Tsunami Relief 1
* American Sikhs work in South India with UNITED SIKHS
* Kundalini Yoga Teachers work in Thailand
Sat Bir, Hargobind (Beant's son,) and I (Hargobind) are in South India on our way to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It has been quite an incredible trip so far. We spent a day in Dubai and arrived in Chennai two days later. We met up with two great guys, Navneet Singh Narula from Atlanta and Bhai Esher Singh, from Hyderabad. They are real movers and really committed to the mission of UNITED SIKHS. Yesterday we met with an Army Colonel in charge of equipment in Chennai where they arranged for the purchase of supplies.
We then met with the Governor of Tamil Nadu and showed him exclusive footage of Campbell Bay, produced by Bhai Esher Singh, who conducted interviews and shot footage of what he saw. It was absolutely destroyed. The infrastructure is shot, thousands of people died and many parts of these islands need to be rebuilt from the ground up. What took these people 40 years to build was destroyed in 5 minutes. After seeing the footage, the governor pledged his full support for our efforts. The governor also expressed his admiration for Siri Singh Sahib, calling him a man of incredible faith.
We are involved in four projects on site. 1) Construction of a saw mill 2) Building temporary shelters 3) Cleaning up the flooded and partially washed out Gurdwara 4) Kirtan and healing for adults, and sports and games for the children. We are amassing all types of supplies here in Chennai. Some of us will go by helicopter on Monday and some of us with the ship on Wednesday and one of our team will stay here in Madras to coordinate from here. We have been extremely well-received and there is widespread support for what we are doing. In addition to UNITED SIKHS, thanks to Raj Khalsa Gurdwara, Sher Singh and Shield Foundation for making this possible.
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It feels like we have been gone for months already. It was a wild little ride to get to Campbell Bay. Our numbers keep growing and on the ship ride we met many people returning to Campbell Bay. Compared to where we are now, the ship was first class. This place is pretty wrecked. There is debris all over the place. All the drainage systems along the ocean front have been destroyed. Streets are washed out in many areas. The coastline has been altered by hundreds of feet in many places. We are in stage two of the reconstruction. We have five sponsors in the UK who have agreed to pay for five children through college who have lost their parents. We do Rehiras, yoga and some Sat Nam Rasayan with people. In a lot of small ways we will have a big impact. Keep in touch. Hargobind.
GHANAIA is an international relief effort, established by UNITED SIKHS in 2003 to provide impartial, non-partisan aid and assistance to victims in disaster situations. GHANAIA stands for Giving Humanitarian Aid, Necessities, and Assistance Impartially to All and is inspired by the Sikh saint, Bhai Ghanaia Ji, who served in the army of the 10th Sikh Enlightener, Guru Gobind Singh Ji, and gave water and medicine to ailing war soldiers and victims without prejudice, seeing the same God in all beings. www.unitedsikhs.org/ghanaia