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Staff at Vaisakhimhs staff get into festival mood

Staff at mhs homes are learning about festivals celebrated by various religions and faith groups whilst helping to raise money for their chosen charity for this year, The Macmillan Cancer Care Unit at Medway Hospital.

The staff run initiative has already raised over £250 after three festival awareness days, with a further ten planned throughout the year.

mhs homes Equality and Diversity Co-ordinator, Christine Treadwell said, "We wanted to create a better understanding amongst our staff of the variety of religious and cultural festivals celebrated by people in the UK. Many of us know about our own religions and cultural events but have little or no idea about others that take place in our multi-cultural society today."

She continued, "The lunchtime awareness events we have held have been very successful so far, both for in terms of raising awareness among our staff and also for the religious groups running them. We are asking for a small donation to our charity each time – so people are learning as well as boosting the funds for our chosen charity."

Surindar Singh, Chairman of the Sikh Community & Education Association and his wife Ranjit Kaur visited mhs homes to give a talk on the festival of Vaisakhi. Surindar said, "It’s excellent that mhs homes has taken the initiative to run these events. Not only is it a good opportunity for people to understand the different religious festivals but they can also take part in the celebrations. It’s also excellent that any money raised is going towards getting a cancer care unit a Medway Hospital. A really worthy cause that will benefit the whole community."