Highlights
- Sikh Volunteers Australia drive 12 hours to flood-affected regions in NSW to serve free meals
- The volunteers distributed 1200 cooked vegetarian meals in Taree, Oxley Island and Manning Point
- 'Helping people gives us a sense of satisfaction,' says Manpreet Singh, a volunteer with SVA
A team of Sikh Volunteers Australia (SVA) travelled all the way from Melbourne to the flood-affected regions of NSW last month to provide food assistance to the flood victims in the northern regions of the state.
Manpreet Singh, a volunteer with the Melbourne-based charity organisation, tells SBS Punjabi that they contacted the local rescue centres to reach out to the affected families, who had to evacuate their homes in the wake of the deluge. He says the team served cooked vegetarian meals to flood victims in Taree, Oxley Island and Manning Point last week.
"Our team reached the affected region last week with their two vans fully loaded with the food items and served the freshly cooked vegetarian meals in the coastal catchments," he says.
'SVA served 1200 meals to flood victims daily'
The team reached NSW on Tuesday with their two vans fully loaded with the food items and served the vegetarian meals in Taree, Oxley Island and Manning Point. Source: Supplied by Mr Singh
Mr Singh says various rescue centres guided them so they could reach out to communities that were worst-hit by the disaster.
“The very first day when we were on our way to NSW, we contacted different rescue centres so that we could reach out to people that had been impacted and had not received help," he says.
“Once we got in touch with rescue centres, they along with some local community members assisted us with the food delivery in their own vehicles, enabling us to provide food to people in areas where it was difficult to commute via vans."
Mr Singh says the volunteers prepared over 1200 meals a day, distributed them in the region and served to the people who took refuge at the rescue centres.
"A local community centre offered its kitchen for preparing the meals, but it was quite a bit of drive from the region where we had our food vans set-up. We were travelling back and forth between the kitchen and the food delivery station at least twice a day," he recalls.
“Thankfully, our vans could carry up to 600 meals at a time, making it possible for us to serve freshly cooked meals to nearly 1200 people daily."
Mr Singh says people were distressed because of the significant property damage caused by the flooding, but that didn't deter their spirit, and they smiled every time the volunteers went with the food.
The volunteers used to prepare around 1200 meals a day and distribute it to the flood affected victims. Source: Supplied by Mr Singh
“People were distressed because of the situation as their lives got upended and their properties were severely damaged. But that didn't discourage them. They showered us with love and gratitude and welcomed our food vans with a sense of excitement," he says.
Mr Singh adds SVA believes in the philosophy of selfless service – or 'seva' without expecting anything in return.
Helping those people gave us a sense of satisfaction of our ‘Nishkam Sewa’ that essentially means selfless service to humanity without the need for recognition. Source: Supplied by Mr Singh
Click the audio icon on the picture at the top of the page to listen to the interview in Punjabi.
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