Waheguru ji ka Khalsa, Waheguru ji ki Fateh!
Dear cybersangat - this is to inform you about the seva effords undertaken by the European Sikh Council sevadaars by and in combination with Chalda Vaheer Jatha.
In beginning of April some active Sikh Youth sevadaars of Europe (from UK, Netherlands, France, Germany, Denmark and Sweden) gathered together to establish European Sikh Council (ESC) for achieving the following goals:
* Organise events - Gurmat Camps in cooperation with Chalda Vaheer Jatha.
* Promote Sikhism by all means by Sikhi Parchaar (within and outside our Gurdwaras)
* Make younger generation Sikhs active in Seva and community work
* Set examples for others
* Share Experience -> export the success stories from one countries to another
* Tackling common problems/issues, media approach, Library projects, etc
* Starting projects with roll out through EU for Sikhi awareness
* Participation in Remembrance of Sikh Soldiers of World War I and II.
* Giving presentations in and Sikh education in school
* Participation in local interfaith groups/programs
* Cooperation with other (Sikh) organizations (incl. with UNITED SIKHS, Sikhcess and 3HO Sikhs, etc)
* Setup of www.sikhyouth.eu and other sites containing information about Sikhi related activities and Sikhism in general.
The Chalda Vaheer Jatha of the late Bhai Rajinder Singh (Balbir Kaur and Kulwant Singh) and related sevadaars has done a lot for our Panth. For the past 30 years they have held camps for kids and Sikh youth in Europe and rest of world (including new Zealand and the Fiji islands.) Many sevadaars are related to this Jatha as they recently or in the past were inspired by this Jatha to take amrit, while others just support this successful formula of Sikhi Parchaar through Sikhi Camps.
In the last 4 months the main focus of ESC sevadaars has been on Gurmat Vichar Camps.
The main activities in 2008 have been:
* 5 April 2008. ESC 1st EU Smagam. For some kirtan clips of this smagam – see www.youtube.com/sikhs
* Participation in Remembrance of Sikh Soldiers of World War I in Ieper on 25th of May. In this ESC cooperated with SWORD (Sikh World Organisation for Remembrance Day) by preparation of literature for this Day.
* 14/15 June 2008. ESC Gurmat Vichar Weekend – Brussels Gurdwara. First Camp ever held in this Gurdwara. See link above for pictures.
* 21/22 June 2008. AKJ smagam in Netherlands. Participation of ESC sevadaar in this Smagam. See link above for pictures.
* 18-22 June – Sweden Chalda Vaheer Kids Camps lead by Bibi Balbir Kaur.
* 30 – 6 July, Chalda Vaheer Kids/Youth Camp in Sint- Truiden, Belgium. See link above for pictures.
* 7 – 13 July, Chalda Vaheer Kids Camp in Paris. See link above for pictures.
* 14 – 19 July, ESC Gurmat Camp lead by Sukhwinder Singh (UK) in Switzerland.
* 20 – 25 July, Chalda Vaheer Sikh Youth Camp.
Please see http://picasaweb.google.com/singh.gursev for pictures of these activities
So far, all active Sikh sevadaars (some being students) have done their upper best by doing seva and participation in these camps.
At the moment ESC consists of sevadaars from UK, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, France, Belgium and Netherlands. These sevadaars can express themselves in these local languages of these countries and are able to do parchaar in and outside the Gurdwaras.
We need Guru's kirpa along with the support of the worldwide Sikh Sangat in order to proceed with this ESC project for the coming period and years hence. All support, ideas, suggestions are appreciated.
Thank you and be in chardi Kalaa!
Waheguru ji ka Khalsa, Waheguru ji ki Fateh!
ESC Sevadaar www.sikhyouth.eu