After a lapse of nearly two decades, the Nasinu branch of the Shree Sanatan Dharm Pratinidhi Sabha of Fiji hosted a five-day Ram Katha Sammelan at the Nav Durga Mandir in Narere, Nasinu, which ended last Saturday.
Nasinu Sanatan branch treasurer and Ram Katha Sammelan event chairman Rupen Sharma said the aim of the program was to educate youths on the characteristics of a true leader because they were the ones who would become the future leaders.
“The word sammelan means unity through the religious groups, within the organisation, at village, district and national level,” Mr Sharma said.
“This sammelan is happening after two decades.
“The reason being that our past leaders have failed to unite our people by reaching to individual religious groups. “The motto of this event was to educate our community, which didn’t happen in the past.”
He said the program was mainly to educate youths on the cultural, religious, and social values and the turnout was great.
“Every night we had a youth program collaborated with this, but we also tried to diversify this program by bringing in some corporate and logical values.
“We had FijiCare Insurance coming in to advise us about insurance programs. Most people are not aware of these kinds of programs (insurance programs) because the awareness was not there.
“We are not just advocating on religion and culture, but also health lifestyle, importance of having health cover.”
Mr Sharma said there was also a women’s empowerment night whereby women were given an opportunity to take part, and they were able to identify some women leaders.
“We also empowered women. Women are a very important part of our life, part of everything.
“For the very first time, some of these men got to see what our ladies could do in terms of singing, preaching and things like that.”
Mr Sharma said the success of the event “took a lot of planning and courage” and he was thankful for the turnout.
