Victoria Park, Tower Hamlets London, 7th October 2012.
Members of the City Sikhs Network (CSN) and City Hindus Network (CHN), both not for profit organisations for professionals mainly from the Sikh and Hindu communities and friends today participated in Sewa Day, a day of social action, by volunteering to help clean up Victoria Park.
Victoria Park is one of London’s most important historic parks and its oldest public park. It has been used by millions of Londoners for nearly 170 years as a place of healthy recreation, sports, play and relaxation. Activities included pruning branches from the trees, collecting leaves and improving the overall autumn aesthetics of the park. Activities were undertaken for around four hours.
Around 10 volunteers from the CSN and CHN were joined by local community members including Alicia Weston a Hackney resident and Graham Farrell who was inspired to join the group as he took a break from his weekly three laps run around the park. This was the third year volunteers were helping with such activities on behalf of Sewa Day.
Marcelo Novillo, a Senior Park Ranger was on hand earlier in the day to provide tools and expertise. He commented on how successful the clean up initiative had been and how much the local residents would appreciate our efforts. His comments had been echoed by local residents passing by who gave the volunteers friendly cheers, nods, thank you smiles and even stopped to enquire as to how and where the leaves would be later composted.
Thalbir Kaur Shokar, from the CSN Executive Board said: “I was inspired by how much we actually achieved filling over 105 bags with Autumn leaves and pruning the branches from two trees. The team effort was something really special to witness and be part of. Thank you so much to all our volunteers who travelled both locally and as far and wide as Windsor, Sidcup and even Delhi!’
Additional members of the CHN also volunteered on other Sewa Day projects including hosting a book collection, which collected several thousand books for underprivileged children in Britain and India.
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NOTES TO EDITORS:
Photos:
1. Sewa Day 2012 team left to right:
Alicia Weston, Divya Verma, Robert Korcsok, Sunil Mistry, Sunny Dhanjal, Anupe Dhanday, Dhruv Patel, Graham Farrell, Naina Ghosh & Thalbir Kaur Shokar
2. Sewa Day2012 action left to right:
Sunny Dhanjal, Graham Farrell, Alicia Weston, Divya Verma, Anupe Dhanday, Sunil Mistry, Dhruv Patel, Thalbir Kaur Shokar & Robert Korcsok
3. Sewa Day 2012 before – Victoria Park before activities commence
4. Sewa Day 2012 after – Victoria Park after activities are completed.
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SEWA DAY: The aim of Sewa Day is to provide people with a chance to give back to the community through volunteering on a single day to make a difference. As such each event organised must be based on at least one of the guiding principles below:
• To relieve hardship and poverty;
• To bring a little joy; and
• To help the environment.
All the events will take place on the same day or for schools during the week and will not include any fund-raising activities. From infants through to pensioners, anyone can get involved and make a difference. Community groups, local councils, schools, temples, mosques and businesses have enlisted their support for this initiative.
Visit www.sewaday.org for more information.
CITY SIKHS NETWORK: The City Sikhs Network (CSN) aims to inspire Sikhs to be the best they can be and to provide a platform for engagement with the Sikh community.
Visit www.citysikhs.org.uk/ for more information
CITY HINDUS NETWORK: CHN is a non-profit organisation with a membership of more than 1000 City professionals. Its activities include organising networking, educational and cultural events each year in conjunction with corporate partners in London. The CHN also run a growing mentoring scheme and started a social enterprise in 2012.
Visit www.cityhindusnetwork.org.uk/ for more information
Media Contacts:
Thalbir Shokar / Pratik Dattani
Email thalbir@www.citysikhs.com & info@cityhindusnetwork.org.uk
Tel 07912 069 373