The Kirtan Project - Learn Panjabi & Kirtan

Vaheguru Ji Ka Khalsa

Vaheguru Ji Ki Fateh

Intro

The Panjabi language is intrinsic to Sikhi and Panjabi culture. Unfortunately in our lifetime we have seen a rapid decline in the use of Panjabi. Some even say that Panjabi is a dying language and in just a few generations the language and culture will have faded completely.

This is partly due to the old fashion teaching style which is still in place at many institutions. This method of teaching is outdated and simply doesn't engage the youth of today.

Hello!

Hi, my name is Charanjit and during the Covid lockdown in 2020, I started The Kirtan Project with my husband Sunny , and my two young boys Simran and Bani .

The Kirtan Project took inspiration from my mum whom taught and inspired hundreds of children in Leeds to love and embrace Panjabi and Sikhi as a way to connect to our heritage. We teach in a way that is engaging and easy to understand - using phonetics and songs. Children from age 4 have been able to blend letters together to create words after just 3 lessons.

Aims

The Kirtan Project aims to:

Already on Facebook, using our limited resources, we have completed Season 1 of our Panjabi for beginners lessons. These are free to access and have been seen by thousands of parents and children across the world.

Why are we doing this?

What we have learnt during this process is that we LOVE producing this content. It has been beautiful hearing stories of children being inspired and engaged from America, Australia, Europe, and across the UK. And we fully understand that social media has changed the entire landscape of how education can be delivered.

In fact, using Tiktok, Sunny has been able to engage millions of people when talking about Sikhi.

We also realise that we have the potential to create something amazing for generations to come if we have the right resources and time, which only funding can allow.

What is the funding going to be used for?

We would like to create a complete online series of lessons that will have adults and children speaking, reading, and writing in just a few lessons. In addition, we would be able to allocate time for Kirtan sessions, and to create workbooks for children.

How will we do this?

Your funding will allow us to create beautiful content. It will enable children and adults alike to learn and feel closer to their heritage.

We produce all our content ourselves. Luckily for us and our community of young learners, Sunny is not only a content creator with experience in film, but a voiceover artist and a CGI artist. His vision for the Kirtan project in a longer term is for it to be incorporated into the metaverse - like something from Ready Player One. Sunny has the experience creating 3D visualisations, CGI environments, and short films, and is wanting to use technologies such as Unreal Engine in making our lessons both visually engaging and also aesthetically beautiful.

We are confident that with this funding we will be able to produce amazing content for your children that you engage and rekindle a much needed love for their heritage.

Thank you for reading through this and watching our video! We cannot wait to do this!!!!

Vaheguru Ji Ka Khalsa,

Vaheguru Ji Ki Fateh