Phoenix-Appeal

by Anne van Alkemade
A friend of mine recently returned from the affected areas of the Victorian Bushfires after four days of helping at relief centres in Yarra Glen and Kinglake. She and a work colleague were given special leave to head down there to help and some of the stories she has brought back are both devastating and also proof of the resilience of the human spirit. There were also some bits and pieces that have you shaking your head in wonder at the stupidity of people, but the positive ones and the sad ones I’d like to share with you here if I may.

One thing that hit Sarah straight away, the most significant thing, was that victims young and old were at the mercy of strangers and that they had lost ALL privacy. This may not seem like a big thing to you and I. Most of us probably haven’t experienced this before and so it’s easy to take it for granted.

Sarah walked into a relief centre and all along one side were people, counsellors and professionals in suits sitting at tables; on the other side were stores of donated goods; and in the middle were mattresses on the floor for people to sleep on. There were no petitions or curtains, no barriers, nothing to give people a place to rest and grieve in private.

My friend and her colleague immediately went to work to provide some sort of barrier around these ‘sleeping quarters’ with cots and other items to at least give people some sense of privacy, a space they could call their own.

Poignant, sad and surprising to me were some of the stories about people being helped with goods.

The suit
Sarah told me about a man who was looking at suits. He kept going back to the same one, pulling it out from the rack, shaking his head and putting it back. So she went over and asked him if he needed help. Sarah said you could not mistake his actions as someone being picky, just from the shock on his face, and he broke down in tears. “This suit isn’t right. I need a suit for my friend’s funeral”. She gave him comfort, then left him to grief in private; although later finding a pair of new shoes that were right for him.

Shoes
Another shoe story. A middle aged woman was sitting admiring a pair of sparkling evening high heels on her feet. (Who would donate such an item in these circumstances, you may think?). Sarah suggested something more practical and the response she got surprised her but it was perfectly understandable.

“I used to have a lot of shoes, lovely shoes. They’re all gone now. Please can I have these. Please. I don’t care if I have to walk through rubble, I really want these shoes.”

Of course she could have them! They gave the woman with some semblance of normality.

That special cup of tea
A local cafe was aware that one of their regular, elderly customers had not been sighted for several days. They were unsure if she was okay, but sought out her special brand of tea and took it to her neighbourhood. Her house was still standing and they knocked on her door. She was relatively okay and in reasonable spirits, delighted to receive the gift.

What is particularly significant here though is that she had been isolated in her home and had not seen anyone for many days. All around her was ash and debris AND three car loads of burnt out cars filled with people in her front yard. This poor woman was sheltering in her home with deceased victims very near her front door. How can you comprehend this?

Anyone left for tennis?
A man came into the relief centre and asked for a tshirt so he could play tennis on Saturday morning. This request was somewhat surprising but it was explained to my friend that the local tennis courts and clubhouse had remarkably been untouched by the fires.

Who could play tennis at a time like this? But the man explained that they played every Saturday. Half the club members had perished in the fires but the survivors needed to play on Saturday. Perhaps to honour their memory, but certainly it was something they did every weekend and again it is people seeking something normal in their very abnormal lives.

They were all fitted out with complete outfits and brand new tennis shoes.

The unadmirable aspect of human nature
Many people came to the relief centre where my friend was helping even though it was not the main area at Whittlesea. The reason – there was not much in the way of media hanging around. Okay, they have a job to do, but having cameras stuck in the faces of people in desperate times is not helping anyone. Need to know? Hmmm.

My friend said at one stage two people were ejected from the relief centre. They had entered the centre carrying bags with holes cut out of the sides for the lenses of their cameras. I wonder why the journalist code of ethics no longer applies?

Sarah also said there was a group of people hovering around the front door peering in. She asked them if they were local residents needing help.

“Nope. We’re good. We just wanted to have a look around.” They were given short shrift … and promptly sent on their way.

And finally – I am always stunned when I hear that in these circumstances the selfishness of people can possibly emerge. All relief workers are on the alert for looters. There have been incidences of people not from fire affected areas visiting these centres looking for handouts. Can you believe that? But for those working with people who are the real ones in need, it is not hard to spot the charlatans!

On a positive note
So many people have lost loved ones, lost everything they ever owned, lost their jobs and schools – and are well and truly entitled to money, goods and all on offer to help them get their lives back together again.

But so many people who are given things have either given them back or passed them on to people they feel are in greater need. “Thank you, but I don’t need this. I want someone who truly needs it to have it,” is not an uncommon thing for relief workers to hear.

And finally
Sarah said that even though she wanted to cry at so many of the things she saw, and the suffering that people are enduring, she knew that “this is not about me. I had to be strong, because most of all that’s what these people need; someone to be there for them.” She said she believes this is a common credo of all people working together in eastern and northern Victoria and the spirit of everyone working together to the common good was inspiring and heartening.

The Aussie spirit of a fair go is well and truly alive in the areas devastated by the Black Saturday Bushfires.