It's the type of people we have a shortage of
these days, because we are too busy sorting out our own lives. We need to
help others who are in need and experiencing problems that either we were
too lucky to face or we can share our experience and provide guidance to
others. To live in today's society is hard enough, but when there is no
one to turn to for help.... that is soul destroying.
We are 'The Sikh
Naujawan Academy (SNA)', a non profit making organisation, comprising of like
minded adults and youth working together to achieve results. You may have
heard of us, we have organised and held many Gurmat camps for sikh youth
within the UK and especially in the West midlands www.sna.org.uk ,
keeping them educated about Sikhi and trying to keep them on the right path.
In many cases we have succeeded and others we have not, But as the years
go on, we have seen an increasing amount of our Punjabi
children, teenagers and young adults facing difficulties that we never
imagined in our time. Due to this increase in reported cases we decided
to formulate 'The Sikh Helpline' for people to use as and when they
needed.
The Sikh Helpline has been established for many years now. We
organise promotional literature, flyers, posters, emails to promote our
presence and our services for the youth. During these many years, we have
been able to help a large number of youth from the smallest of problems
to the largest. Not only are we here to help them but others too who
have wanted to know more about Sikhi and what it really is about.
Not many weeks ago, we were involved in a situation involving a very young Sikh
lad from a respectable background who faced problems bigger than him. Due to
confidentiality, we are unable to give out details to who it concerned. This
young individual attended a boarding school and was the only Punjabi student
at the entire school. He faced racial and physical abuse from his school
colleagues and was emotionally effected. He felt he could not turn to his
father, so he confided in his mother who in turn contacted the 'Sikh
Helpline' for confidential advice. After assessing the seriousness of the
matter at hand 'The Sikh Naujawan Academy' sent a representative to resolve
the problem or at least offer the parents and the student support
and assistance in dealing with the matter. The SNA attended the high
profile school and we also contacted other Sikh organisations to send
various forms of communications to the headmaster of the school regarding
this serious matter. Because of the pressure we exerted on the principle,
they decided to place some urgency on the allegations and
finally investigated the problem and within a few hours suspended the
guilty party from the school. In the Absence of the SNA and the Sikh
Helpline, this matter would more than likely have been dismissed. We were
able to mediate and quickly respond to an awkard situation and allow this
boy to carry on his education without being bullied or alienated. This is not
an isolated incident and will never be. We need more people to come out
and help us identify and adddress these incidents as they
are increasingly being identified.
We need your support, be it
physically, financially, professional, organisalional backing or whichever
service you may be able to offer.
How can you return your services to
Society? How can you help young troubled individuals?
Sikh Help Line
