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UNITED SIKHS Needs Your Help to Serve
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Do you know where your
donation is going? At UNITED SIKHS you can rest assured you fund human
rights and needs globally.
UNITED SIKHS takes up
Civil Rights cases and many such issues in response to calls and
letters from Sikhs and minorities around the world. Our work is
expanding and we need your help to fund it. Your dasvand will help us
carry out our advocacy, humanitarian relief and human development
projects.
Many unjust incidents
take place everyday around the world, and cannot be addressed without
the help of generous community members like you.
With only 10% in operating costs, UNITED SIKHS devotes 90% of all
donations toward raising a voice against hate crimes, providing
humanitarian aid to those affected by disasters, advocating for every
Sikh’s right to Kakkars, educating the larger community about who Sikhs
are, and using the expertise and inter-disciplinary skills of a large
base of volunteers internationally.
We are the only Global Sikh organization with chapters in 10 countries
serving Sikhs and minorities all over the world. We are your foot
soldiers and we need your donation to support projects globally.
UNITED SIKHS projects include work on International Civil and Human
Rights Advocacy (ICHRA), Sikh Aid (Humanitarian Relief), and
Empowerment-Education. A few examples of ongoing projects at UNITED
SIKHS that would benefit from your generous donations include:
Advocating
for Right to Turbans and Right to Kakkars:
- The Sikh identity is frequently targeted due to
the turban and beard, and Sikhs become targets for bullying and/or
physical violence. UNITED SIKHS takes up cases of hate crimes or
discrimination across the world, providing legal counsel.
- Countries like France and Belgium have banned
ostensible religious symbols in school and photo identification
documents, affecting thousands of Sikhs who call these countries home.
UNITED SIKHS is fighting for the basic right of young Sikh students to
get an education while maintaining their religious right to wear
Dastaars.
- UNITED SIKHS is working with law enforcement
officials in several countries to allow Sikhs to wear their Kirpans in
public places, and making air travel easier.
- Employment discrimination on the basis of
turban or beards forms an important part of UNITED SIKHS’ legal team’s
work.
Humanitarian
Aid to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Pakistan:
- The insurgency in Pakistan has led to over a
million people in Pakistan being displaced from their homes and
livelihoods. UNITED SIKHS works with the United Nations and other
non-profit organizations in Pakistan to provide humanitarian aid to
Sikhs and others. Food and medical supplies are urgently needed!
Empowerment-Education:
- UNITED SIKHS offers scholarships to village
children, along with an education program for Sikhi in colleges.
- Educare community centers in Richmond Hill, NY,
Carteret, NJ and London, UK provide a variety of empowerment and
education services to Sikh communities, including homework help from
teachers.
- UNITED SIKHS offers competitive internship
positions to introduce young professionals to the world of civil and
human rights advocacy, and the Sikh way of life.
UNITED SIKHS
participation at the United Nations is not possible without support
from community members like you!
As a UN affiliated organization, UNITED SIKHS participates at a global
level, and has represented the human and civil rights of the Sikh
community and other minorities at meetings and events at the UN. UNITED
SIKHS is a member of various NGO sub-committees, and works directly
with the United Nations Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
- UNITED SIKHS has made several presentations in
international conferences, including the presentation on nuclear
disarmament between India and Pakistan, and the effect on the Sikh
community. UNITED SIKHS also participated in several inter-faith events
to address climate change.
- The 2008 Global Sikh Civil Rights Report was
submitted to the High Commissioner on Human Rights and Special
Rapporteurs
- Special Report Submitted to Special Rapporteurs
on Racism, Xenophobia; Religious Freedom; and Education
- UNITED SIKHS filed the Right to Turban cases
against France in the United Nations to Defend the Right to Education
and Right to Dignity and Freedom of Religion
We are 10 this year. But there is no time to celebrate. Not until we
secure Sikh rights globally. We appeal to the Sikh nation to fund us so
we may serve a Sikh anywhere in the world through our 10 chapters. All
donations to UNITED SIKHS are tax-deductible in the United States, and
UK donors can make a Gift Aid declaration which increases their donation by up to 28%.
For a previous press release, please visit: https://unitedsikhs.org/PressReleases/donatereq08.htm
Issued by:
Kuldip Singh
Director
UNITED SIKHS
Email: act@unitedsikhs.org
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| Snap-shot of our work across the globe.
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United States of America:
Three Sikh religious musicians were wrongfully removed from a US
Airways flight after passengers objected to their appearance. UNITED
SIKHS and ACLU advocated for air travel without discrimination and a
settlement was awarded to the musicians by US Airways along with a
letter of apology. Securing the rights to Kakkars at work places,
airports and right to religious freedom.
United Kingdom: Challenged
the BBC for misusing a Khanda when reporting a crime. A 14 year
old Sikh boy was excluded from school for refusing to remove his Kirpan
in school. The young Sikh is now in a private school with UNITED SIKHS
presently working with our legal team to obtain a solution to the
problem of wearing the Kirpan in some schools.
UNITED SIKHS-UK's legal team and the Leicester and Nottingham Sikh community leaders worked around the clock to persuade a college to reverse a Kirpan ban that was enforced when two SIkh sixth-formers were stopped from sitting for their exams after they were found wearing a Kirpan by the invigilators.
Canada: Assisted a Sikh Youth Assaulted by Security Guards at the Toronto Games Arena. Led numerous Feed the hungry campaigns
Australia:
Fight workplace discrimination for a pizza hut worker. Submission to
Safework Australia to improve occupational health and safety for
immigrants. Established a database for Hate crime victims.
Belgium:
UNITED SIKHS filed a case in November 2009 against the Go Municipal
Board of schools which passed a ruling to ban the turban in all its
schools in Belgium from September 2010. UNITED SIKHS- Belgium was
registered in Nov 2009 to help facilitate our advocacy and other
projects in Belgium.
France:
French case for the Turban in the UN awaits justice. In Oct 2009, a
young Sikh was refused entry into a major French bank because he wore a
turban. Upon UNITED SIKHS’ intervention, the bank issued a letter of
apology, saying the incident took place because of “the manifestly
excessive and improper application of security instructions.”
Pakistan: A
Sikh lawyer in Pakistan was mercilessly beaten, his hair shorn and was
forcefully asked to convert to Islam. Fearing for their safety, his family
went into hiding. UNITED SIKHS is working with the government of
Pakistan to provide legal counsel to the victim and security for the
family.
Poland:
UNITED SIKHS helps a Sikh when a Warsaw airport fines him for refusing
to remove his turban after he has cleared security.
Japan: Assisted a Sikh family through the SWAN program to fight a raging immigration battle. |
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