You Matter: A New Space for Community Wellbeing in Bankhandi

On 9 October 2026, on the eve of World Mental Health Day, a consultation and partnership meeting in Bankhandi marked the launch of the Maple Leaf Healthcare & Wellbeing Centre. The gathering brought the focus to community health, psychosocial wellbeing and the relationships that help people feel heard and supported.

Participants at the consultation and partnership meeting marking the launch in Bankhandi.

Listening, inclusion and connection

“You Matter” is the message at the heart of the centre: your voice, your dignity and your wellbeing. Its launch material brings together three simple commitments — listen to lived experience, shape support together and build community connections. These offer a starting point for a welcoming space where people can speak about their concerns and take part in shaping support.

The centre’s message: You Matter — listen, include and connect.

A partnership rooted in community

The centre is to be developed and managed by EduCARE India in partnership with Maple Leaf Hospital, Kangra, and the Department of Social Work at the Central University of Himachal Pradesh. The launch consultation connected social work and community development with health, wellbeing and resilience.

The launch banner sets out the focus on community health, wellbeing and resilience.

Supporting children, young people and families

The announced focus includes children’s and young people’s social-emotional skills, early support for developmental and mental health concerns, psychosocial wellbeing, conflict resolution and addiction prevention. These priorities set the direction for the centre as its activities develop.

A discussion during the consultation and partnership meeting.

Learning and contributing together

Volunteers, interns and students will work alongside doctors and guest resource persons. The centre offers a setting for connecting learning with community participation, with an emphasis on listening, inclusion and practical support. Future plans include de-addiction and rehabilitation support; these are part of the proposed development of the centre.

A shared moment at the Bankhandi launch gathering.

An invitation to take part

For students, volunteers and potential partners, this initiative opens a conversation about how each can contribute to community wellbeing. To learn more about EduCARE India and opportunities to get involved, visit educare.in.

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#educare #india #NGO #Mental #Health #psychosocialsupport #internship #volunteer #mapleleaf #CUHP #social-work#MSW 

Launch of Kangra Gardens initiative - Kangra Botanical Garden

Mr Kiran Topiwala aka Lathiwala modern Gandhi (MA Development Practice, Emory University, USA) has worked hard on the Kangra Gardens design.

Kangra Botanical Garden is the central project of Kangra Gardens and aims to embody everything Kangra Gardens stands for. In this way, it help to not only integrate various EduCARE India projects related to biodiversity, nature and environment conservation, environment consciousness, eco-enterprises, botanics, ayurveda and naturopathy for wellness, sustainable eco-tourism, but will also be a home for them.

Kiran, Sudhakar and Om Prakash working on to create a vege patch

Shabnam relaxing after a garden work bout 

The botanical garden has various purposes:

• To regenerate the ecosystem and promote the conservation of biodiversity
• To support community health and build towards food security and nutrition
• To engage people in connecting better with the environment

Mr Ashish, the Pharma in the Farmer mode.  

 

Creating a Task-force of Youth Volunteers for Disaster Risk Reduction and Emergency Response Preparedness

EduCARE India chose to scale down most of its projects to focus on covid-19 response in early 2020. The NGO continued to invest heavily on mobilising youth volunteers for Creating a Task-force of Youth Volunteers for Disaster Risk Reduction and Emergency Response Preparedness. 

Through early 2020 to early 2022, a total of about 5000 volunteers were trained in various skill-sets (Basic Fundamentals of Disaster Management, Volunteering, Emergency First Aid, Search and Rescue, Basic Fire Fighting) at our  Centre for Environment, Health and Safety at Kangra in association with Disaster Management Authority and the Red Cross Society. 

Some of these volunteers then went for a 2-week Advanced Search and Rescue course to Regional Mountaineering Centre, while a few select others were then sent for  advanced training to NDRF (National Disaster Response Force for their ToT (Training of Trainers) on CSSR (Collapsed Structure Search and Rescue).

COVID-19 Response and Expansion of Medical and Healthcare Outreach initiatives

 

EduCARE India has been providing volunteer support services to local Red Cross and a charity hospital during COVID-19 pandemic response in capacity building and strategic initiatives, including infrastructural development, community kitchen, new strategic initiatives, training and development,  community disaster education, and emergency first aid.

