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Our Activities
Ekta’s regular activities include distributing groceries, bread and hot meals from various locations throughout the week. Many volunteers make this possible. Some recipients have now become regular volunteers. Ekta also organises special events that helps us empower individuals through knowledge and capacity development, and cultivate confidence by celebrating heritage and culture.
Building an inclusive NZ - Social Cohesion
WEEKLY ACTIVITIES
Grocery Distributions
Venue | Time |
Berhampore | Wednesday 9:30 am – 10:30 am |
Church St Flats (Kainga Ora) | Thursday 11:00 am – 12:00 pm |
St Peter's Church (Willis Street) – from the Undercroft behind the church. | Saturday 10:00 am – 11:00 am |
Guru Nanak Free Kitchen
Venue
|
Time
|
Opera House, Manners Street | Saturday 4:30 pm |
We hope to encourage other ethnic groups to come out and serve the larger community. When we started this five years ago, we were giving out 25-30 meals per Saturday. Now, we are averaging over 100 meals. In total we would have distributed between 15 and 20K meals, 5/6 tons of bread/pastries, and about 10K litres of milk and about 5 tons of fruit. | |
Berhampore Distribution
ANNUAL ACTIVITIES
Napier Flood Support
During the festive season, most agencies are closed for community service. Ekta has been filling in this gap in Wellington for a few years now. We pack and distribute grocery bags to the city’s most vulnerable.
ANZAC Day participation
Ekta annually participates in the public commemoration of the ANZAC Day, a day when the combined forces of New Zealand and Australia (Australia New Zealand Army Corps) landed in Gallipoli and effectively entered the war. Amongst the ANZACs were Indian and Chinese soldiers from both New Zealand and Australia.
Year-End Groceries
During the festive season, most agencies are closed for community service. Ekta has been filling in this gap in Wellington for a few years now. We pack and distribute grocery bags to the city’s most vulnerable.
Christmas and New Year Lunch
Most people celebrate New Years with their loved ones. However, for some ethnic and migrant communities, there are no loved ones around. For the most needy and vulnerable, there are no Christmas presents or anyone to wish them. Ekta steps in to support and celebrate the festive season with them. We’ve been having Christmas and New Year’s lunch with the community, alongside other faith groups and community leaders for a few years now.
Talk on social cohesion - the Singapore experience
Blankets Campaign
For five years now, Ekta, through generous help of our donors, has been distributing blankets and socks to the city’s most vulnerable during winter season. It has now extended this outreach service to Newtown and Porirua.
Empowering Programs
Digital Awareness Program
Computer training class caters to elderly adults whom coming to collect Ekta fresh food distribution on Saturday. As individuals await their turn for food collection, Ekta thoughtfully organizes complimentary computer training sessions. These classes aim to empower elderly participants with digital literacy, providing an opportunity to enhance their technological skills.
DYA initiative
DYA means compassion. It is Wellington’s only ethnic food bank launched in 2020. It runs weekly on Saturdays but over lockdown we ran daily. Approx 60 - 80 families are served through this service weekly now. Partnerships with Kiwi Community Assistance Pandoro Bakery, Freestore Foodbank and Kaibosh has enabled us to increase the varieties of groceries and food being provided. We are so grateful to St. Peter's on Willis (Wellington) who allow us to operate this from the church (Undercroft).
Seminar on Wills, Ageing, Scams and Cryptocurrency
Ekta led information sessions on Enduring Power of Attorney, Trusts, Investments and Kiwi Saver, Gifting, Financial Scams and Cryptocurrency.
Talk on overseas Income and Assets
Many migrants to NZ have income, savings, assets, and provident funds overseas acquired before (or even after) their migration to Aotearoa New Zealand. Some may also have family homes and other inheritances overseas in which they may be interested. Most may not be clear about the impact that this may have on the tax that is paid in NZ or the reliefs that may be available.
Ekta NZ organised a talk by IRD to create awareness of the matter and provide a platform to engage with IRD on possible concerns.
Ekta Van
We are thrilled to share the good news that Ekta acquired brand new vehicle. We offered multi-faith prayers to our new possession. This new invaluable addition will certainly empower us to service the community better. Thanks to Wellington community trust.
