It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving, there is nothing better than donating for the causes that brings about a change – A Positive Change! Having a firm faith and respect for the Noble Causes being undertaken by The Kalgidhar Society – Baru Sahib, Sr. Daljit Singh made a decision to Donate all the fortune that he received inheritance from Ms. Dapne’s Estate!

Ms. Daphne, an independent and spirited woman, who believed in Equality, Fairness, a very generous and life long socialist. She was a longtime member of Amnesty International and worked for them one day in a week for 12 years as a volunteer. Such was her persona that her life inspired Sr. Daljit Singh so much so that he planned to donate all the fortune he got inherited from Ms. Daphne, he in turn donated the whole amount to The Kalgidhar Trust – Baru Sahib.

Hail the efforts! Dhan Sikhi. Dhan Khalsa!

~ Deeksha Singh
~ New Delhi, 21st, June ’14

Toronto, Canada: The only Amritdhari Sikh, Jagmeet Singh,who attended the Akal University – Guru Ki Kashi, Toronto Seminar; has successfully contested his seat in Bramalea-Gore-Malton for Provincial Parliament and defeated his rivals from Liberal and PC party. However, Liberals succeeded in regaining the power by clear majority in the Ontario’s Provincial Parliament.

According information availed from various news media, the NDP’s Singh took home 43.6 per cent of the vote in early results. Former Liberal MPP Kuldip Kular, who lost his seat to Singh in 2011, won 33.8 per cent of the vote. The PC’s Harjit Jaswal won 17.9 per cent, as of 10:38 PM on Election Night.

Singh was the provincial NDP’s first successful foray in Peel region when he won the seat in 2011.

~ Source: http://www.sikhsiyasat.net/

Working without any Govt. support, Akal De-Addiction Centre, Cheema Sahib has helped over 3400+ addicts restore and reclaim healthy lifestyle!

Established in the year 2004 at Cheema Sahib, under the aegis of the Kalgidhar Trust of Baru Sahib, the Akal De-Addiction Centre has been relentlessly working towards rescuing the youth of Punjab from the swamp of Drug and Alcohol addiction. The centre provides treatment facilities to patients with or without admission to the asylum.

Providing details about the De-addiction centre, Dr. Rajinder Singh told that this centre, built in the hometown of Sant Attar Singh Ji, Akal De-Addiction Centre is operating with a non-profit motive with the sole interest of Human Welfare and for the purpose, all arrangements and expenditure is borne by the Kalgidhar Trust – Baru Sahib. For this noble cause, the same does not sought for any help or support of any kind from the Government. Till now, this De-Addiction Centre has provided treatment to around 2878 patients after admitting them into the asylum and around 600 have been treated otherwise (without admitting).

Another one of the De-Addiction Centre is at the headquarter District Sangrur, which has been established at the expense of Rs.52 Lakhs, with a capacity of 10 beds in the asylum. At each of these De-Addiction Centers, besides providing the medical and psychological treatment to the addicts, their self-confidence is also worked upon, giving them motivation and inspiration to start working towards earning an honest living. The patients are also nurtured spiritually wherein they are explained about its power and relevance alongside their practice during the special counseling sessions. 

Know more about our fight against Drugs here – http://barusahib.org/drug-and-alcohol-rehabilitation-center/

In the crisp air of the Himalayan foothills, an 89-year-old Sikh spiritual leader with a grey beard lies inside a thatched hut lit by lanterns and repeats a pronouncement that has echoed across the golden plains of Saskatchewan.

“I have come to the conclusion,” he says hoarsely from beneath a black blanket, with two acolytes kneeling at his bedside, “that canola oil is the only oil.”

Iqbal Singh Kingra, once a director of agriculture for the Indian state government of Himachal Pradesh, is the revered head of a foundation that builds high-tech schools for India’s rural poor. What’s unusual is one of the ways he funds the effort: By selling canola oil harvested and ground on the Canadian Prairies.

His ardent belief in the health benefits of canola oil – a Canadian innovation – have made Mr. Kingra and his followers an unlikely bridge between farms in Western Canada and the immense edible oil market in India that Canadian canola farmers have never been able to crack. It’s a market where 1.2 billion people fry almost everything they eat, but do so mainly with palm oil.

