GLOBAL SIKHS Finds New Village 20 Days Later
(Jan 15)
By Habhajan Singh
The GLOBAL SIKHS team made a major breakthrough yesterday. They found a
village in one of their search and rescue missions. What they found there
was simply heartbreaking: A village of thousands left with probably less
than half of its population. Worse still, they had no contact with the
outside world, except for one air drop a couple of days after the tsunami.
Immediately upon making contact with the village, our people on board the
vessels at Aceh got in touch with the mission Command Centre based at the
headquarters of Sikh Naujawan Sabha Malaysia (Malaysian Sikh Youth) at Kuala
Lumpur. The centre is manned 24-hours by volunteers.
Immediately, the centre operators placed an urgent call to the US embassy in
Kuala Lumpur, which got in touch with the US Navy ships in the area. At the
same time, the Command Centre also alerted the Singapore armed forces,
through some contacts. The Singapore armed forces have a base at Meulaboh,
south of the newly identified village of Lho Paroe.
Malaysia's biggest English newspaper, THE STAR, carried a report on the
engagement. The article was written by a senior journalist, BK Sidhu, a name
well known in the Malaysian business circle.
The report also carries some photographs just released.
This is an amazing turn of events. Our people have been able to contribute
significantly to the humanitarian relief effort underway at Aceh, Indonesia.
The team -- which also includes the international human development
organisation UNITED SIKHS and the simply amazing group of Langkawi-based
sailors WAVES OF MERCY, have played its part, and will contrinue to do so in
this mission. We seek your continued support and prayer.
For the latest on this, do visit the mission website at www.snsm.org.my.
God bless.
-- habhajan singh
