Shanti Niwas Seniors celebrate Diwali and Guruparab

After many restrictions due to the global pandemic, New Zealanders are now privileged to move around safely. This was a reason enough for Shanti Niwas to celebrate the festivities of Diwali and Guruparab or Guru Nanak Jayanthi with our senior citizens. Shanti Niwas, during its 26 years journey, has encouraged celebrations of various faiths and beliefs as there is a lot of learning in inter-faith exchanges.

Shanti Niwas, the single largest social service provider for South Asian seniors in New Zealand, celebrated Diwali with much fervor on September 19, 2020 at Athia Trust Hall in Onehunga, Auckland. Shanti Niwas has been serving the South Asian seniors for the past 26 years which is greatly valued and treasured by the community. The Diwali celebration was attended by more than 200 seniors of various faiths. The importance and relevance of Diwali festival was explained to the attendees. A range of musical and dance performances were presented for the guests.

Shanti Niwas believes in empowering its seniors to live a dignified life. Shanti Niwas provides a platform to the seniors to bring out their potential by making them participate in various activities. During COVID-19 restrictions, a lot of the activities were held online, and the seniors poured in their participations. The Diwali event acknowledged the winners of the online cooking competitions and the fashion show which was held on Social Media. The judges of the competitions were also honored by Shanti Niwas Management.

Many community leaders, political leaders, and representatives of several other organizations attended the event. Honorary Indian Consul Bhav Dhillon, former national MP Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi, President Nepalese Cultural Centre NZ, Kamal Shrestha, were among many other Shanti Niwas supporters. “We are delighted that all of you, including our lovely seniors, could attend the event today. We need a lot of encouragement going forward so that we can remain focused on our purpose of impacting lives of our seniors in a positive way,” said Nilima Venkat, General Manager, Shanti Niwas Charitable Trust.

November 30, 2020 was Gurunanak Jayanthi and taking the inter-faith exchange goal forward, Shanti Niwas seniors of different faiths attended the Gurunanak Jayanthi celebrations at Manurewa Gurudwara. Everyone spent a blissful morning of prayers, ‘seva’ and ‘langar’.

On December 15, 2020 Shanti Niwas will wrap up year 2020 with a Christmas celebration. Shanti Niwas is looking forward to acknowledging all the volunteers and supporters who have worked relentlessly to help the organization to reach out to more and more seniors irrespective of various challenges which came along this year. As Nilima Venkat mentioned, “A lot has been achieved because of the support received from the volunteers, funders and supporters. We are sure that together, with our firm resolution on our inter-faith exchanges and events, we will make a greater impact in the years to come”. - TIN Bureau