Khalsa Aid A Malaysian S Vision Changing Lives Worldwide

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Headquartered not too far from the outskirts of London lies the office of an international humanitarian NGO that has assisted thousands affected by armed conflict, natural disasters, and extreme poverty across more than 54 countries.
The NGO, known as Khalsa Aid, now operates on five different continents and was founded by Malaysian-born Ravinder (Ravi) Singh in 1999.
Ravi, who was born in Johor Bahru, eventually grew up in India and the United Kingdom, where he established the organisation based on the core Sikh principle of “Sarbat da Bhalla”, which recognises the human race as one, and aims to serve humanity for the goodness of all.
At the time, Ravi was struck by the plight of Kosovar refugees affected by the violent Yugoslav wars of the late 90s. He said Khalsa Aid was born after seeing a group of volunteers in his local newspaper who were helping these refugees make a safe passage into Albania.
"I phoned the group from the newspaper and asked to join them to help deliver aid donated by the Sikh community, who had been extremely generous in giving food and money. Within two weeks, we were on our way with two trucks and a van load of aid to Albania," Ravi is quoted as saying on the organisation’s official website.
Khalsa Aid founder Ravinder SinghYet, despite being a faith-driven organisation, the group emphasises that they have never engaged in any proselytisation efforts and that their volunteers from across the world come from all faiths and backgrounds.
Sat’pal Singh Dhillon, a Malaysian volunteer, said he was inspired to join the organisation after seeing Ravi’s widespread humanitarian efforts on television in the early 2000s.
According to Sat’pal, Ravi and Khalsa Aid’s international humanitarian work is no stranger to international media. In 2016, for example, the BBC produced a documentary highlighting Ravi’s humanitarian efforts in war-torn Iraq.
“When I first saw Ravi on TV, I did not even know that he was Malaysian. At the time, he was on a talk show in the UK. I saw pictures of him in conflict zones, and was curious to find out more about how Sikhs were volunteering in such places.
“Eventually, I learnt more about Khalsa Aid and reached out to him. It was only then that he told me that he was inspired by what we do in Malaysia, with semangat Malaysia and all that, and that he is also Malaysian,” explained Sat’pal.
Malaysian volunteer, Sat’pal Singh DhillonWhile Khalsa Aid does not have any formal chapters in Malaysia, Sat’pal emphasises that their main aim is instead to collaborate more effectively with local NGOs in ways that are most impactful.
Raising awareness
Similarly, Khalsa Aid Asia Pacific head of operations Gurpreet Singh agreed that their outreach programmes are not about expanding their organisation through more chapters, but raising awareness on ways local volunteers can work within existing frameworks, especially with grassroots organisations.
“We work closely with the affected communities and grassroots organisations. We are there purely to support people on humanitarian grounds and support them in that way. Hence, to do that, we work with local communities, community leaders, members of affected populations, and we recruit from the same communities.
“This empowers them and allows us to work more effectively. When we recruit local volunteers, we are recruiting people who understand their cultural needs and religious sensitivities. The language barrier is also gone. So, in that way, we are trying to be more prepared,” he elaborates.
At the Iraq-Syria border in 2019, for example, Gurpreet says they were able to set up a food kitchen in an active conflict zone, due to the trust they have established with local communities in Iraqi Kurdistan.
“At the time, the Kurdistan authorities approached us and requested help because we had worked with them before.
“We were the only international organisation allowed to set up a food kitchen at the border, and it was the first time in modern history that something like that had happened.
“We were able to provide food for refugees who were coming in from Syria. This was only possible through the trust we had built by working with the locals for years,” he said.
Nevertheless, humanitarian work in such circumstances is not without significant challenges. In addition to the obvious risks of volunteering in zones of active conflict and natural disasters, Gurpreet also explained how sanctions and blockades can often be a barrier to delivering the necessary aid.
Khalsa Aid Asia Pacific head of operations Gurpreet SinghMost recently in Gaza, for example, he notes how their volunteers had already gotten into Egypt with trucks full of aid supplies, yet the ongoing blockade by Israeli forces meant that it eventually took months for the aid to arrive, if it did at all.
Similarly, prior to the fall of the Assad regime, it was also difficult for foreign aid to enter Syria due to sanctions imposed by Western governments.
Gurpreet said that the difficulty only became twofold during the 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquake, where communities already affected by armed conflict were also further devastated by the impact of natural disasters.
