When disaster struck close to home
Anastasia Bougesis (BHlthSc(Paramedic) ’10, BNg(GradEntry) ’12) After a wedding ceremony at her family’s Adelaide Hills vineyard in December 2019, Anastasia Bougesis, Chief Development Officer for Disaster Relief Australia (DRA), returned from her honeymoon to find much of their property destroyed by bushfire. For a trained nurse and part-time paramedic with several major disaster relief missions under her belt, this episode was very personal. ‘I decided to lead the DRA reconnaissance team during the Adelaide Hills relief effort which I found was a very cathartic experience for me,’ said Anastasia. DRA unites the skills and experiences of military veterans with first responders to rapidly deploy emergency response teams in disaster response operations around the world. The model is based on a US founded organisation Team Rubicon, which was started by US marines.
Team Rubicon Australia began in Queensland after Cyclone Debbie in 2017 and the membership-based not for profit organisation has since grown to six locations in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Townsville, Perth, and Adelaide. It was renamed Disaster Relief Australia in 2019.
For three months after mid-January, DRA’s relief effort deployed 278 volunteers who completed more than 10,500 hours of work, providing assistance to 119 households.
College of Medicine and Public Health Alumni Magazine
