By Corey Everitt
Pakenham resident Rekha Devdas is making her first bid for Cardinia Shire Council promising a vision to bring all of shire’s diverse communities together.
Devdas is running in Central Ward, she is an independent candidate with a background as a dentist with a Masters Degree in Public Health, Devdas now works as a Project Manager at Frankston City Council.
Her first-hand experience showed her ‘she could do it’ and has given her a wealth of experience in Local Government.
Devdas’ decision to run for council stems from a desire to bridge the gap between Local Government and the migrant families that make up an increasing portion of Cardinia’s population.
“The main purpose of me nominating is that council does do a lot of important work, and especially the ward I’m contesting,” she said.
“There are a lot of migrant families that potentially don’t know what the council does or how they can utilize their services.”
Alongside her career, she is a member of the council’s Multicultural Advisory Committee and also volunteers with Blessed Collective.
Her candidacy both comes with the desire to represent the community, but also shows that people should put their hand up and involve themselves in any capacity they wish.
“For me, it’s a two-way stream – one is for me to show the community what they can tap into, how they can access services, sporting facilities, recreation facilities, grants, and in the other way, I’m working for what the community needs,” she said.
As a migrant who moved to Australia in 2011, she has taken the initiative to see a multicultural representation on the council.
She recounts that for migrant communities the initial phase is a kind of ‘survival mode’ in settling in, having firmly established herself now in a community she loves, her mode now is to ‘give back’.
Part of that process is also to help more of Cardinia’s growing multicultural communities to be involved and know they can contribute.
“You cannot deny the fact that I have been born and bred in a developing country, I have first-hand experience of what the community has been through,” she said.
“Initial days it’s all about settling in, trying to find our feet, but now I can proudly say I’m in a state of thinking about what else I can do for the community.
“I wanted to stand for the community I come from, to say it’s okay to put your hand up.”
Devdas is quick to praise the council’s efforts, especially in light of the challenges posed by the pandemic.
However, she believes there is room for improvement in terms of community involvement, whether it be more engagement with the significant development taking place or to break down cultural barriers around topics of mental health and domestic violence.
“People do not know what they are eligible for, they don’t know how to access mental health services because there is a lot of taboo around it,” she said.
“Domestic violence, women wouldn’t probably voice it from a migrant background because they depend on somebody or it’s a part of their culture they have been normalised to it.”
“As a councillor, I would like to represent the multicultural community but also to listen to constituents to talk about how they feel about all the developments in the area.”
Whether she wins or not in October, the campaign itself stands as an objective to demonstrate that more can and should involve themselves in local public affairs.
“It’s a very different experience because the time and effort I’m putting in, I’m not even looking at what is going to come at the end,” she said.
“What happens in this election doesn’t matter because I will continue to be a part of the community doing what I love to do.”
