A group of artists – R. Paul Dhillon (journalist-Editor of the LINK and filmmaker), Niranjan Singh “Nanji” Dhaliwal (song writer-lyricist), Sam Sidhu (music director) and Gogi Bains (singer) – came together with actors, technicians and many other supporters like Kal Dosanjh and his KIDSPLAY organization, to produce an anti-gang violence arts-music video campaign called TARGETS (ਨਿਸ਼ਾਨੇ) to bring awareness to our youth. They chose the music video format because the youth consume music and music videos as their primary ways of getting entertainment and it’s considered the strongest form of communication to youth. The Targets team has done their own fundraising to fund this project and welcome others who want to make a contribution to join them in their effort including individuals from the business community, government and non-profit organizations and professional as well as community groups and organizations. The product of the TARGETS team’s hard work finally saw the light of day on Saturday April 13 as the full music video premiered on Youtube channel MMM Music & Filmson Vaisakhi Day 2019 to great community reaction.

SURREY – The South Asian community has gone through two decades of youth drugs and gang violence that has claimed nearly 200 young Indo-Canadian men. And just when everyone thought that the nightmare of losing young men had finally ended, it has reared it’s ugly head again with a spate of shootings that claimed more young South Asian-Indo-Canadian men in recent wave of gang violence.

A group of artists – R. Paul Dhillon (journalist-Editor of the LINK and filmmaker), Niranjan Singh “Nanji” Dhaliwal (song writer-lyricist), Sam Sidhu (music director) and Gogi Bains (singer) – came together with actors, technicians and many other supporters like Kal Dosanjh and his KIDSPLAY organization, to produce an anti-gang violence arts-music video campaign called TARGETS (ਨਿਸ਼ਾਨੇ) to bring awareness to our youth.

They chose the music video format because the youth consume music and music videos as their primary ways of getting entertainment and it’s considered the strongest form of communication to youth.

The Targets team has done their own fundraising to fund this project and welcome others who want to make a contribution to join them in their effort including individuals from the business community, government and non-profit organizations and professional as well as community groups and organizations.

The product of the TARGETS team’s hard work finally saw the light of day on Saturday April 13 as the full music video premiered on Youtube channel MMM Music & Filmson Vaisakhi Day 2019 to great community reaction.

“We are excited to see our entire team’s hard work finally premiere and we hope that our small effort bears fruit,” said TARGETS director R. Paul Dhillon.

“This has been a long journey but we hope that it makes an impact with our youth – this is just a start of something that hopefully other artists and filmmakers will do on a continuous basis so that we can keep bringing awareness and education that can stop the flow our youth to gangs and drugs,” TARGETS (Nishanney-ਨਿਸ਼ਾਨੇ) song-writer Nanji Dhaliwal said.

The rise in recent drug-gang activity resulting in increased violence has become an unwanted part of many of our lives. The 44 shooting incidents in Surrey in 2015 and since then rising community violence involving youth in Surrey and Abbotsford highlight the combination of youth and guns as a growing problem in Metro Vancouver.

There are many South Asian community groups, organizations like KidsPlay and police who are doing their best to bring awareness to youth and provide them with a positive and progressive path.

It was in a similar spirit to bring awareness and address the drug-gang violence that above mentioned group of artists decided to launch an arts-music campaign called TARGETS to bring awareness to youth as they consume music and music videos as their primary ways of getting entertainment and amusement.

The goal of all parties involved in trying to stop this gang-violence monster that is consuming our youth is to create atmosphere for youth take part in change and to identify behaviours attributed to a dangerous lifestyle in youth, and then to curtail these types of behaviours in our community.

The TARGETS team decided to do this through a music video campaign including a follow-up PR campaign to address the gang violence and create a deep-rooted dialogue among youth to steer them away from this disease.

“We feel this is a small contribution that we are making to fighting gang violence in our community and any effort by all groups in fighting this beast is necessary,” Targets Team said in a joint statement. “We are excited about the opportunity to make a small difference through our collective love of the arts and music, film and journalism.”

The TARGETS (ਨਿਸ਼ਾਨੇ) team has done their own fundraising to fund this project and welcome others who want to make a contribution to join them in their effort including individuals from the business community, government and non-profit organizations and professional as well as community groups and organizations.

For more information, please email us at info@branddmedia.ca Or Contact:

Niranjan Singh Dhaliwal – 604-657-7800 or R. Paul Dhillon – 604-880-3463.