Ian Goodenough (Moore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a great honour to have received an invitation to launch a charitable foundation by Mr Shanti Sivaraj, a local businessman, who has an inspirational story of arriving in Australia as a migrant from Sri Lanka with limited means. Upon his arrival, Mr Sivaraj worked hard in a number of jobs, including in regional towns, to build up his business in the food and beverage industry, culminating in success as the current licensee of a number of McDonald's outlets in Perth's northern suburbs. Shanti's generosity and community spirit have seen him support a number of charitable causes over the years, including Ronald McDonald House. He has made a substantial contribution to the local business community by employing and training local youth as staff and is seeking to help others achieve their full potential.

The Om Shanti Foundation is an association that has been incorporated to help families in the northern regions of Sri Lanka through the provision of microcredit grants to allow families to become self-sustaining and to alleviate poverty. The driving vision is to create a system that can be modelled globally, which empowers communities of the Third World to live a self-sustaining, higher quality of life through education, microfinancing and social support. The mission is to help people help themselves. The philosophy behind the approach is very much to provide those in need with a hand up rather than a handout. It is personal development and advancement through endeavour, hard work, enterprise and reward for effort. Current objectives include microcredit grants to help families establish microbusinesses; an essentials drive, which provides living essentials for those in desperate need; and a kids for kids initiative, which plans to connect children in Perth with those in Sri Lanka to raise funds and develop greater awareness and understanding of global social justice issues. The foundation has future plans to assist the homeless citizens of Perth in the northern suburbs through the provision of resources and counselling. I am pleased to be attending a fundraising event on 6 October to launch the foundation and support its charitable work into the future. I pay tribute to Shanti Sivaraj in this parliament. He is an outstanding citizen and family man who is making a significant contribution to our community and the northern suburbs of Perth and improving international relations with Sri Lanka, an important trading partner.