SIR – Last month, thousands of people from the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain and Jewish communities took part in a day of volunteering and social action. It was a demonstration that Big Society is not just a political statement, but something that can work in practice.

National Sewa Day, like Mitzvah Day, aimed to get local communities to take the responsibility for overcoming the challenges of disadvantage and deprivation by harnessing resources and talents that exist within them.

Projects undertaken on the day, included tree-planting; building a garden in an citizens’ advice centre; cleaning communal areas and removing graffiti from walls; painting murals in schools, old people’s homes etc; conducting concerts for elderly and disabled people; organising yoga workshops in orphanages and youth centres or helping with soup kitchens.

Nationally, more than 5,000 people from more than 100 cultural, community and faith organisations volunteered a variety of projects throughout the UK, including Bradford, Oldham, Manchester, Birmingham, Leicester, Northampton, Luton and across London.

It has generated considerable goodwill across all communities and brought us all a little closer, so I’d like to thank everyone who took part and supported the first-ever National Sewa Day.

Arup Ganguly, chairman of National Sewa Day