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Although we are an International School, we are based in Australia with our leadership, marketing and admin teams all in Melbourne. We have had a few people send emails to see if we are OK - which we are (Melbourne is a major city, and the fires are about 3 hours away). But, the fires are massive and the impact has been devastating. So, I thought I'd share with you how we are feeling and what we plan to do.
First, we are not new to bush fires here in Australia. And, actually, planned burns can be good for the Australian bush. Our Indigenous people practice 'cultural burns' where they deliberately burn to a.) promote stronger regrowth and b.) prevent widespread fire. With cultural burning however, human life and wildlife are taken into account. The fires we are experiencing are unplanned, out of control and ferocious. The first hand accounts being shared on social media are confronting and very real; people have been evacuated, lost their homes or even lost their lives. It's catastrophic. Then there are the animals... everyone is uniformly devastated by the loss of Australian wildlife.
We all want to help but we also know that sometimes donating goods or services from outside the community can actually have the opposite effect. It can take AWAY from local businesses. For that reason we will focus on supporting local businesses that need rebuilding. They will need people to go there and spend their money.
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