United Sikhs Aid Team continues distributing Hot Meals and Supplies
SANTIAGO, CHILE: United Sikhs joined forces with Langar Chile, a registered Sikh Organization in Chile, to provide langar (community kitchen) serving hot meals to Chilean families affected by the earthquake and tsunami that impacted the nation on February 27, 2010.
United Sikhs Aid International Humanitarian Coordinator LTC (Retd) Gurbachan Singh gathered several volunteers from Sikh Dharma Chile and Langar Chile to make an initial assessment of the specific and urgent needs of the earthquake and tsunami victims.
Navigating through the country during curfew to meet with Chilean emergency officials, the team documented first-hand the devastation left in the wake of the natural disaster. The assessment was made after visiting the cities of Constitucion, Chanco, Curanipe and Concepcion.
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| Chile earthquake devastation | |
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| UNITED SIKHS AID & Langar Chile team distributing supplies to survivors in Chile | |
After meeting with Mayor Hugo Tilledia Torres in Constitucion, it was decided that a base camp will be established at Constitucion to serve langar for those living in makeshift wooden camps as soon as possible. The United Sikhs Aid Team team returned to Santiago and within 2 days readied the necessary hardware for the field kitchen and food supplies. The United Sikhs Aid Chilean relief mission began on March 22, 2010 as the team successfully began the langar seva.
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| Col (Retd) Gurbachan Singh with Chile Sikhs in base camp | ||
United Sikhs would like to acknowledge Nam Nidhan Kaur and Langar Chile, especially Guru Darshan Singh, Simrat Singh, Gur Mantra Singh and Puran Singh who worked under the most trying physical conditions fighting dust and the lack of electricity to start and continue with the crucial langar sewa. Simrat Singh stated, “I feel blessed and most fortunate to be given this opportunity to serve Guru Ka Langar to fellow Chileans”. It was indeed most heartening to see that a small community of about 100 Chilean Sikhs could gather so many volunteers to help out in the mission. At the time of this report a container loaded with food supplies, tents, water and clothes from Canada is well on its way to the Eastern port of Valparaiso in Chile.
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| UNITED SIKHS AID volunteers distributing Hot-Meals in base camp | |
The United Sikhs Aid team cannot continue to provide much needed relief services to those most in need, without the support of generous community members like you. Please consider donating to the Chilean Earthquake and Tsunami Relief efforts, so many more people can be provided the most basic services in this time of need.
To donate to the UNITED SIKHS Chilean Earthquake and Tsunami Relief, please visit http://unitedsikhs.org/donate.php or contact a UNITED SIKHS office nearest to you. To volunteer or go to Chile for a field mission, please visit http://unitedsikhs.org/short_form/join.php.