SI Joondalup – East Timor Report

East Timor Delegation 2010

The 2010 East Timor delegation had their first meeting on 20 July.
Three members of SI Joondalup have indicated that they intend to join the delegation, with a further two members expressing interest. The meeting thought there should be no more than a total of six travellers.
A decision of the number of delegates will be made on 2 August, so if there are any others interested please contact Jennie van Driel before that date.

It was thought that a stay of between one week and ten days would be adequate between the dates of 4 and 15th October. The cost was estimated to be in the vicinity of $2000 in total, and less if Frequent Flyer points were used on the plane trip to Darwin.

The official visit to East Timor will include the official ceremony to recognise our contribution to the education of young women and girls in East Timor. There will be a meetings with Kirsty, Maria Alves, and the scholarship awardees and a visit to The Alola Foundation. We may also visit the Australian Ambassador to East Timor and the AusAid Officer at The Australian Embassy.

Other activities which are being considered are a visit and overnight on Atauro Island and a trip South into the mountains to Emera where there is a Guest House built by the Western Australian NGO Timor L’este Vision. This is the area where coffee is grown and we may see the harvest. It is also the place where Gusmao and the rebel army hid out in tunnels and caves from the Indonesian army; many of these subterranean refuges are still to be seen.
There could be the possibility of going on a field trip with The Alola Foundation to visit our chicken farms and the Bauro kindergarten in far Eastern Timor, and we thought we would like to visit the women who weave the lovely tais cloth.

Our next meeting will be on 2 August when we will be considering booking plane tickets while the cheaper seats are still available..

AusAid Grant

I have contacted the Australian Embassy in Dili twice and rung them up once. The AusAid officer promised he would E-mail me the new guidelines for grant application and nothing has arrived. My philosophy is that if we have a chance of being awarded in the vicinity of $20,000 it is worth a bit of persistence, so I will continue to contact him regularly. He is the same man who was in this position when we visited the embassy in 2008, and we found him very encouraging.

Jennie van Driel