Mt Cook School Support
We joined hands with Mt Cook School, Te Aro to donate 10 chrome and notebooks to the school. The handover of laptops was done by our volunteers, Zhou, Wu, Sam, Kamy and Als to the Principal Adrianne. Ekta also supports Te Aro School in Aro Valley in addition to the support now given to Mt Cook School.
Meet the Candidates Sessions Across the Wellington Region
Ekta organised interactive sessions for ethnic communities and the city’s most vulnerable to meet the election candidates and discuss political issues.
Talks on understanding the Election system
Tendekai Mugadza from Electoral Commission spoke on the Voting Process of the NZ elections. What was surprising was that of the 45 attendees only 5 had registered. Ekta organises events such as these to enable eligible people to register and also exercise their vote
Vaccination drive
Ekta worked with various partners to support the COVID-19 vaccination drive for the ethnic, migrant and the city’s most vulnerable communities. From pop-up vaccination awareness events, to incentivising vaccination by giving away free ice cream and fruits in malls, bringing vaccination vans close to the community at their distribution centres, to supporting isolated families with grocery drop-offs.
Ekta Vaccine Campaign
Celebrating Culture and Heritage
Our Events
Ekta organises various events throughout the year. Some of these breakthrough events have been the first of their kind, for example, Eid and Diwali in malls, in the Parliament, and hosting some exhibitions of national and international artists.
There are also some events that have become an annual affair now – for example Guru Nanak birthday.
Diwali; Chinese New Year and Eid at the Mall
Ekta organised groundbreaking and inaugural cultural events across the Wellington region. This raised regional awareness, increasing inclusive participation from the mainstream
Education at DYA – Ekta’s Ethnic Foodbank
During its weekly grocery distributions, Ekta organises educational activities for the recipients. These include various cultural/religious festivals e.g. Malaysian High Comm showing Malaysian costumes; saree and turban tying during Visakhi, tree planting on Vesak day; dragon dance for Chinese New Year, Te Reo learning during Matariki etc.
Talk on the Malaysian Civilians of the Death Railway
Over 200,000 civilians were working on the “Death Railway” between 1942 and 1943. Most of them were from Malaya (Malaysia) and largely from the Indian community. The stories of these civilians have remained largely untold.
Ekta NZ hosted a talk by Mr.Chandrasekaran Ponnusamy, the son of one of the survivors and a founding member of the Death Railway Interest Group Malaysia. Chandrasekaran has been working for over a decade to bring about awareness of these civilian workers of the “Death Railway”
Exhibition of the Indian Soldiers of the World Wars and ‘Other ANZACs’
Ekta collaborated with NZICA to make this exhibition happen. We hope to work on creating greater awareness of these soldiers, many of whom were very new to the country when they went off to war.
Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s Birthday Celebration
Ekta has been celebrating a public Guru Nanak Dev ji’s birthday outside Aotearoa New Zealand beehive for five years now. The anniversary is attended by several government officials, members of the Diplomatic Corp, City Council officials, supporters from various faith groups, community leaders and social organizations.
Exhibition on Jallianwala Bagh
Ganeev Kaur Dhillon from the Partition Museum curated this exhibition.
'Punjab Under Seige' on the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre in Wellington, New Zealand was a huge success. The exhibition received an overwhelming response from the community of Wellington, especially students, over the past week! We were honoured to have MP. Mr. Michael Woods, H.E. Muktesh Pardeshi (High Commissioner of India to New Zealand), and Dr. Sekhar Bandyopadhyay (Director, NZIRI) address our audience at the opening ceremony.
This exhibition was the result of a collaboration between the Partition Museum, Ekta New Zealand Inc., and New Zealand India Research Institute (NZIRI) of Victoria University of Wellington.
Eleven Days
Ekta organised the NZ Premiere of the wonder film Eleven Days! The movie set in Western Australia is about cross-cultural interactions between an immigrant Sikh family and the larger Australian community.
It was in English with a smattering of Punjabi and Noongar. It is produced by a recent Malaysian Indian migrant to Australia. The producer was here from Australia.
Farewell my Indian Soldier
Ekta organised the NZ premiere of 'Farewell My Indian Soldier' at the Beehive Theatrette, Executive Wing, Parliament. The movie directed by Vijay Singh, a Parisian filmmaker brings to the fore the story of the 1.5 million Indian combatants and noncombatants who were involved in all theatres of the war. The story is told through the lens of a French girl's quest to find information about her Indian great-grandfather.
