By WILLIAM MBAHO
Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com
Saturday, August 6, 2005 Page S3
VANCOUVER — After 90 gang-related deaths spanning 10 years, two members of a newly created task force on South Asian youth violence in the Lower Mainland are confident that Indo-Canadians will support an action plan in their community.
The Group of 10: Integrated Community Response to South Asian Youth Violence has a mandate to develop and promote a strategy to reduce violence among young people in the community. The plan is due by the end of November.
On Thursday, federal Multiculturalism Minister Raymond Chan and Minister of Health Ujjal Dosanjh named the 10 volunteer members of the group, selected from a cross-section of South Asians living in Vancouver. They include youth workers, an RCMP officer, a probation officer and high-school teachers.
“Our goal is to reduce violence,” said member Andrea Dulay, an educational-behaviour specialist of Sikh heritage. “It’s added pressure that we need to prepare this action report in the next three months.”
She said the timing is right to prepare a plan to deal with youth violence.
“I haven’t heard of any gang-related murders in Vancouver’s Indo-Canadian community over the past couple of months,” said Ms. Dulay, who is married and has three young children. “But it’s a crisis when you have males dying under similar circumstances. People are still talking about it. Violence is a reality in all communities, but it’s an important concern among South Asians in the Lower Mainland.”
Group member Kashmir Besla, a Sikh, is the single mother of a 14-year-old boy and lives in a large Indo-Canadian community in Surrey.
“My background is in clinical psychology,” she said. “My main goal is to bring troubled children closer to their families instead of sending them away.”
Ms. Besla said violence prevention begins in the home, and finding new ways to reach parents scared to speak about problems with their children will be part of the committee’s task.
One Indo-Canadian mother who identified herself only as Jas is attending counselling for South Asian parents. She said her 17-year-old daughter became involved with gangs at the age of 15.
“My daughter started getting marijuana from the teenagers in the neighbourhood in secret while I was at work. Then she tried crystal meth and drinking alcohol. A year later, she was involved in an armed robbery with older kids and was almost recruited into prostitution.”
Jas said that after a year of weekly counselling and improved communication, mother and daughter are slowly getting past their difficult experiences.
“We talk more and I keep telling her I am always here for her.” B.C. Attorney-General Wally Oppal said the message of good parenting must be spread throughout the Lower Mainland’s South Asian community.
“There is a large group of young kids alienated from their parents who have come from India,” he said yesterday.
“It’s important that we reach those kids and work with them on mentoring and counselling.”Regrettably, there are also a number of youths who we can’t save, and will never save because they are in love with the gang culture. They’ve seen the movie Scarface too many times.”
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Our public schools need to be a part of the outreach.My school is 94% punjabi sikh youth. The aggression and swearing seen in my sons grade one class is very disheartening.I would also like to see Stay at Home parents take apart in there school community . It is an important part of your child’s self esteem. It helps the school with books,computers and teaches your child to have a sense of community responsibility.Our true purpose in life is to help your child have a relationship with God. How can we do that if we are not being apart of our child’s life and supporting them with knowledge .
Dear masala_mom,
Vaheguru ji ka khalsa,
Vaheguru ji ki fatheh !
_/_
That’s an excellent point. In a school that has 94% Punjabi Sikh youth, it is not possible to say that some “other culture” is influencing the children and causing bad behaviour. Either there is a problem with adjustment to school, or the life at home is not totally smooth. I think parents have a hard time understanding that when their children are young, giving them the right mix of social attention and spiritual guidance is crucial to their future development as role model citizens and Gursikhs. Without either of these, children lose faith in their parents and in God. Once they are older, fixing the situation becomes very difficult and then only some type of shocking event or tragedy wakes a person out of being engulfed in negative habits like drugs, alcoholism, gangs, etc.
I think schools also have a problem with reaching parents because many Punjabi parents who can’t speak Punjabi would rather not go to parent-teacher interviews because they can’t understand. In addition, for a lot of parents it does not matter how you are treating your classmates, or what sports you’re in, or which activities interest you at school. The bottom line is pass/fail, or grades. With guru ji’s kirpa, perhaps the Sikh youth of BC themselves should take an initiative to reach out to these parents. I think an organization like Gurmat Studies Foundation, PICS, Virsa, or even one of the SSA’s could make an effort to provide translation services for Punjabi parents and volunteer to write Punjabi school newsletters, so that they can be more involved in the school community.
Vaheguru ji ka khalsa,
Vaheguru ji ki fatheh!
I agree with you on all points.Parents do have a hard time. I would be excited for a Sikh mentor to come in and help support our Sikh youth directly. Setting example of behavior and letting parents know they have support . That parent involvement and awareness to there child’s activity is the most important to anti- gang and anti-drug environment.