EduCARE India volunteers and international students in internship, namely Freja from Denmark and Julia from Netherlands had initiated a "Kangra Fights Corona" initiative in the initial weeks of the lockdown in March and April 2020 while working at our Centre for Environment, Health and Safety set up in partnership with local Red Cross, Disaster Management Authority, and Maple Leaf Hospital. This initiative aimed to spread message of community mobilisation for support to vulnerable individuals and families and spreading positivity and hope during the initial days of panic and chaos of coronavirus/covid-19 pandemic response.

Later this initiative was merged into another initiative - SEHAT SEVA (Social-care Empowerment, Health Advocacy and Telemedicine through Social Entrepreneurship and Volunteer Action) that EduCARE India had started working on to deliver public health and medical outreach services to needy and elders at home during the lockdowns with support of our various stakeholders - Red Cross, Emergency Operations Centre, Block Medical Office, and Maple Leaf Hospital.

A "Red Cross Psycho-social Support Centre" was also established to help the stuck up international and national tourists and the migrants in distress.

A residential "De-addiction and Rehabilitation Centre" was re-started to meet the rising needs of the patients.

A Community Kitchen was started in support of the visiting patients, and launched an online charity heritage auction to help the charity hospital raise funds.

Awareness visits were facilitated for frontline health-workers and Corona warriors.

Some of the disused hospital facilities were refurbished to prepare for possible rising emergency admissions at the hospital medical facilities.

Engaged and facilitated several national and overseas international students and young professionals for online volunteer work and internships in support of ongoing work and their academic fieldwork certificate and experiential learning needs.

Organised several workshops, seminars and workshops in support of some of the causes and sustainable development goals.

Launched setting up of a "Regional Centre for Geriatrics and Elderly Care" on the International Day for Older Persons, and committed 10% seed funding / social investment from EduCARE India and its affiliates to this cause.

Committed to set up about 1000+ SEHAT SEVA Centres / SEHAT SEVA Centres for the need of rural population in emergency times and for home health aide of the needy and elderly and in recovery patients in the normal times,

 

Kangra Fights Corona - a local platform for FIGHTING the coronavirus / covid-19 pandemic and response crisis with messages of HOPE & POSITIVE SPIRIT.

Kangra Fights Corona is a local platform for FIGHTING the coronavirus / covid-19 pandemic and response crisis with messages of HOPE & POSITIVE SPIRIT.

by

Freja Bang Rasmussen (Denmark) and Julia Joana (Netherlands)

March-April 2020

.

------------------WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER------------------

.

(Hindi below)

This is the time for the people to stand together and FIGHT THIS CORONA-VIRUS!

.

Kangra Fights Corona is for all citizens of Kangra District. This is a platform to share videos and other posts to create the positive fighting spirit Kangra needs, during these 21 days lockdown.

.

IN THE TIME OF CRISIS - WE ALL NEED TO:

BE clever

BE positive

BE supportive

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

इस फेसबुक समूह / ग्रुप के बारे में:

कांगड़ा फाइट्स कोरोना आशा और सकारात्मक भावना के संदेशों के साथ कोरोना-संकट से लड़ने के लिए एक स्थानीय मंच है

------------------ हम सभ इसमें एक साथ शामिल हैं ----------------

यह लोगों के एक साथ खड़े होने का समय है और इस संघर्ष को बढ़ावा दें!

कांगड़ा फाइट्स कोरोना, कांगड़ा जिले के सभी नागरिकों के लिए है। यह कोरोना वायरस से संबंधित लॉकडाउन के दौरान सकारात्मक लड़ाई की भावना कांगड़ा की जरूरत पैदा करने के लिए वीडियो और अन्य पोस्ट साझा करने का एक मंच है।

आपदा के समय में आवश्यकता है कि हम :

चालाक बने

सकारात्मक रहें

सहायक बनो

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Gender Equality Day

Accelerating Employability and Equality

THE RESILIENCE OF TIBETANS - 

A LOOK FROM MCLEOD GANJ

DHARAMSHALA

As I have travelled through India I have been intrigued with how resilient the Tibetan people are and have been through out history. I will leave the deep seeded historical details for academic historians, who have more knowledge that I, to write about.

