Who We Are

THE STORY OF A TRANSFORMATIVE MISSION FOR BETTER FUTURES

Guru Nanak Blind Missionary Society was founded in 1988 by four blind friends, Avtar Singh Mann, Gian Singh Surjit, Rajinder Singh and Sital Singh Sitara, who had a dream to set up a residential music academy and training school for blind children in Punjab, India. The dream quickly became a reality and the Guru Nanak Mission Neterheen Birdh Ashram and Sangeet Academy – the Ashram – started teaching its first students in 1989.

Today, the Ashram goes from strength to strength due to the hard work of all the wonderful people involved. Sadly, three of our founders are no longer with us. Rajinder Singh passed away in 2003, Gian Singh Surjit passed away on 20th October 2006, and Sital Singh Sitara passed away on 16th October 2021. All the founders have worked tirelessly to raise funds around the world to provide a source of financial, educational, and emotional support to our blind children, ensuring that they grow up to be confident, intelligent, self-respecting and talented individuals.

Late S. Gian Singh Surjit

S. Avtar Singh Mann

Late S. Sital Singh Sitara

Late S. Rajinder Singh Bhatti

In Phagwara, Punjab, North India – on the famous GT Road – stands the Ashram. The Ashram is the only project of its kind in India – a residential music academy and training school for blind children founded, funded and managed by blind people. The Ashram accommodates many visually impaired individuals, along with staff including teachers, music professors, administrators, medical staff, and many wonderful volunteers. There is also a Sikh temple, the ‘gurdwara’, within the Ashram grounds.

A CHARITY WITH STRONG ROOTS

The histories of our little blind people are often tragic: orphaned, discarded, or worse. The Ashram exists for these children, to provide a safe, loving and nurturing environment in which the children receive an invaluable education, learn to cope with their blindness, integrate into a sighted world and flourish there. As part of a program to ensure that blind and sighted children learn to be perfectly at ease with one another, the Ashram also accommodates a number of sighted orphans living in the complex, and pays for their education at a local school for sighted children. In the evening they return to the Ashram to play, sing and laugh with their blind friends. The Ashram’s children are profoundly happy and joyful beings who are respected and understood, and they learn skills which will ensure them a far brighter future than their circumstances in India would otherwise have allowed.

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PRESS RELEASES

We are lucky to have a small army of wonderful people who work tirelessly to help the charity to achieve its aims. Needless to say, we would welcome you with open arms if you would like to

become a volunteer – do not hesitate to get in touch with us.