Southall Homeless

Southall is like the ‘little India’ of London, located in West London. There are a huge range of places to eat and drink in Southall, particularly Punjabi, Sri Lankan, Pakistani and South Indian restaurants. Sri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara, on Havelock Road, Southall is one of the largest Sikh Temples outside India.
35.5% of people living in Southall Broadway were born in England. Other top answers for country of birth were 31.0% India, 8.4% Pakistan, 6.4% Sri Lanka, 2.6% Somalia, 2.2% Kenya, 1.1% Bangladesh, 0.3% Iran, 0.3% Africa not otherwise specified, 0.2% Ireland.
44.9% of people living in Southall Broadway speak English. The other top languages spoken are 22.0% Panjabi, 7.5% Tamil, 6.2% Urdu, 5.1% Gujarati, 2.5% Somali, 2.4% Hindi, 1.6% Pashto, 1.2% Bengali, 0.9% Malayalam.
The religious makeup of Southall Broadway is 31.0% Sikh, 25.8% Muslim, 23.4% Hindu, 12.3% Christian, 1.9% No religion, 0.4% Buddhist, 0.1% Jewish. (2010)

In Ealing, including Southall, there are about 150 homeless people. A missionary couple at Southall Baptist Church have run a homeless ministry since 2009. On average there are around 30~40 homeless people who visit the ministry. Every Wednesday from 6:30pm they provide meals served by volunteers, as well as one night’s sleep in the church hall. Occasionally the missionary shows the Jesus film or godly movies and plays christian songs.
Recently, we started colouring activities based on Bible stories. Colouring is a really effective form of therapy. We are praying for those we are serving to be powerfully impacted by the Bible stories. Also, we have been observing their colouring abilities. We will later develop the colouring material according to their different abilities.