During these tough times where the globe has been struck with a catastrophic pandemic being COVID-19, the Goa Sikh Youth Community has come forward and taken charge of reaching out to the poor and the needy across the state, writes Ameya Nayak.
The Goa Sikh Youth Community was formulated in the year 2017 by its founding members namely Sandeep Sartaj Gill, Karan Singh, Jagjeet Singh, Deep Singh, Jagdeep Khaira, Zeenat Soni, Gulab Singh and Laurina Sneha Caldeira Gill from the Sikh clan with the sole motto of providing ‘service to mankind’.
Speaking about what encouraged them to step forward and initiate the noble act of proving food to the needy during these difficult times, Laurina Caldeira alias Sneha Gill who happens to be one of the founders of the Goa Sikh Youth Community said that at the beginning, it was her, her husband Sandeep Sartaj Gill and another member Karan Singh who decided to take the foremost step of getting their vehicles registered for the purpose of volunteering to reach out to the ones in need. Laurina mentions that, after great difficulty, two of Karans vehicles were registered under his and Sartaj’s names and thereafter they started this noble ‘seva’ with the blessings of Supreme creator of the Sikhs, ‘Waheguru Ji’. She further mentions that the idea struck them almost naturally when all of their volunteers decided to come together, merge their resources and go ahead with the service.
The Goa Sikh Youth Community flagged off their righteous initiative by serving food to about 400 people stranded across various areas in Goa right from Mulgao, Tivim station, Mapusa, Panjim, Assagao, Assanora, Old Goa, Bambolim, Miramar, Taleigao, Nerual, Merces and many more. From that point, the journey has been nothing but fruitful. With their core kitchen operating from the Mapusa-Guirim highway, the Goa Sikh Youth Community manages to serve more than a whopping 5,000 individuals everyday stranded at multiple locations across the state!
Speaking further about the variety of food that they offer, Laurina mentions that the Sikh Community supplies meals which mainly include staple food such as dal, rice, potato curry, jeera rice, mix vegetables, curd curry with rice, and various other combinations of nutritious vegetarian food items to those that are in need. The community manages to prepare humungous quantities of the food ranging from 400 kilos of rice and at the very least, 200 kilos of dal and veggies every single day with the unconditional support and aid from every one of their teammates, who she says, are their pillars of strength. In addition, they also offer dry ration to certain households depending on their requirements.
Elaborating upon the working of the entire scenario, Laurina says that they had to initially start off by investing money from their own pockets. However, gradually as the cause gained momentum, they roped in financial sponsorship from Big Daddy casino, Vedanta, Rotary club, Round Table club, BNI chapter, Pinto Villa Housing Society and numerous other contributors whose donation and assistance has made their noble act a possibility. Further, the community has also taken utmost care of following all the health and hygiene related COVID-19 guidelines that have been published by the state government right from the use of gloves, sanitizers and masks to being fully equipped with personal protection gears.
When questioned about where the Goa Youth Sikh community finds the motivation to engage in such virtuous deeds, Laurina (originally Goan) says that being a part of the Sikh community (as she is married to a Sikh) she has understood and wholly realised that the Sikhs are always at the forefront when it comes to helping those in need. It is the good-heartedness and selflessness of each member of their community which has led to the idea of serving the poor and the hungry becoming an actuality.
Fuelling such a selfless act of charity is obviously not an easy task. Thus, elaborating upon the difficulties they faced with regards to their service, Laurina exclaimed that their primary complexity was arranging for basic groceries during the lockdown, as, during initial days, it was extremely hard to procure groceries due to the stringent rules pertaining to the lockdown. However, slowly and steadily they managed to get the necessary food items with all the help and assistance from the neighbouring citizens and various other selfless people who came ahead to aid them with their service as they were aware of the fact that the community is doing a noble act for the needy without having any expectations in return.
When asked about the community’s goal for the future, Laurina quipps that the Goa Youth Sikh Community pledges itself to come to the rescue of the needy and the poor in whatever capacity they can with the sole aim of relieving them of their obstacles. She further mentions that their only aspiration is ‘let no person sleep hungry in Goa.’ She finally says that their community has reached out to a wide number of people selflessly and that is the spirit that needs to be maintained and the community looks forward to serving a lot more people with the same amount of zing!
The necessary persons to be contacted if any person is in need are
Sandeep Sartaj Gill – 9657536238
Karan Singh – 9823645350
Laurina S Caldeira Gill – 8668520035
