from a personal perspective - acpet education and training fund

Last Thursday ACPET hosted the reception for its Scholarships Program for those affected by the Victorian Bushfires of 2009.

What started as a worthwhile event where we would meet and greet, deliver and hear the messages, and then leave, actually became something else that was more personal and much, much more important.

We heard the stories, the real personal stories, up close and personal, of those affected by the bushfires, not victims, they don’t see themselves as victims, but people affected nonetheless by loss and devastation.

The individual stories poignantly painted the dimensions of this tragedy that I had not understood previously. Through these people I can see that loss has many faces and is not measured simply in property terms, as difficult and tragic as that is, but loss of neighbours, family, friends, and of relationships intrinsic to identity and to community.

So last night’s event was about real people who were affected by the bushfire, not anonymous people on television or in the paper, not a number or a statistic, real people like you and I.

Everyone had a story to tell and while these were awful, horrible and about loss, they were not asking for help. Instead the stories were of renewal and looking to the future whilst not forgetting the past.

The ACPET scholarships program was for the recipients the start of a new life with an opportunity to do something that offered practical hope. It was evident that the ACPET members who made the scholarship program work were delighted to be there with their new students. Everyone present, all of us, were touched by loss and interestingly hope. As such there was no sense of platitude nor gratitude, nor big noting but instead just a sense of this being something that just needed to be done. That it is the right, proper and decent thing to do, quietly and without fanfare.

I was touched by the moment, and very proud of our members and to be part of this ACPET initiative.

Cindy Tschernitz
Executive Officer, VIC & TAS
 

Scholarships recipients and member sponsors