Shashi was collecting cans to help others long before CDS Vic began, and has always found ways to turn small actions into meaningful change. Now he’s turning eligible drink containers into funds that support children’s hospitals while helping the environment.
When Shashi left India to build a life in Australia, his father gave him advice that would stay with him for forever. “Take only values from here, go to that land, respect the people, respect the law and do the right things,” Shashi remembers. “And never forget from where you started your journey.”
Those words became, as Shashi describes it, part of his “foundation” — shaping a lifetime of community service, from supporting children and families to protecting the environment.
Over the years, Shashi found many ways to do that. He became a Justice of the Peace, donated blood and helped establish bone marrow donor registration within the Indian community. Then, in 1998, he founded Friends of the Children Foundation.
Multiplying the impact
Shashi deliberately chose to focus his organisation on children. “When children learn something, they share it with others and multiply the impact,” he says.
Through Friends of the Children Foundation, Shashi has spent more than two decades supporting causes including the Good Friday Appeal and Monash Children’s Hospital, while involving children in activities such as Clean Up Australia Day and tree planting. Recycling became part of that work long before Victoria had a container deposit scheme.
Shashi would encourage students to collect aluminium cans, take them to recyclers and use the money they received to contribute towards equipment for children’s hospitals.
He would then take students to the hospital so they could see what their efforts had helped achieve.
“With your money, we have got this equipment,” he remembers telling them.
The amount raised wasn’t necessarily large. What mattered was showing children that something as simple as collecting a discarded can could create a tangible benefit for somebody else.
From collecting cans to CDS Vic
So when Victoria’s Container Deposit Scheme arrived, the idea behind it was already very familiar to Shashi.
He had seen cans and bottles discarded in waterways, including along the Yarra, and says seeing recyclable material treated as rubbish “really hurts”.
Today, he collects eligible containers from wherever he can.
Shashi has also become a familiar face at the Oakleigh refund point. During our visit with him, he seemed to know every second person who walked through the door — exchanging greetings, stopping for conversations and being met with genuine warmth. It was a small but telling reflection of the way CDS Vic has become part of his everyday routine.
At community and seniors’ events, he notices bottles and cans being thrown into general rubbish alongside food and other waste. Rather than leave them there, Shashi retrieves the eligible containers and takes them home.
“I don’t feel ashamed,” he says.
His neighbours help too. He simply asks people who drink eligible beverages to keep their containers aside for him.
At around $10 to $15 a week, Shashi estimates he has raised approximately $1,000 through CDS Vic.
The money goes back to the cause that has been at the centre of his work for decades: children, through the Royal Children’s Hospital and Monash Children’s Hospital.
For someone who has spent decades helping others, Shashi says it is often other people in the community who inspire him to keep going. His message to other community leaders, particularly within the Indian community, is simple – “Come together and promote humanity.”
And when it comes to CDS Vic, he hopes more people will see the opportunity to do something good twice over: look after the planet while giving back to the community and creating a better tomorrow for our coming generations.
