Hundreds of people came out in Surrey to give blood on Sunday in what鈥檚 become an almost two decades-long tradition for the Sikh Nation.
鈥淚t was originally started as a movement against the 1984 Sikh genocide that occurred in India,鈥� said Jastej Kaur, a Blood Donation by Sikh Nation volunteer, in between signing dozens of people up to give blood at Newton鈥檚 Ecole Gabrielle-Roy.鈥�
鈥淭he Indian government massacred tens of thousands of Sikh people.鈥�
Instead of resorting to violence, the Sikh community wanted to do something positive for their own community to push back against the hatred displayed against them.
鈥淲e are not here to hate. We are angry, we are sad but we鈥檝e put all those emotions into such a powerful message,鈥� said Kaur.
鈥淲e鈥檙e here to save lives in our community.鈥�
The annual blood drive kicked off in 1999 and for almost 20 years, each November sees thousands of Sikhs come out to give blood, volunteer or just support the initiative.
鈥淭he response for us has been overwhelming. We鈥檝e had droves of people come out and donate,鈥� said Kaur. 鈥淲e鈥檝e saved over 120,000 lives in Canada alone.鈥�
The organization chose blood donation both because it fit into the tenets of their faith and because Canadian Blood Services, who they partner with for the blood drive, is always short on blood.
鈥淚f you look around, someone will have needed blood at some point in their life,鈥� said Kaur. 鈥淓ach donation saves three lives.鈥�
Matching blood types and antibodies can be difficult and often times people are more likely to find a perfect match from a donor from their own ancestral community.
According to Canadian Blood Services, although half of Canadians are eligible to donate blood, only one in 60 do so.
Sunday marked the second and final day of the organization鈥檚 annual Sikh blood drive in Surrey and Kaur said that hundreds of people had already donated by noon.
鈥淪ikhs always come out because it鈥檚 such an emotional event for our people. We want to make sure that people don鈥檛 forget that this happened to us,鈥� she said.
鈥淏lood was taken from us and now we鈥檙e giving back that blood in a positive way.鈥�
For more information on how to give blood,
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