Officer’s Sunny Duggal rarely has time to himself between meetings and being on the road, but it’s all for a good cause.
His 25 years in community relief have seen multicultural communities bound across faiths to help all Australians.
Gazette journalist Corey Everitt spoke about how, amidst the busy life, he always chooses the sunny path.
“Because if you stop, you can stop any given day, right? But it brings you happiness, inner peace and strength,” said Sunny.
Living in Australia for over 25 years, Sukhvinder Duggal, also known as “Sunny“, has always been dedicated to working with those in need.
Predominantly in emergency relief, the work has been formally organised in the last four years through Community Response Australia (CRA), of which Sunny serves as president.
The roots of this work date back to growing up in Chandigarh, the capital of the Indian states of Punjab and Haryana.
With a significant influence from his parents, Sunny says life is characterised by the conviction to take the right path.
“What I see in life, there are only two ways. Either negative or positive, there is no middle way,” he said.
“We go this path and we will achieve what is right. We take this path, we might achieve but we might not be there for a long time.
“So you need to choose your path right. You need to stick to those.”
CRA and its preceding work unite many volunteers from multicultural communities around a singular goal of emergency relief.
It was the 2019-2020 Black Summer Bushfires that marked the beginning stages of forming CRA, where the communities delivered 11 tonnes of food to those affected.
Organising has worked out of temples, mosques and gurdwaras across many areas in the South East.
The response to the pandemic would solidify the CRA, where they delivered 40 tonnes of fresh food to those who did it tough, such as international students.
“We delivered 100,000 meals, we did 18 hours a day doing this.”
During the fires, they also delivered feed for affected farmers in East Gippsland.
CRA is also involved in supporting mental health programmes in partnership with Monash Health.
Sunny is driven by the influence of his family and spiritual life. He is a member of the Sant Nirankari Mission, which believes in the values of simple and selfless service.
“Since my childhood, we have had this thing in our minds to serve others. My parents taught us that way and, of course, my spiritual life also taught us that way.
“We believe in the faith of our living Guru, we don’t do it just in scriptures. We believe in the people who are there and we respect all faiths with our whole heart.”
Sunny is also a part of many other organisations such as the Cardinia Interfaith Network to serving as an ambassador for the Mental Health Foundation Australia and the Victorian Multicultural Commission.
Recently, he was a nominee for Cardinia Shire’s Stan Henwood Award. Sunny received the Multicultural Award for Excellence in Community Response and Recovery in 2020 for the response to the bushfires.
“Those credits tell you that you are on the right path and you should continue this journey.
“Because if you stop, you can stop any given day, right? But it brings you happiness, inner peace and strength.”
CRA has become a broad organisation that assists any call for help, regardless of the issue; they will help you in their capacity or refer you to those who can.
Looking to the future, CRA is attempting to secure a new community centre to focus their relief efforts and to have a location where people can engage directly.
“We need a proper space to continue our work and then we can put our proper professionals there and volunteers who can continue their journey.
“It’s very important for any organisation to survive, they need to have infrastructure.
“If the council helps us find that infrastructure or fund us for that period, we’ll make sure we are helping.
“You know, there are all these wars and especially the cost-of-living crisis, people don’t have much food left at home or groceries or they have rental issues.
“I think it’s about time organisations like CRA are given a chance. So they can go to the grassroots.”
You can see more about CRA at communityresponse.org.au
