Gurdwaras Role With Social Issues

[sikhstudent99]

Should the gurdwara play a role in addressing issues that every community faces like domestic violence and drugs substance abuse an sexual abuse?

I was wondering since each community has people who come from broken homes then there must be sikhs who come from broken homes as well

How can we help people who are scared to ask for help or struggle with english or need a support system?

[Guest Jacfsing2]

Should the gurdwara play a role in addressing issues that every community faces like domestic violence and drugs substance abuse an sexual abuse?

I was wondering since each community has people who come from broken homes then there must be sikhs who come from broken homes as well

How can we help people who are scared to ask for help or struggle with english or need a support system?

Each of your questions answered in order.

1. Yes, because some last folk need to find the righteous path once again. 2. We get special teachers or tutors who know both Punjabi and English well to be able to reach the language in a basic standard, (this should be in any local language not just English)

[sikhstudent99]

How can we use sikhi to help people who are broken heal

Like how do we create a safe environment for them an how would it be done?

[simran345]

Should the gurdwara play a role in addressing issues that every community faces like domestic violence and drugs substance abuse an sexual abuse?

I was wondering since each community has people who come from broken homes then there must be sikhs who come from broken homes as well

How can we help people who are scared to ask for help or struggle with english or need a support system?

This is a good question. In our community, there are many instances that can be helped if there was more support from our community.

Because of the language barrier, those that need help do not approach the mainstream social support.

There are more support organisations now, than there was 15yrs ago. But the problem is one does not know how to access them if there first language is not English. Also those that are fluent in English may not know either or are not confident enough in asking for the help earlier on.

This is where the Gurdwaras could have a base of first contact, from which they can guide somebody or refer to the relevant organisation. As the fields of problems one is facing are specialised and would need different professionals to deal with, somebody without training in a Gurdwara giving advise would just not be wise.

Gurdwaras can invite speakers from support organisations on a quarterly basis of the year, to ensure they are providing this service.

Organisations like Alcohol Beyond, Sikh Helpline, Organisations that deal with drugs addiction, etc etc should be invited to have sessions.

It's like when I used work within our community, there were so many other problems that I was asked for help, but since I did not have the training in that field, all I could do was to advice them who to contact. It made a lot of difference, as they would not know where to get that support from. I feel Gurdwaras should have a helpline base which could have literature and a point of contact.

It doesn't need to be complexed, even a small area like in a library will be ok.

I've already put on an event this week in the global events sections. Events like this should be more common.

http://www.sikhsangat.com/index.php?/topic/78461-alcohol-drugs-talk-southall/#entry651105

[dallysingh101]

I tell you what!

Most (if not all) of the apnay I've met or heard of converting to Jesusness have done so because they they received 'pastoral' support at a church during times of serious crises (a lot of youngish women especially, a few of who have gone on to become pastors themselves).

We need to learn important lessons from that. Simple.

We do have this strange culture where we don't really want to embroil ourselves in others problems whilst conversely hiding our own ones out of shame. We front too much when we suffer because our macho culture perceives anything else to be weak I think? (I do it myself). Okay fair enough, but when there are young and vulnerable kids in our community suffering we should have contingencies for them, especially in the UK where there seems to be a pedo under every rock you pick up.

[muscleman]

Yes.

[jkvlondon]

I tell you what!

Most (if not all) of the apnay I've met or heard of converting to Jesusness have done so because they they received 'pastoral' support at a church during times of serious crises (a lot of youngish women especially, a few of who have gone on to become pastors themselves).

We need to learn important lessons from that. Simple.

We do have this strange culture where we don't really want to embroil ourselves in others problems whilst conversely hiding our own ones out of shame. We front too much when we suffer because our macho culture perceives anything else to be weak I think? (I do it myself). Okay fair enough, but when there are young and vulnerable kids in our community suffering we should have contingencies for them, especially in the UK where there seems to be a pedo under every rock you pick up.

main problem is we inherited a judgmental streak from hindu culture , where as Sikhi teaches us to be unprejudiced observers , much like homeopaths are taught to be ...if Khalsa are perceived to be safe havens of non-judgemental help in all aspects of life then our gurdwarey will really become full of Guru's ji love and understanding.

[simran345]

Yes.

Lol, I like this answer. Brief and to the point, one wording ?

[Guest Jacfsing2]

Lol, I like this answer. Brief and to the point, one wording

I would like to agree with that; however, the biggest problem is you can't answer a "how" question with a "yes"

[sikhstudent99]

I tell you what!

Most (if not all) of the apnay I've met or heard of converting to Jesusness have done so because they they received 'pastoral' support at a church during times of serious crises (a lot of youngish women especially, a few of who have gone on to become pastors themselves).

We need to learn important lessons from that. Simple.

We do have this strange culture where we don't really want to embroil ourselves in others problems whilst conversely hiding our own ones out of shame. We front too much when we suffer because our macho culture perceives anything else to be weak I think? (I do it myself). Okay fair enough, but when there are young and vulnerable kids in our community suffering we should have contingencies for them, especially in the UK where there seems to be a pedo under every rock you pick up.

Good points