Sikhs For Haiti

Sikhs 4 Haiti

When news first struck about Haiti and what had happened there, I’m sure like many others I was compelled to ask the obvious question, what could I do to help? I looked at the charities involved in the Haitian relief effort, and noticed instantly the large number of Christian and jewish aid groups, and even reading about Scientologists who were getting in on the charitable effort. When looking at the list though I couldn’t help but wonder if we’d ever see any “Sikh” charities make the list, or hear about Sikhs making any sort of contribution to the effort. I suppose, because we see the world as a reflection of ourselves, I brushed away the idea of ever seeing any notable Sikh contribution, to not only Haiti but in general towards any global relief effort.

Fortunately I was surprised to learn that the Sikh community in BC, had donated collectively $1.5 million. Almost triple what one of Toronto’s top radio stations was able to raise in their own day long marathon. Impressive no doubt. Even more surprising was learning of the Singhs who left from Brampton to be in Haiti under the United Sikhs banner, doing langar di seva, and realized that just because I wasn’t able to take action, that didn’t mean our community wouldn’t.

To that end, there’s a great sense of pride in knowing that even more Sikhs from BC are currently heading down to Haiti to also take part and help out where they can. Japnaam Singh, Avneet Kaur, Ramneet Kaur, Manraaj Kaur, Sukhminder Singh and Sukhpreet Singh all plan on doing what they can to help out the Hatian people, indirectly also promoting Sikhi to the world. They’ve setup a blog (http:///www.haitiblog.ca) where we’ll be able to follow them on their journey. Hopefully everyone can keep an eye out for ‘em and likewise be inspired to help as they do. For those interested in heading out and being part of the front lines then drop an email to helphaiti@gnsg.ca, since they are currently putting together a second team that will also be heading out.

When news first struck about Haiti and what had happened there, I’m sure like many others I was compelled to ask the obvious question, what could I do to help? I looked at the charities involved in the Haitian relief effort, and noticed instantly the large number of Christian and Jewish aid groups, and even reading about Scientologists who were getting in on the charitable effort. When looking at the list though I couldn’t help but wonder if we’d ever see any “Sikh” charities make the list, or hear about Sikhs making any sort of contribution to the effort. I suppose, because we see the world as a reflection of ourselves, I brushed away the idea of ever seeing any notable Sikh contribution to not only Haiti, but in general towards any global relief effort.

Fortunately I was surprised to learn that the Sikh community in BC had donated collectively $1.5 million. Almost triple what one of Toronto’s top radio stations was able to raise in their own day long marathon. Impressive no doubt. Even more surprising was learning of the Singhs who were in Haiti under the United Sikhs banner, doing langar di seva, and realized that just because I wasn’t able to take action that didn’t mean our community wouldn’t.

Tagged: aid, haiti, Sikh, united sikhs, volunteer

Shinda & Company

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