Last Sunday teams of volunteers from Stanmore and Canons Park Synagogue and the Shree Swaminarayan Temple joined together to transform the gardens surrounding one of the UK’s leading spinal injury units.
The gardens which surround the London Spinal Cord Injury Centre at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore are used by numerous patients every year as part of their rehabilitation. In recent years the gardens have been neglected and had become quite overgrown.
The hospital approached Stanmore and Canons Park Synagogue for help. They then worked with their local Councillor Ameet Jogia who connected the synagogue to the local Hindu community.
Every November Stanmore Synagogue takes part in Mitzvah (do a good deed) Day, the Jewish community’s national campaign for social action.
The local team decided to tackle the hospital garden by joining forces with their neighbouring Hindu community through their equivalent Sewa Day, making this an important local interfaith project.
Juliette Harris, one of the Stanmore Synagogue co-ordinators for Mitzvah Day, said “Our members of all different ages in partnership with our Hindu neighbours joined together to do something beneficial for our wider community. This project has been an extremely rewarding and worthwhile experience.”
