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.