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Sikh National Blood Drive takes
Sikhi’s message around
WSN Bureau
 GLEN ROCK: The
first ever Sikh Nation Blood Drive got off to a rousing start
turning itself into an
event that not
only coincided with the 25th anniversary of the dastardly
Indian attack on Sri Akal Takht Sahib but also dedicated to the
memory of the great martyrdom of the fifth Sikh master, Guru Arjan
Dev ji, thus bringing to it special significance for the Sikh
congregation. Leading the
Sikh Nation
Blood Drive
was the Sikh Youth of America (SYA) organisation, a resurgent and
dedicated band of individuals, mostly very young and a alrge number
of them born after Operation Bluestar. At Glen Rock’s Sri Guru Singh
Sabha Gurdwara, blood donation camps are in any case a biannual
community service event but this year the camp was part of a
broadbased effort by the entire Sikh community diaspora in the
western hemisphere to make a significant contribution to the blood
banks of US and other countries and thus become partners in
community building.
The 1984 Indian
army’s attack against the centre of the Sikh religion led to bloody
retaliation against Sikhs and thousands died in that attack.
“People really
don’t know what happened to the Sikhs in 1984,” said Gurbakhash
Kaur, spokeswoman for the
North Jersey
branch of Sikh Youth of America and one of the organizers of
Sunday’s drive. “Our goal is to bring awareness that this happened
to the Sikhs, and we’re trying to do it in a peaceful way.”
The Sikh Youth
of America is a national organization dedicated to creating an
independent Sikh homeland in India, explained Gurinder Singh, the
group’s president and a
Paramus
resident. The group has coordinated blood drives this month in Sikh
population centers such as
Dallas, New
York, Philadelphia and Fremont, Calif. In New Jersey, two gurdwaras
in Carteret also held drives.
Sikhs see the
blood donation as goodwill work, and for a community for which the
concept of sewa is at the centre of the basic tenets of religion,
such a blood drive can serve as an effective way of spreading the
message about the Sikhs, said Jasjeet Singh, a prime force behind
the Sikh Youth of America.
About 40 people
donated blood to the Paramus-based Community Blood Services on
Sunday, according to Paramjit Kaur, a congregation member who is
also a phlebotomist with the blood bank. The blood bank parked a bus
in the temple’s parking lot for about four hours to collect the
blood.
The gurdwara has
held blood drives twice a year for the last 15 to 20 years and there
are many Sikhs in the area who donate through the gurdwara’s drives
every year, or even more often. Several people who donated Sunday
said that community service is a key part of their faith. While some
blood donors like Supreet Singh, a medical student from
Fair Lawn
saw it as a reiteration of their faih’s concept of sewa, many said
donating blood was a chance to show solidarity with their adopted
country.
Some
congregation members said they wanted to donate but were prevented
by a rule that people cannot donate blood within a year of visiting
India.
American
comunity has welcomed the driv particularly because ordinarily blood
donations are low in summer and stocks are often depleted.
24
June 2009
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