By Alesha Capone
Point Cook resident Sudhir Juneja is a community worker who volunteers for many causes. He chats with Alesha Capone.
Tell me a bit about yourself.
I live in Point Cook and I work in Altona. My family has lived in Point Cook for about 10 years. We love the feel of the place, before that we lived in Altona and Richmond. We needed a bigger place and needed something that felt like home, hence we chose Point Cook.
My wife is an IT professional. We have two daughters, both are at university, one is doing medicine and one doing business studies.
I’m a local business coach and consultant, operating as Brands and Biz. I started this business to help many home-based, small and medium-sized businesses in Wyndham and the western suburbs. I also run a business networking group. All this is being done, along with my supply chain management job.
You do a lot of volunteering.
I’m a founder of the Western Gymkhana Club which operates in Point Cook, Tarneit and Manor Lakes. Six or seven people started the group and we now have around 70 families It’s a families-based group, with a focus on recreation and social needs of families. We meet a few times a month and work with a few other community groups. The motto of the club is “building community – together”.
We also do a bit of community work with volunteer lawyers and family workers, who help us with people who are experiencing family violence. As well, with family violence, I saw that there is a need for work at a grassroots level, where we can catch the signs early. I’ve organised a group to work on this, which will have its first meeting on March 30. I have experience with council, serving in two advisory committees. I really feel the council staff are working very hard for the area.
I have also started my own volunteering webpage. I try to bring different issues to the attention of local MPs and councillors, such as local safety issues, and the milk prices for farmers and its sell price of Coles, etc.
I also manage a community social media group on Facebook with others, it’s a community group called Point Cook Indian Community, open to all people from all cultures. We keep the community upbeat.
What do you like about Point Cook?
The feeling of the community in Point Cook is beautiful, I’ve never seen it in the four other suburbs I’ve lived in. For example, recently a family who rented a home, who had no contents insurance, lost many of their belongings in a house fire. The local community got together and raised nearly $20,000 for them. The Western Gymkhana Club straight away pledged $500.
