Foreign students tie Rakhi to slum children in Gujarat

SURAT - A group of visiting foreign students, who are volunteers of AIESEC, celebrated the sibling festival Raksha Bandhan in the Surat city of Gujarat on Tuesday.

This Hindu festival marks the bond shared by brothers and sisters.

AIESEC or, the Association Internationale des Itudiants en Sciences Iconomiques et Commerciales is a global youth organisation that engages in international student exchange and internship programmes for profit and non-profit organisations.

The 15-member group included students from Germany, Italy, Belgium, Japan, Taiwan and China. It has come to India under the AIESEC students exchange programme.

The group today visited a slum area where the girl students tied the Rakhi, the sacred thread symbolising the siblings bondage, on the wrists of local children.

Many girls of the slum also tied Rakhis around the wrist of the female students of the group and offered sweets.

“To offer an experience of cultural exchange we have selected the festival of Raksha Bandhan,” said Nagendra Mishra, a local student.

One of the visiting students, a German national, said that the motto of this festival is an index of spreading a message of global peace and inspires all people to live together with the feeling of brotherhood.

“Motto for to come here, is to celebrate the Hindi festival and we are Christians. It’s for world peace and all the cultures coming together and no fighting anymore,” said Fransica Hope, a foreign AIESEC volunteer from Germany. By Sanjiv Amin (ANI)