Sikh Community in Surrey Raises $1.5 Million in One Week for Haiti

By Sukhdharshan Rohtas

Haiti Earthquake Relief

Surrey, British Columbia (CHAKRA) – Ramandeep Singh Khaira, has experienced a few sleepless nights, after being selected as a relief volunteer for Haiti.

Mr. Khaira, a 29-year-old sales and marketing employee from Surrey B.C., has been selected to be a part of team Kitsilano—a group of 5 Sikh volunteers selected by the Surrey-based Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara Society (GNSGS).  It took the GNSGS just a week to raise $1.5 million for Haiti, through three radio campaigns and donations from various Metro Vancouver Gurdwaras.

Mr. Khaira said, “I’m so excited to have this opportunity—this is just an amazing thing to be part of this special group.”

Four others are travelling with Mr. Khaira, of whom one is the senior vice president of GNSGS.  Joining them are Surjit Singh (a chef at Jagga Sweets, and East-Indian food restaurant in Delta), Sukhwinder Singh a medical graduate, and Jasvir S. Chattha a board member of the GNSGS.

The primary objective of the group of five is to medically assist relief personnel currently on the ground, as well as to provide and distribute food to the Haitian community.

The GNSGS’s first relief team, Team Jericho—a team of six—travelled to Haiti last week to distribute food.  Team Jericho has also been keeping the local community up to date by posting their activities in Haiti on a daily blog at haitiblog.ca.  “We have a couple of hundred readers every day going onto the blog site and it’s increasing by the day,” said Sukhninder Sangha, vice president of the GNSGS.

In a blog entry posted of February 2^nd, Team Jericho described an incident where they had been abandoned by their security escort, however, they managed to deal with chaos, all while serving meals until all the food was finished.

“As of today, [we have] 40 people on our waiting list that want to go down to Haiti,” said Mr. Sangha. “They’re all motivated and they have the spirit and willpower to make a difference.”  It is evident that there is no lack of support from this community.

Mr. Khaira believes that is contribution will be of little value but he feels he could not miss such an opportunity.  “It’s not going to be a major impact but I think it will make a difference in one way or another at least for the time that we’re there, they have something to eat,” Mr. Khaira said.

Some of the contributions include, food, money, toys, and school supplies.  Mr. Khaira explained that the Surrey community has definitely come together to help out with the relief efforts for Haiti.  “There’s not much that we can do without the help of the local community.”

Mr. Khaira stated that it was important to make clear that these were long-term relief efforts, and agreed that many people supported with a reaction of passion and sincerity.

Both teams—Team Kitsilano and Team Jericho—were named after Vancouver’s beaches, and they joined other united Sikh communities based in the U.S.