The Waitakere Hindi School that has grown manifold in the past few years hosted a charity and cultural show on Saturday, September 21, at the Baptist Church Hall in Te Atatu, West Auckland.
Students of the Hindi School (West and South wings) prepared rigorously for the last two months for the cultural programme on Saturday. The students of the school were given a certificate and trophy for their hard work and participation in the Hindi school and the event.
Present at the event were Transport Minister Phil Twyford, National Party MP Alfred Ngaro, Linda Cooper, Auckland Councillor, Hon Consul of India Bhav Dhillon, Ajay Kumar of Global Financial Services, President of Waitakere Indian Association Sunil Kaushal, Ami Chand from Whau Local Board, and vice-chair of Henderson-Massey local board Peter Chan.
The event commenced with a prayer and a song dedicated to the Girmit legacy followed by greetings in Fiji, India and New Zealand.
“Our event is always managed and run by our students on the night, and this was highly appreciated by our audience.
“We had over 75 students from our West Wing School participating in the event who worked for eight weeks practising day and night for the show. We also had 31 students from our new South Wing School who prepared for this event in the last four weeks and gave three strong performances at the event,” President of Waitakere Hindi School, Saten Sharma said.
The Hindi School has 190 students from both wings and has plans to start new branches upon public demand in Hamilton, Tauranga, Auckland Central, North Shore and Palmerston North.
“We raised about $6550 after allocating all expenses of the event from the charity we ran during and before the event, and we plan to use the proceeds towards running the school, pay expenses like teachers’ wages, rental of the premises and other associated costs,” Mr Sharma said.
“Waitakere Hindi School believes and lives by its key motto, ‘Our Language, Our Identity’ and we will reach out to offer students from five years and older this fantastic service of Hindi language and cultural aspect of Harmonium, Tabla and Dance, so our children don’t miss out on our rich Indian heritage even though they live here in New Zealand.
The school encourages and invites parents and young children to learn Hindi make the most of the services provided by the school and encourage businesses to support the cause of the growth of Hindi Language.