By Rowan Forster
Sikh communities have hit the jackpot in the State Government’s first ever Pick My Project initiative, acquiring three of the six grants allocated across Cardinia.
A whopping $275,520 will be pumped into the municipality to build a free-to-access Sikh community kitchen, a senior’s centre and a primary school program to raise awareness about the region’s “salad-bowl” status.
Two of the schemes will be spearheaded by the Cardinia-based Sikh community, while the community centre will be co-funded by the Baba Budha Ji Charitable Trust.
Multicultural initiatives proved to be popular in the Victorian Government’s community group lottery, with more than a dozen grabbing cash across Melbourne’s south east.
Community spokesman Harpreet Singh said both he and his companions are extremely grateful to have been selected.
“I was quite hopeful but when the news came I was really shocked,” he told the Gazette.
“Our initiatives are about respect – to treat everyone equally and promote brotherhood.
“We live in a global society and need to educate our kids about our rich multi-cultural diversity.
‘We need to celebrate difference and uniqueness and we need to raise citizens who treat each other equally.”
The community kitchen, touted as the group’s marquee project, will provide food for the homeless, hold healthy eating and multicultural food recipe demonstrations and host events for school kids.
For the Cardinia-based Sikh community, the projects will further raise their profile in the community.
In June, they celebrated the official opening of their Officer temple after a tumultuous battle to secure a site.
“We will be welcoming a lot of people from other communities to sit with us and have a meal with us,” Mr Singh added.
“I just want to thank the Victorian Government for an interesting initiative like this and we’re looking forward to completing the project.”
He conceded that the voting process was quite “tricky” – including a thorough questionnaire, mobile and e-mail verification – but the process was ultimately worthwhile.
The Sikh community of Cardinia Shire purchased a 20-acre property in 2017.
Located on a green wedge zone at Officer, the property has remained largely unattended since then.
Mr Singh told the Gazette the group has faced hurdles ever since.
He said the Pick My Project initiatives would likely be located at the Officer site.
“We think that our places of worship also need to think beyond just being a temple,” Mr Singh said.
“We need to integrate environmental and community concerns and build partnerships with other community and social groups in our regions.”
