By Balwant Sanghera
RICHMOND – India Cultural Centre of Canada’s Gurdwara Nanak Niwas (#5 Road, Richmond) was abuzz with a lot of activity on Sunday, February 8, in the evening. Richmond’s Nagra family celebrated the 7th birthday of their son Suhan.
Suhan’s parents –Gurpreet Singh and Jessie Nagra- are very active in the community. They had invited their relatives and friends to the Gurdwara to join in the celebration of their son’s birthday. However, what made this celebration even more enjoyable was the presence of a number of volunteers from UNICEF’s project School in a Box. The Nagra family is closely connected with this project and would like to thank the Gurdwara management for their co-operation and support.
Organisers from project were present to explain it to the members of the Gurdwara congregation and collect donations. The response was overwhelming. Here is a brief description of the School in a Box project:
“UNICEF’s School in a Box transforms any outdoor space into a school. It contains everything teachers and students need: pencil, pencil crayons, notebooks, chalk, exercise books, posters, rulers, erasers, a globe, a solar powered radio, scissors, and even chalkboard paint to turn the box itself into a chalk board. The entire kit provides supplies for 40 students, which is equivalent to one community school. In addition to the supplies inside the kit, this gift provides children with a safe place to learn and brings a sense of normalcy back to a child’s life, especially in communities that have had their schools destroyed in a crisis.”
Projects like these are very deserving of community support. The Nagra family, UNICEF/School in a Box volunteers and Gurdwara Nanak Niwas Management must be commended for supporting such initiatives.
