By Jamie Salter
Cranbourne’s Kanu Aggarwal has been recognised as the Citizen of the Year at the 2022 Casey Australia Day award ceremony.
As a teacher by profession, Kanu meets many parents who are seeking guidance during uncertain times.
Noticing an issue with bullying in schools, Kanu took a stance and helped develop a WhatsApp group for early-years’ intervention for young parents.
“I kept receiving calls from parents saying their children were suffering from bullying and language is a big barrier for parents to communicate with their schools, so that’s when I step in and explain their rights and responsibilities,“ she said.
Kanu is also a humanitarian who supports issues relating to children’s rights, borders, and migrant rights.
When her own son could not return to Australia from India during the coronavirus pandemic, she successfully created a platform to assist Australian parents to advocate for children stranded overseas.
“Because parents are stressed, they don’t know what to do and they looked at us with hope – we helped them as much as we could,“ she said.
Kanu said she was thrilled to be recognised at the Casey Australia Day award ceremony held online on January 25.
“It was a very proud moment for me and I’m very happy,“ she said.
“It feels so good to get acknowledged for my efforts.“
To celebrate, Kanu called her parents who live in India and enjoyed some Indian cuisine at home with her family.
“This was a really good effort from City of Casey to recognise their citizens I’m looking forward to doing some community work for parents this year, especially regarding bullying in school,“ Kanu said.
She encouraged those who needed support to reach out and get in contact with her.