“Eventually, however, we did manage to send aid trucks into Syria through Kurdistan, with the help and support of Kurdish volunteers and NGOs,” he said.
Another challenge that is often overlooked, Gurpreet added, is also ensuring that their humanitarian efforts are successful in leaving a long-term impact where affected communities can eventually become independent and self-sustaining.
Initiatives and programmes
Several initiatives which have been established by Khalsa Aid include English language and vocational training for refugees, establishing entrepreneurship and small businesses for affected communities, and providing them with farming supplies to grow their own food.
“When it comes to sustainability and rebuilding, we want to help them rebuild their lives. We may not be able to provide everything they had lost during those disasters, but we want to still be able to give them something meaningful that gives them reasons to keep going,” he said.
In Southeast Asia, the organisation has also recently set up a programme dedicated to providing clean water for indigenous communities in the Philippines. Just this year, they set up water pumps at schools on Palawan Island.
Gurpreet explained that this decision aimed to encourage students to go to school for both education and access to clean water, especially where local communities are also living in proximity to the schools.
“This way, it meets the immediate need of having clean drinking water, but it also has a long term impact to prevent waterborne diseases and reduce the strain on local healthcare services.
“Local kids are being sent to school to get the education they need, and while we also support those schools by providing them with the necessary infrastructure.
“So, in this region, we are starting with that. It is quite new for us in Southeast Asia, but this is one of the ways we plan to set up long term sustainable and impactful programmes,” he said.
Climate change
Khalsa Aid has also previously set up fundraisers for the most recent earthquake in Myanmar, and organised relief efforts for victims of typhoons and tsunamis in the Philippines and Indonesia.
While Malaysia has historically been more fortunate than some of its neighbours, Sat’pal emphasised that this should never be taken for granted, especially with the accelerated and unpredictable impact of climate change.
“When the Achech tsunami happened in 2004, for example, it was a big eye-opener for many of us to realise that something like this could happen so close to home. And I think the increasing frequency and intensity of flash floods in Klang Valley have also been very eye opening.
“We take clean drinking water, access to food, and these sort of privileges for granted. When something like this happens so close to home, you begin to realise that we are all vulnerable. So how are we able to build a support network if incidents like this happen again? How do we become more prepared to respond? How do we rebuild our communities from there?
“What we don’t realise is that a lot of people who were badly affected by the severe Klang Valley floods in 2021 and 2022 have still not yet managed to fully get back on track to where they were originally. So that is also the kind of long-term support and rebuilding efforts we want to think about within a local context,” he said.
Mental health support
Sat’pal also explained the necessity of incorporating mental health support as part of their long-term rebuilding efforts.
“When a crisis happens, there is a lot of trauma involved. So there is the process of mental health support that we have to establish to help make things better,” said Sat’pal.
He also notes that such mental health support is not just necessary for victims of armed conflict, natural disasters, and displacement, but also for volunteers who experience trauma of going into such conflict zones.
“Within Malaysian NGOs, we have mental health volunteers from both the public and private sectors. Some of them are clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, some are trained counsellors, and so forth.
“First, we identify the specific needs before getting the relevant professionals to engage with them. Sometimes all that is needed is simple moral support, but sometimes it can be more complex. So it really depends on a case-by-case basis,” he said.
It begins at home
Nevertheless, Sat’pal emphasised, the most crucial element of volunteering is that it should begin at home.
He explained that Malaysians interested in volunteering with Khalsa Aid can sign up on their website, where they will eventually be screened and then assigned to work with local NGOs and be given tasks related to their expertise and interests.
“Volunteers can come from any background. Any professional background and all skills are required in humanitarian work.
“For example, sometimes people want to do something with refugees. Sometimes, people want to do something in education. And if another organisation is doing something related to education, and we have partnered up with them before, then we direct the volunteers to those organisations.
“They remain Khalsa Aid volunteers, and they are able to experience the work at a grassroots level.
“Nobody can cover every part of the world, and nobody can cover every facet. So with Khalsa Aid and the rest of these organisations, we try to identify who has expertise in these different areas, and we bring them together as a coalition team that can go down to the ground and offer support.
“The most important thing is the feeling inside of you wanting to make a genuine difference. The groups that we have in Malaysia are also multicultural, multi-religious.
“We go out there, and I think that also helps build the ‘semangat perpaduan' (the spirit of unity) that we have in Malaysia. It (the work we do) is a real embodiment of that ‘semangat perpaduan’,” Sat’pal concluded.
- Mkini

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