Sikh Charity in British Columbia

I first came aware of the folks at http://www.cies.ca/ sometime in 2004.

I was amazed that there was this sikh charity that had set up a nursing college in punjab by tying up with the UBC (University of British Columbia). I vaguely remember seeing a Sikh gentlemen making an appeal for a nursing school in Punjab on one of those mind numbing desi tv shows that seem to paint all punjabis as people that do nothing buy watch movies, buy gold and mithai and life is all roses.

It is such a moving story to read about Mr. Budh Singh Dhahan and the Guru Nanak Mission Medical & Educational Trust that he set up. This was the person that I had seen on TV.

I then started corresponding with CIES via email. Their web site is pretty good, it had an archive of their newsletters and every now and then they would update the pictures on their web site.

While they have now set up a school, a drug rehab facility and a community healthcare project, to me the stand out achievement is without a doubt the nursing college. And it is because of two reason that I am enamoured of this achievement of theirs.

A. This project was clearly targeted at the women of Punjab as nursing as a profession has a heavy female participation

B. CIES brought in a respectable institution like the UBC

I also think that the novel approach that they have taken of targeting a certain geographical region by having a hospital, school, drug rehab program, community health program etc is amazing. If things are to be fixed, then this is the way. All aspects of the environment and infrastructure have to be addressed and development cannot be achieved by following a single vertical.

My understanding is that with all of these other things, there is no immediate focus on raising the amount of intake at the nursing college to beyond the current 50 students a year.

As much as I like the all around development, I am partial to a mega project and nothing would have appealed more to me than raising awareness about the project to raise annual intake at the nursing college from 50 students to say 500.

I have been keeping in touch with folks at CIES on and off and heve been suggested to them on how they make make use of www.canadahelps.org which would enable them to accept credit cards online.

I was still desperately looking for something where the end goal was huge, massive and perhaps something in Ontario, where it was easier to be in touch with others that were driving the charity. I was still on the look out.