The Sikh community in Northampton in action.
The Sikh community in Northampton has
been supporting the homeless and vulnerable for more than 40 years, but since
lockdown, they have seen a huge rise in demand for their services.
They are now feeding around
300 people every week - triple the amount they were doing before.
Amarjit Singh Atwal is the
Trustee for the Sikh Community Centre and Youth Club and the Siri Guru Singh
Sabha Northampton.
Both charities have been working in partnership with Northampton
Hope Centre to keep up with demand.
The Sikh community are now feeding 300 people each week.
Amarjit Singh Atwal said: "Before
this we were providing maybe 80-90 meals a week, but we're probably up to maybe
300 and more some weeks so that's the hot food side of it. We've now started to
do a small foodbank providing food for people with a specific cultural needs,
so that's quite busy as well.
"We've helped people
where they've needed furniture, so they might have been moved to somewhere
where it's a safer place for them to live. And some of the volunteers who have
been in isolation have been making PPE for the general hospital."
Sikhs in Northampton have
been doing this for more than four decades - it is part of their faith to go
out and help as many people as possible.
It is called seva, which
means selfless service.
Their hard work has not gone
unnoticed. They recently won the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service, the
highest accolade a voluntary organisation can receive.
"We were really
delighted that we'd won such a big award," Mr Singh Atwal said.
"The Sikh community in
Northampton has been volunteering and working with other organisations for
probably over 40 years now. It was great for us as a community to get that
recognition."
Mr Singh Atwal and his team of volunteers will continue to help
out as long as they're needed, which a. be for many more months to come.
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