British ColumbiaVaapsi Recovery Home in Surrey, B.C., supports Punjabi men struggling with addiction through culturally specific programming. Eighteen men have graduated from the program since it started in January.Program counsellor says culturally relevant activities help men ‘heal in something that feels like their own’Lauren Vanderdeen · CBC News · Posted: Oct 20, 2025 11:08 AM EDT | Last Updated: 3 hours agoVaapsi Recovery Home, a sober living house in Surrey, B.C., supports Punjabi men with culturally specific principles. (Janella Hamilton/CBC )A new sober living house in Surrey, B.C., is helping Punjabi men struggling with addiction get back on their feet through culturally rooted support.Eighteen men have completed the 90-day program since it started in January.Kuldeep Singh graduated from Vaapsi Recovery Home in August. He said he had been an alcoholic for 22 years.The drinking took him to a bad place.“I got kicked out from my community, as people say, ‘Oh, like, he’s an alcoholic,’ right? Then I started feeling shame about it. And then I started using it more and more and more and more.”Kuldeep Singh, a graduate of Vaapsi Recovery Home, credits the program with giving him a foundation for his life. (Janella Hamilton/CBC)Singh said the stigma around alcoholism isolated him from his community.“The thing is, if nobody’s going to talk to those guys, then who’s going to hold their hand? Who’s going to tell them to be sober, like Vaapsi House is doing? They’re holding my hand.”Singh, originally from India, said he credits his recovery to Vaapsi House.The program bills itself as the first culturally responsive sober living house for Punjabi men in B.C. and connects men with counsellors, psychologists, doctors and nutrition programs.They also have a set schedule — prayers, meals, mindfulness work, scheduled art classes, therapeutic intervention, gurdwara visits — with time for community building: movies, bowling nights and gym routines.The eight-bedroom home can accommodate up to 10 people.WATCH | Sober living house sees participants from across Canada:Surrey sober living house offers culturally relevant recovery for South Asian menA new sober living house in Surrey, B.C., is helping Punjabi men recover from substance use and mental health challenges. As Janella Hamilton reports, facilitators say the program has participants from across Canada. Gurmukh Aujla, lead counsellor at Vaapsi House, said the culturally specific programming helps the men feel like they belong.“There is a need for a culturally relevant program that allows individuals to heal in something that feels like their own.”He said men have come from across Canada, as far as Brampton, Ont., to attend the program.Aujla said some recovery programs can be spiritually disconnected, but Vaapsi is rooted in Sikhi-based principles.“We are a collectivist folk. We are meant to heal in community,” Aujla said.Gurmukh Aujla, lead counsellor at Vaapsi House in Surrey, B.C., says the sober living house helps men recover through culturally specific principles. (Janella Hamilton/CBC)An elder comes in twice a week to teach the men how to cook, according to Aujla.She provides motherly support, but also shares cultural knowledge that might not be a part of other sobriety programs, he added.“She cooks with the brothers, she hangs out with the brothers. She passes on generational knowledge.”The program is run and funded by grassroots community members, Aujla said.It was founded by Malkiat Singh, a Surrey man who died last December.“He wanted to create a space for brothers to heal in community,” Aujla said.For Singh, he said Vaapsi House gave him a brotherhood and a foundation.“They help me with everything. [I’m] now working on my own … and living a blessed life.”ABOUT THE AUTHORLauren Vanderdeen is a web writer for CBC British Columbia. She formerly worked for community newspapers, including the Burnaby Now and New West Record. You can reach her at lauren.vanderdeen@cbc.ca.With files from Janella Hamilton
Sober living house in Surrey helps Punjabi men recover in community
