Highlights Of #DilSeSewa Telethon: An Initiative To Provide Oxygen And Hospital Support To COVID-19 Patients
New Delhi Television Limited (NDTV) and Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee are back with a special campaign, Dil Se Sewa - Helping India Breathe. The campaign aims to provide the urgently needed support as the country reels under a devastating second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The funds raised under the initiative will support the gurdwara's critical interventions like the 'oxygen langars', a newly created COVID care facility, free ambulance service among others.
Here are the highlights of the #DilSeSewa telethon:
Immensely proud to see footage of the Gurdwaras providing selfless service to the community in these times of crisis: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, Labour MP (Slough), U.K
I want to commend the incredible work of voluntary organisations, including British based charities like Khalsa Aid, but also people within the diaspora, and other good minded people who have been sending money out to India, who have been sending oxygen concentrators. It has made us very, very proud because they are practicing what they're preaching that we should be working for the betterment of all, regardless of background or color or creed. The 'sarwat da bhala' principle is ingrained within the Sikh faith. I think it is important that people in media, people in public life get together with civil society. That they don't just leave it to government, they don't just leave it to voluntary organisations. It should be a team effort.
We worked on war footing to ensure people get access to oxygen and also built a 400 bed hospital in record time for COVID-19 patients.Manjinder Singh SirsaPresident, Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee- At this point what is important is the intent to want to help people. If you have the intention, go out there and save people.Bhumi PednekarActor & Covid Warrior
- The pandemic has taught us one thing, that we all need to come together to fight any problem.Rohit ShettyDirector & Producer
- We all are in this together and we all are doing whatever we can, but as I say, there's still a lot to do.Rajkummar RaoActor
- Gurdwaras have moved us to a higher plane, it has made us a better person.Mahua MoitraLok Sabha MP, Trinamool Congress
India is in crisis.
At a time when infection rates are soaring and every day brings grim news, at a time when beds, oxygen, medicine & hope seem to have all run out, all of India is feeling the same despair, the same distress, the same devastation.
But through the darkness, there has been a ray of light.
The Sikh community has been at the forefront of relentlessly helping people during through the pandemic. If the rich living tradition of food sharing, as widely practiced in langars or community kitchens, fed millions last year, then this year the langars have provided an even more critical & basic element of life – oxygen.
In the time honoured Sikh tradition of selfless service and compassion, these Oxygen Langars sprang up almost immediately across affected cities, and in gurdwaras, where volunteers stood with oxygen cylinders for hours, helping breathless patients breathe, helping India breathe.
The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee & NDTV are coming together for a special fundraising campaign, Dil Se Sewa – Helping India Breathe.
The funds raised will aid in providing this urgently needed support, amongst many others. It will go to support the gurdwara’s immediate & critical interventions like the oxygen langars, a newly created COVID care facility and the free ambulance service. But it will also contribute to other existing efforts that all aim to strengthen India’s health system for the future – the free dialysis hospital, the low cost MRI & CT Scan centre and the dawakhanas that provide medicines at reasonable rates.
Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee
Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) is an autonomous organisation which manages Gurdwaras in Delhi state. DSGMC also manages various educational institutions, hospitals, old age homes, libraries and other charitable institutions in Delhi.
It is headquartered in Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib, near Parliament House. The Delhi Sikh Gurdwaras Management Committee (DSGMC) came into existence in 1974. Elections to the committee take place every four years.
Ponty Chadha Foundation
Initiated by Mrs. Jatinder Kaur Chadha in September 2014, in the memory of her late husband, the erstwhile visionary Chairman of the Wave Group, Mr. Ponty Chadha, The Ponty Chadha Foundation (PCF) is the CSR arm of the Wave Group. The foundation addresses areas pertaining to hunger and food security, community health, education and skill training, sports for children and corporate employees and running awareness drives for sanitation, women safety & fitness beside others. It collaborates with government agencies and support associations like Delhi Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (DGPC) to extend community service in the areas that are deemed critical for the masses, especially weaker section of the society. It has handed over 60 oxygen concentrators, thousands of water bottles and given monetary assistance to the tune of INR 10 lakh towards pandemic mitigation in UP and Delhi.
One of the prominent initiatives undertaken by the foundation is Mata Bhagwanti Chadha Niketan (MBCN), a one-of-its-kind school in the country, founded in 1999 for children with special needs in the areas of education, vocational training, occupational and physical therapy, and capacity building. The completely free provisions have empowered around 25000 children with special needs, till date.