waiting for the paperwork to be completed on land in Kaza where The Spiti Projects plan to build a Solar Eco Community Centre. This is a very exciting project requested by the local people who would like a place to go in the winter for meetings, special functions and entertainment.
The plans will drawn up by the Auroville Earth Institute in south India and will be built in local traditional style. More news soon

Spiti Visit

We are just back from Spiti, the roads at the Rhotang Pass are still bad. Spiti Projects were fortunate to have the Hertfordshire & Essex High School helping with our Water Pump Project in Upper Mane village. The students came for a week and were fantastic, they dug 4ft deep trenches for the water pipes to be laid. The temperature was 40C much of the time, hot  humid and dusty, but everyone worked with great enthusiasm and humour. We would like to say a huge thank you to you all for your sterling work and valuable contribution to this project.

After much discussion we have aquired land in Kaza to build a Community Centre for the people of the Spiti valley. This is being sponsored by Adventure Ashram  we will be able to tell you more when the plan is complete. We hope to start the building of the foundations before the winter sets in.

The Government has agreed for land to be leased near the sports ground in New Kaza for us to build a new hostel for 36 girls. This is for the Kachen Dugyal Memorial Girls Hostel.  The new building will enable more girls to have a secondary education and will give them the opportunity to go on to collage to complete their education. www.spitivalley.wordpress.com

Our Child Sponsorship Programme for educating children from poor families continues to grow. This is such a rewarding thing to do, the young students are so enthusiastic and seem to grow in confidence and enjoy their school life.

We took out over 100 sweaters for the children, knitted by kind people from all over the UK. They are much appreciated by the parents who are busy farming for the next winter's food supply.
Four more bags of sweaters will be travelling to Spiti with Global Enduro leaving Heathrow fist thing tomorrow morning.

Water Pump

I'm all packed and heading off to Spiti tmrw to start a new project in Upper Mani Village, to install a water pump for the people of the village. We are hoping for blue skies and clear roads.

We are also very excited to be working with the students from the Hertfordshire and Essex High School and Science College who will be coming to Spiti to help dig trenches for the water pipes.

 

Gratitude

Spiti Projects had a very successful fundraiser on the 12th June, despite the rainy weather. The pre-lunch drinks were sponsored by Mr Yasin Zargar of Indus Travel which got everyone in a generous mood. We had an excellent Thali Lunch, Masala Zone in Fulham did us proud. The funds raised from the afternoon will contribute to the new clinic, which is to be part of the new community centre Spiti Projects is planning to build with the generous support of Adventure Ashram. On behalf of the board of Spiti Projects I would like to thank all those involved. We are a totally voluntary run organisation and without your generous support we wouldn't be able to do the work that we do.

Joan the founder of Spiti Projects is leaving for Spiti at the beginning of July to put plans in motion. July is a very busy time for the people of the Spiti Valley. Their main cash crop of peas will be  harvested and trucked to Delhi for distribution. Unfortunately it will be a lean harvest because the late snows and freezing temperatures delayed planting well into May. So your generosity will be much appreciated.

The Spiti Projects - Curry Lunch

The Spiti Projects has decided to postpone William Dalrymple's talk until 2012 and launch the publication of his new book with a wonderful evening at the RGS.

 In the meantime I do hope you will come and join us for a lovely Spiti curry lunch at the Masala Zone in Fulham on June 12th 2011, at 12.30pm.

To make a reservation please contact Asiya at Indus Travel - Tel: 020 8901 7437, asiya@industours.co.uk

Snowing in Spiti

I spoke to a friend in Kaza today, it was snowing at the time. This has upset the farmers as they are preparing the land to plant peas, their mail cash crop.

Chairman of Spiti Projects is about to travel to Kaza to plan our summer projects.  An architect wiil accompany her with a view of designing a community centre for local people in Kaza. We are purchasing land to offer a facility  for a clinic,  a craft centre to promote the local style of shawl, a library to record local information and a coffee shop as a meeting place for local people and travellers alike.
 
 To help pay for this we have organised a Charity Indian Curry Lunch on 12th June at Masala Zone Fulham Broadway London. Please book while places are still available. contact asiya@industours.co.uk

www.Spiti.org