Dear students, families, schools, sponsors, members and friends,
The ongoing disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has continued to challenge our operations, as international travel restrictions and health concerns remain in place several months after our last announcement.
Today we write to you to announce the cancellation of our Australian student exchange scheduled to take place in Germany from November 2020 to February 2021. We just cannot guarantee the safety of our exchange students and host families at this uncertain time, consistent with advice from the regulatory authorities.
Although infection curves seem to develop differently across the globe, we hope that our student exchange program between Australia and Germany - which, until this pandemic, has operated every year for the past 53 years - can resume again in 2021.
We thank our sponsors and members who have been so supportive throughout this period. Without you the exchange would not be possible.
We also thank our alumni, many of whom are working across the world on addressing this pandemic. Those who have gone into medical careers as doctors, nurses, paramedics - thank you. And to the others who are doing more behind the scenes work as policy makers, logistics managers, lawyers and communicators. We thank you for everything that you are doing to keep us safe.
Lastly, thank you to the whole community for your ongoing support. This will put us in a strong position to resume operations as soon as this is safely possible.