There is something about Christmas that makes us become friendlier, selfless and kinder towards the poor and vulnerable in the society.
Keeping the Christmas spirit alive, Asians charitable organisations belonging to different faiths and religions have come forward to spread happiness and benevolence by generously contributing their time, money and energy to pay back to the disadvantaged in London and Midlands in UK.
Jasvir Singh, Chairman of City Sikhs, a charitable organisation of the Sikh Community working for the underprivileged told Asian Voice “individual volunteers from our group will be volunteering in Crisis Centres around London and the Midlands during Christmas.”
Rubeena Kaur Mehat, one of the Ambassadors for City Sikhs organised a donation drive for the homeless. The donation was made to Coventry Cyrenians on the 19 December, to be distributed on Christmas day.
Essential winter clothing, over 200 pairs of socks and gloves; unperishable food items like cases of beans, sugar, squash, tea bags, chocolate bars and energy drinks have been donated for the poor in London and Midlands.
The Khalsa Aid, another charity run by the Sikh community in UK have been volunteering for the crisis in war-torn areas of Syria, Iraq through donations and by kind.
“Christmas is a challenging time of the year for the susceptible and weaker sections and we encourage our volunteers and ambassadors to provide support in their individual and collective capacity,” said Jasvir.
According to the Hindu priest late Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj of the Swaminarayan Temple at Neasden, “In the joy of others lies our own.”
Keeping up with this Hindu spirit of giving, “the Swaminarayan Temple’s charity is supporting the national charity for the homeless CRISIS,” said Yogen Shah a volunteer with the Swaminarayan Temple. “Ten packs full of new winter and regular clothes has been collected and will be donated on Christmas day,” he said.
City Hindus Network’s (CHS) Charity has been involved in two big seva projects this winter.
According to Vice Chairman Neel Patani “first we partnered with AMURT, to feed the homeless – serving hot vegetarian meals to over 500 people in need.”
“Second CHN assisted ‘Wrap-Up London’ with their annual coat collection campaign, in order to collect warm coats and distribute to London’s most vulnerable people during the winter months,” said Neel.
The ‘Wrap Up London’ initiative have collected over 20,000 coats, to be sorted and distributed this winter.
The joys of giving during this season seems to be deeply embedded in the Asian community as a whole.
Seven-year-old Arush Anand, an Indian origin Year 3 student at Nottingham High School came in the news recently when he was asked to write a letter to Santa at school.
His teacher was taken aback by the heartfelt letter that said “the only thing I want for Christmas is peace, like in Syria. Please give money to charities. PS: Don’t give me anything else,” he wrote in his school assignment.
Incidentally, Easter was the main Christian holiday and Christmas developed from the tradition of giving gifts to the poor and the following Boxing day when gift boxes were opened and people shared the joy of giving.
Christmas is all about the spirit of giving and an attitude of the heart that cuts across religion, races and social boundaries. It is a time to show your gratitude to the saviour – Lord Jesus and the Asian community, like always has come together to contribute and get their karma right in this festive season.