My interest comes more from a social and community interest and peeked more as I have been staying in Dharamshala, McCloud Ganj, the location of the Dahli Lama and the Tibetan exiled government in India.

This is recent history, I was barely a toddler in Canada when this was going on. Following a decade of political turmoil which started with the invasion of China into Tibet, the Chinese overthrew the Tibetan government. The Dhali Lama, on a self imposed exile, took refuge in India, with his government and over 100000 Tibetan people following.

This year marks 60 years since the Tibetan government went to India in exile, and during these six decades over a million Tibetan people have been killed, and hundreds of thousands of women have been killed, sterilized or forced into abortion, by the Chinese government. Many Tibetan citizens have been murdered for speaking out, in their own country, which continues to be under Communist Chinese rule with no freedom of religion, speech, or press.
Somewhere in the neighbourhood of 6000 Tibetan monasteries have been since obliterated by the Chinese and they have harvested the Tibetan natural resources to near depletion. Over 80% of the Tibetan forests have been destroyed, and large amounts nuclear and toxic waste have been disposed of in Tibet, the starting point for all 10 major rivers that run through the rest of Asia.

The turmoil of the 50’s you would think would be insurmountable but the Tibetan people are not only physically resilient from living in such high mountains with such difficult conditions they appear to be mentally resilient too, to have survived such torture and loss in their country, invaded by China. But it has gotten worse, since that time. The Chinese government policies have almost completely destroyed the Tibetan culture in Tibet. Chinese is now the official language of Tibet and only one in seven people are Tibetan, with the number of Tibetan people continuing to plummet.

The Norbulingka Institute – textile learning.

In India, the Tibetan people face unreasonable economic and social circumstances. They have not been able to identify as refugees, which they are, but rather on paper, in India, Tibetan people are considered as foreigners. They are not allowed to hold government employment and in some cases Universities will not allow Tibetan refugees to enrol. Some say this is the Indian Government’s way of being sensitive to not try to assimilate the Tibetan people. Some Tibetan people living in India say not having citizenship in India causes extreme difficulties when trying to migrate as many countries are not open to refugees from Tibet, while others stay in India and strive to keep their culture alive. Even with unspoken pressure (from family and friends) to take refuge in other countries can be overwhelming to some Tibetan refugees in India.
I visited the Tibetan Cultural centre a few weeks ago and I was truly impressed with how that institute continues to teach Tibetan culture so that the younger generation can carry on. The young people attending that institution were amazing, not only with their craft but their philosophy of working toward a better future while continuing to highlight the Tibetan culture.

Norbulingka Institute – crafts painting room

The Dahli Lama, the spiritual and political leader of Tibetans, an icon, in this world, has and continues to carry the message of peace, supporting and blessing hundreds of initiatives to make life better for the people of this world. Locally, in India, he brings this message concentrated for Indians and Tibetans alike. In fact the Dahli Lama calls India his second home. The Dahli Lama’s foundation has contributed one half a million Indian Rupees to the Indian Medical Association’s facilities.
Recently the Women’s association of Dharamshala has worked with the Tibetan Nun’s on the issue of taxi safety by creating a Woman’s Taxi Service, Pink Wheels Taxi. This service should be available within the year in McLeod Ganj, where most of the Nun’s require taxi service. The Dahli Lama has blessed this initiative.

• 

  Inside the Tebetan temple located inside the Institute’s grounds.

I have spent the last few months travelling in Asia and have met and seen people in some very impoverished, overwhelming circumstances but the Tibetan people in India, also in some very impoverished circumstances, seem to have a way to make you feel like there is hope for all of the world. It seems through the belief and blessings of the Dahli Lama, they manage to carry on, in spite of the physical and emotional scares from the past.

I have enjoyed my time in India and will miss the cultural experiences and my new found friends when I leave. I would like to come back to India and take a more exploratory look at the Tibetan’s plight as refugees.

Leann, July 2019