Ukrainian refugees lining up for meals cooked and distributed by Warsaw Seva, a charity founded by a Singaporean Sikh, at the Ukraine-Poland border checkpoint. – Photo: Charanjit Singh Walia / ST
By Asia Samachar | Singapore |
A Singaporean Sikh, who has been living in Poland on a temporary resident visa for the past 25 years, is in the thick of action extending help to the growing stream of refugees at the border of Ukraine.
“What I am doing at the border is to make sure no one is hungry,” Charanjit Singh Walia told Singapore newspaper The Straits Times late on Tuesday night (March 1).
“My mission is to feed the poor, needy and homeless. It’s my seva as a Sikh,” added the 64-old former restaurateur. Seva means selfless service in Panjabi and Sanskrit and serves as a valued component of the Sikh faith.
Along with a team of 20 volunteers, Charanjit has been working around the clock, waking up at the crack of dawn to cook meals and distribute them to those now stuck at the Polish border, the newspaper reported.
He has moved closer to the Ukraine-Pllish checkpoint, a four-hour drive from Wrsaw, the Polish capital, and is working out of a kitchen, along with his team, in a town nearests to the border.
Charanjit first went to Poland in 1996 for a visit, and ended up opening a restaurant in Warsaw. He ran Tandoor Palace for 17 years before deciding to do fulltime charity work. In 2017, he founded Warsaw Seva, a charity which runs on donations from locals, to feed the homeless, the newspaper reported.
Back in Singapore, he used to do voluntary cooking at gurdwara at Wilkinson Road in Katong.
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