Jayanti Gupta has devoted decades of her life working to make Canberra a better and more inclusive city.
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Mrs Gupta was named 2017 ACT Volunteer of the Year on Monday and said she felt humbled and "tremendously lucky" to have her efforts acknowledged.
"It is too exciting for words," she said.
She is the founder and chair of Integrated Cultures, which coordinates radio programs in Tamil and Hindi, and the Integrated Women's Network.
She is on the executive of the Multicultural Community Forum and the Canberra Interfaith Forum.
The women's network, which began with a focus on women of South Asian origin, has expanded to offer community workshops to all Canberrans, canvassing issues such as health, financial management and domestic violence prevention.
This year Ms Gupta hopes to build on the organisation's work by expanding the domestic violence prevention program Better Communication to three age groups between 6-17 years.
As a mother of two boys and with a husband who was often abroad working with UNHCR, Ms Gupta thought about scaling back the 20 to 30 hours of volunteering she does each week on top of her full-time Australian Public Service role.
But after years of giving back to the community, volunteering was part of her makeup.
In her 20s while studying in Delhi she conducted classes for children in urban slums and assisted in makeshift health clinics there.
Later in life, while living with her young family in Malaysia, she devoted time in women's refuges and with a counselling hotline service similar to Lifeline.
"I don't feel complete if I don't do something," she said. "We are all humans. We all have similar challenges no matter where we live. We feel the same love, same emotions. There is so much unity in diversity."
Across Australia an estimated 6 million people volunteer, and in Canberra close to 40 per cent of adults volunteer in some capacity.
Ms Gupta said those that did understood the secret - simple acts of kindness unlocked our own happiness.
"At the end of the day when I die I'm not going to take anything with me, neither my family, my house or my money in my bank if I have any," she said.
"In our faith we take our good deeds with us, the good karma. It gives me so much peace and contentment to be able to do something."
Other winners included the Senior Volunteer of the Year - Linda Barry; Junior Volunteer of the Year - Kate Barton; Profound Influence Award - Rosemary Drabsch; Innovation Award - Orange Sky Laundry, Canberra; Thought & Leadership Award - Juliet Moody; Go Beyond Award - Mark Bell and Canberra's Choice Award - ACT Volunteers in Policing Program.
