Sikh temple offers COVID-19 vaccines to UAE residents

(8 Feb 2021) In normal times, the crowds of young Southeast Asian workers jostling for a place in line outside the Sikh temple in Dubai would mean one thing: free meals. A core tenet of the world’s fifth-largest religion with over 50,000 adherents in the United Arab Emirates is “langar,“ the practice of serving hot, home-cooked vegetarian food to anyone in need. It can be a lifeline in Dubai, where millions of low-paid workers from Asia, Africa and elsewhere power the service-heavy economy. But over the past few days, the Sikhs of Dubai have traded their spiced rice and dal for what has become a coveted prize: 5,000 shots of the Chinese-made vaccine offered to people of all ages and backgrounds. As the coronavirus pandemic surges to previously unseen heights in the UAE, residents are scrambling to get vaccines in the world’s second-fastest inoculation drive. “We found a lot of people who wanted to take the vaccine but faced difficulty,“ Surender Kandhari, the temple