Aussie scholarship for tsunami victims

Aussie scholarship for tsunami victims

Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The tsunami swept away her husband, child, and four other members
of her family in December but Laila Wijaya never gave up on life.
She continued working at Banda Aceh's Agriculture, Husbandry, and
Fisheries Agency, living alone in a house she rented with the
help of friends.

This resilience was commended when she received the Australian
Partnership Scholarship (APS) to undertake a master's degree in
environmental planning at an Australian university.

"This helps me get on with my life," the petite woman said,
teary-eyed, at the award ceremony on Thursday.

"I always dreamed of continuing my studies together with my
husband, he was a lecturer at the Syah Kuala University," Laila
said, explaining that the tragedy she suffered only strengthened
her resolve to continue living, and to move on helping Aceh
rebuild itself.

Laila was one of 370 Indonesian students awarded in the first
round of the APS -- part of the five-year A$1 billion (about
US$759 million) Australia Indonesia Partnership for
Reconstruction and Development (AIPRD) jointly announced by
Australian Prime Minister John Howard and President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono in January.

Australian Ambassador to Indonesia David Ritchie on Thursday
presented certificates to 11 representatives of the 370
scholarship recipients at the Indonesia-Australia Language
Foundation (IALF) at Wisma Budi, Kuningan, South Jakarta.

"The (AIPRD) program is not only for the reconstruction of
Aceh, but also to help Indonesia improve its human resources,"
Ritchie said during the ceremony, adding that he was happy to
note that almost two thirds of successful applicants were
students outside Java, with 33 students from Aceh and nine
students from Bali, and 56 percent of all recipients were female.

Another recipient, Dina Feriana, said that she plans to make
use of the scholarship's family provision to bring along her two
children. She will undertake a master's degree in infrastructure
management to help with her work at the City Spatial and Planning
Agency in Banda Aceh.

"This is what we want, not only to give benefit to the
scholarship recipients themselves but also to their children as
the next generation," Australian Agency for International
Development (AusAID) program manager Heny Azis said.

AIPRD deputy representative Andrew Collins explained
that the APS scholarship provided up to 600 scholarships for
Indonesian students to study at Australian universities for a
period of two years at a total cost of A$78 million.

"This is in addition to the Australian Development
Scholarships (ADS) for 300 students a year. Meaning that there
will be about 12,000 Indonesians studying in Australia in the
next two years with the two programs," Collins said in the
ceremony.

The scholarship focuses on the areas of economic governance,
public sector management and education, and is open for
Indonesian government departments, public and private higher
education institutions, state-owned enterprises, as well as non-
governmental organizations.

Applications for the second and final round of scholarships
will be received in May 2006, and places will be offered in
October 2006.