At a Gurdwara, a Sikh temple in Covina, California, Mohinder Singh has been providing food and drinks to hungry people who have been displaced by the horrific wildfires in Los Angeles County for the past week.
People’s cheeks light up when we serve them tea, as if we were giving them gold. “I find the joy in their eyes to be calming,” Singh remarked. Tomorrow, we’re going to make samosas.
Asian Americans are the most religiously diverse population in the United States and the third largest racial community in Los Angeles. However, this variety is coming together to help the thousands of people affected by the biggest wildfires in Southern California’s history.
To help their fellow Angelenos, Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs, Taoists, Muslims, Jews, and others are all collecting money and volunteering in various ways.
Singh is a member of the United Sikhs, a faith-based organization with ties to the United Nations that has previously been sent to countries affected by natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina and Sandy as well as conflict zones in Ukraine. The group has focused on the devastated Los Angeles region this time.
As the fires continue to rage across tens of thousands of acres, United Sikhs is one of several organizations from across the country that have arrived in the region.
The idea of Seva, or selfless service, is what drives Mehul Patel, a volunteer at the Hindu temple BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Chino Hills, to give back to his community.
Patel attributed this idea to the late president of the group, his holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj, saying that “in the joy of others lies our own.”
According to Patel, that is our guiding principle and the concept of Seva and service is ingrained in our religion.
Within 24 hours of the fires beginning, the group’s volunteers began to mobilize, he said.
On January 9, they held their first donation drive, gathering water, first aid supplies, and sleeping bags to deliver to Pasadena disaster relief agencies.
The #SOCALSTRONG Wildfire Relief and Recovery Fund is a fundraising initiative launched by the Hindu organization to aid the victims in their recuperation.
Donations have been coming in from all across the world. People sincerely want to assist this endeavor because of these grave conditions, which truly shows you the global influence that the city of L.A. has had, Patel told NBC News.
Another tenet of the global organization United Sikhs is the belief in Seva and the selfless service of people in need.
Sevais selfless service or ingrained in the Sikh faith. Gurvinder Singh, the director of international humanitarian relief of United Sikhs and unrelated to Mohinder Singh, stated, “We have fought for the weak, we have spoken out for the voiceless, and we have helped and abetted those who cannot help themselves.”
The majority of calls to the organization’s helpline, Umeed, come from people impacted by the wildfires in Los Angeles.
Singh told NBC News that while many people are in need, many more want to volunteer.
In the past, Mohinder Singh of United Sikhs assisted with relief efforts following Hurricane Helene.
He operated five restaurants in India, where he resided till YEAR. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he lost everything.
According to Mohinder Singh, “God has sent me to be among these people.”
According to Gurvinder Singh, the Sikh group served more than 1,300 meals on Sunday.
excluding clothing, snacks, and emergency supplies. “That’s just hot meals that are part of Langar,” he remarked, adding that Gurdwaras give free meals to everyone.
He hopes that people will know they are going to get assistance when they see someone with the word Sikh written on their clothing or wearing a turban.
The nonprofit Buddhist organization Tzu Chi USA has also been organizing its members, collecting supplies and money for disaster relief, and planning an interfaith prayer at their San Gabriel Valley Service Center on January 7.
Disaster relief efforts have also been led by local churches. At the Mandarin Baptist Church of Los Angeles, a multicultural congregation that offers services in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese, Justin Chang serves as the minister of community outreach.
We have been looking for ways to assist the members who were impacted, some of whom lost their houses, Chang added.
Chang claims that when World Vision, an international humanitarian organization, was searching for groups that could assist the group in distributing supplies in the Los Angeles area, they reached out to his church.
Chang told NBC News that their distribution campaign on Saturday was successful in providing blankets, water, school supplies, toys, hygiene kits, socks, and masks to ten families.
Some members of our church can stay with friends and family since they are more financially secure. However, Chang noted that some people are grabbing whatever they need because they have lost everything.
Everything has been lost in the instance of Altadena, California’s Sunni Muslim mosque, Masjid Al-Taqwa.
On January 7, the Masjid, a cornerstone of the neighborhood since the 1970s, was destroyed in the Eaton Fire.
The mosque was established by African-American Muslims in the Nation of Islam before converting to mainstream Sunni practice in 1975, according to Jihad Saafir, a former imam and community partner.
People of different faiths attended the prayer service, according to the imam. You have a family from Egypt worshiping next to a family from Pakistan, a family from Bangladesh, and a family from the Black community. It’s a multicultural community.
Members of the local and global Muslim community started a crowdfunding campaign on the website LaunchGood. To repair the Masjid, the first mosque in the Pasadena area, more than $700,000 has been contributed so far.
Additionally, the campaign garnered online attention, notably from well-known American Muslim commentators.
“This community is a community of light, and it’s lovely to see everyone coming together,” Safir remarked.
I have faith, and many people are cheering for Masjid Al Taqwa, therefore it’s a temporary setback for a stunning recovery.