For Mr. Kingra and the philanthropic Sikhs who work tirelessly for him, canola oil is simply a means to an end.

Angered by alarming levels of substance abuse and widespread illiteracy in their native Punjab, Mr. Kingra and his Kalgidhar Society want to construct schools as fast as they can – and donations simply can’t keep up. Mr. Kingra, whose followers refer to him by the spiritual title baba ji, turned to canola and decided to start a social business that would import Canadian canola oil to India.

Canola – a contraction of “Canadian” and “oil” – was engineered in the 1970s after concern over the high erucic acid content of other rapeseed oils. It is generally considered to be healthier than other oils because it has lower levels of saturated fats.

The society’s members first tried growing the yellow-flowering plant in Punjab, where the Green Revolution started in the 1960s. But despite farmers’ solid reputations in the grain-basket of India, it was still much cheaper to import the oil from Canada. And so the disciples of Mr. Kingra got on planes bound for the Canadian prairies, where they toured farms outside Saskatoon and found the October air unpleasantly chilly.

The first few years weren’t profitable for the business, which operates as Jivo, but has grown steadily. From early losses, the company is set to make $500,000 (U.S.) in profits this year and roughly $1-million next year – which could fund the sustainable construction of eight schools per year. Simultaneously, Canadian canola oil exports to India have jumped from just 82 tons in 2009 to around 1,600 tons in 2013.

Jivo estimates they now import about 300 tons of canola oil each month. Hudson, another canola oil company in India, also imports its canola oil from the Canadian prairies. But these numbers are tiny compared to India’s palm oil imports, which regularly exceed 800,000 tons each month, as well as Canada’s existing exports to India of peas and lentils. Oil importers face additional challenges because of tariffs designed to protect Indian oil producers.

Mr. Kingra’s vision is bold: With 129 modern schools built and 60,000 students already studying on high-tech digital smart boards – Mr. Kingra and his foundation want to expand to 500 schools by 2020.

In a tiny village called Balbehra, a gleaming, three-storey school rises from the surrounding wheat fields.

“This is a very backward part of Punjab,” says principal Rajinder Kaur Virk, as she strolls past students dressed in clean, plain blue and white uniforms switched everyday between boys and girls to encourage gender neutrality in an area where many fathers don’t send their girls to school. “The school has been a revolution.”

It seems to be working. “Sir, I want to become an engineer, a mechanical engineer,” says one 14-year-old girl, Arshbreet Kaur. “And my parents support me.”

The schools instill student leadership in their impoverished communities, as well as sometimes in their homes. Kaka Singh, a middle-aged farmer whose son attends the school, says he used to drink alcohol every night after working the fields, but gradually stopped, as he felt increasingly awkward drinking near his studying son. “My son is getting such a good education,” he says. “I run the risk of inspiring him also to drink. And I can’t do that.”

The society’s headquarters, where “Baba ji” lies in his hut, is not some premodern village. It is a 400-acre campus that includes schools, a university (where all undergraduates are women), a 300-bed hospital, a training centre for nurses with connections to U.S. universities, towering dormitories and a majestic Sikh Gurduwara. The schools even attract foreign students. “I know the education is really good here, especially compared to Ontario,” says Canadian Gurveen Cheema, 16, whose mother was a volunteer teacher here years ago.

Because the campus is remote, it needs to be self-reliant: there is a separate building for cleaning uniforms, a mechanic to repair their fleet of vehicles and a kitchen with huge vats of simmering Punjabi beans and lentils. A nearby mountainside is covered in solar panels.

“Have you seen my hut? It is symbolic,” says Mr. Kingra, or Baba ji, gesturing around him. “I could have retired and built a bungalow in Delhi or Chandigarh (Punjab’s capital) and read newspapers.”

Community members volunteer their time for the cause. “This is a battle we cannot afford to lose,” says Amandeep Singh, the founder of an advertising firm, as his driver pilots between the cattle-drawn bullock carts and grain-laden trucks of Punjab’s hectic harvest season.

“There’s so much to do,” he says. “And so much to lose if it’s not done.”

~ By IAIN MARLOW
~ The Globe and Mail, Canada

Follow Iain Marlow on Twitter: @iainmarlow