Sonam Bhandari, founding member of the Indian Mums' Group, has won a Hastings Civic Honours Award. Photo / Warren Buckland
Sonam Bhandari, founding member of the Indian Mums' Group, has won a Hastings Civic Honours Award. Photo / Warren Buckland
Sonam Bhandari knows it takes a village to raise a child, and a little bit of coffee too.
Now the Hastings mother, who started the Indian Mums' Group to connect people over culture and a bean brew, has been recognised for her efforts.
Bhandari is one of 11 recipients ofthe Hastings Civic Honours Awards for her volunteer efforts in the community, most notably through the Plunket group she helped found in 2014.
Bhandari moved to Hawke's Bay in 2011 with her husband Dan Singh. With the arrival of their first child Anusha Rana in 2014, the Indian Mums' Group was born.
The group was established to help mums of Indian origin to find support and connection within the Hawke's Bay community.
"It started with just three of us and we're still best friends now. The group is a place where mums can just be ourselves, share our stories and support each other."
Sonam Bhandari with her Indian Mums' Group that she helped found in 2014. Photo / Supplied
For Bhandari this was important given her recent arrival in the region and lack of a support network and sense of family.
She sees the group as enabling Indian mums "to look after each other in a way like back home".
"In India we live in big families and big neighbourhoods. As the saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child."
Through the group, Bhandari has created a space of connection to community and to culture, helping other Indian mums to feel a sense of place and family when estranged from home.
"We are like a family now; we connect on a family basis. All of our kids know each other. I would love for everyone else to have these kinds of friendships."
She said the connections established through the group embolden mums to socialise within their community.
As Bhandari explains: "Women in the Indian community can be shy and not want to go out. We are often told to be housewives and mothers first, that our responsibilities lie in the home."
The group has engaged its mums in a variety of events outside the home, from the celebration of Indian festivals to hosting guest speakers, while maintaining regular coffee catchups every Tuesday at the Heretaunga Women's Centre.
On top of these contributions, Bhandari is also working towards establishing a Hindu space of worship in the Hawke's Bay community.
She believes that through creating these spaces of belonging in the community we can work towards social cohesion in Aotearoa/New Zealand.
Despite all of her efforts, Bhandari was "taken aback" by her nomination for the award.
"It's my first individual award ever. I was in denial. I was like why would I get an award? I've only be doing it for around seven years and there's so much more that I really want to do."
"However, it makes it feel like home when your community is celebrating you."
As Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst remarked: "They don't ask for recognition, so these awards given out on behalf of the Hastings district are a way to ensure their efforts don't go unnoticed."
Other recipients of the Civic Awards were the Rotary Club of Stortford Lodge, the Multicultural Association Hawke's Bay and the Tauroa Reserve Care Group, Cynthia Bowers, Corrie Hughes, Richard Moorhead, Shimul Islam, Judith Burkin and Garry Dockary.
