RAWCS FAIM VISITS TO EAST TIMOR (TIMOR LESTE)
REPORT FROM THE 2003 TEAM
The Townsville Sunrise Rotary Club has been involved in FAIM projects for a number of years, with Rotarians working on many projects.
This was the first working team to go to East Timor since the 1st evaluation team went in July 2001.
It consisted of Team Leader David Emanuel, Leon Addison, Bill Graham and Bruce Nicholls.
This is a summary of 2 weeks work in a beautiful area of East Timor, but in conditions that would be classed as primitive. It is a small part of a record of our exciting and rewarding adventure.
Every area of East Timor is underdeveloped, but it is the rural communities that are experiencing greater under development than in dili, the capital, and in the main provincial towns. Over the past 5 or so years, an organisation known as Communidade Edmund Rice or CER has been involved in rural development in Railaco, a sub-district of Ermera.
CER consists of Christian Brothers, voluntary workers, paid workers and associates who are based in Dili, but work in the villages and has been involved in this area since 1995, where they have gained the respect and trust of local villagers.
The five villages of the work area are called Samalette, Railaco Leten, Railaco Craic, Tarasso, and Deleso.
These villages are isolated from the remaining villages in the sub-district of Railaco, and also from the administration centre of Gleno.
The people of these villages generate very little income. While family life is rich in community and relationships, it is very poor in other ways. Some of their chief concerns are:
Access to health care, water, hygiene and sanitation, agriculture, nutrition, poor housing, lack of transport and resources such as information and education.
The level of illness and disease reveals that tuberculosis, malaria, dengue fever, gastroenteritis and acute respiratory infections very prevalent, and cancer, cardiovascular and mental illness largely untreated and often not recognised.
Lack of transportation is a hurdle. No one owns a car or truck. Leaders regularly walk the 10 25 klms each way to the administrative centres. Isolation has a particular impact on children, 1st grade children are required to walk some kilometres up hill and in the heat to school, young secondary school age children walk many klms unless they stay with families during the week. The closest high school is over 25klms away at gleno. As a result there is a high degree of illiteracy in the villages.
The five villages do not have power, and very few have battery-operated radios, and lack of lighting reduced the opportunity to read or study for the younger ones if they have recourse to books or newspapers.
Their livelihood consists of subsistence farming. Most crops and animals are consumed within the villages. Coffee is the chief albeit small source of income for many families who have access to a small portion of the crop. Many do not even know what a $US looks like!
Therefore, Rotary have deemed that this area requires our help. The initial FAIM team from the Rotary Club of Kiama (NSW D9750) attended this area in July 2001 and made the initial contact and conducted planning assessments for the future projects.
Our allocated tasks were:
To build an ablution block at samalette for use of future rotary teams, and to carry out repairs to a community centre building at Railaco Leten and to evaluate other projects that had been identified by CER and the previous team, of which there were some questions of priority.
The project
The team left on the 9th of February 2002, and arrived in the base village of Samalette on the 10th.
We were met by the villagers, and the primitive conditions we expected. The toilet facilities consisted of a hole in the ground surrounded by a bamboo screen, and you were greeted by a swarm of mozzies each time you visited, hence the reason to construct an anblution block, (which was to include a composting toilet.)
Running water
from a natural spring, fresh!! to say the least. We were fortunate to have a gas operated fridge and 2 burner stove enabled us to be able to provide toast and fried spam and eggs for meals.
The work materials were also not what we are used to. The blocks are locally made in Dili, never the same size, and extremely porous, which is not good with the amount of rain they get. The sand for the mortar was very coarse river sand, and had to be mixed by hand in the wheel barrow. The water was brought by bucket from the spring by the kids. We were fortunate that the tools for timor project had sent over a container load full of brand new tools which included a generator and air compressor.
The villagers were reticent to assist us at the first project as it was not directly going to benefit them, and they looked on in interest, but the kids were an integral part of our daily lives, and they liked to get involved.
The ablution block project took over a week to complete, and mother nature played her part. Almost with regular monotony, the rain came each day, normally about 3pm, sometimes earlier, sometimes later, but always there. And at night she dropped the bucket loads as well.
The job at Railaco Leten took 2 and a half days to complete, as it was a patch and repair job on a community centre which had been damaged. Some timber window frames, bogging up with cement, and a lot of 4 inch nails did the job there.
The people of this vilage were totally opposite to the others. They got in and helped, and wanted to learn how to use the tools, so that they could do some work themselves when we left.
We went to Dili to the then Provisional Rotary Club, and only had time for several hours sightseeing during the whole time we were there. 2 hot showers in the 2 weeks, were courtesy of the Australian Logistics Battalion Headquarters in Dili, but the cost was 3 basketballs.
In summary, the chance to serve Rotary in a FAIM project is available to us all. The projects are a challenge, and should not be considered a holiday, and the rewards are plenty. The awakening that we think that we have got it right, is so far from the truth its not funny.
To work in a community where there is no power, and therefore no radio, tv, newspapers or lights, nor any of the other trappings of our society is in itself a pleasure. But to see how happy these people are because they dont know about such things was the true joy.
To see the kids at play with such things as the ball of leaves, or the old soccer ball, or the bike rim being pushed with the stick was just so heartwarming.
Truly this was one of my most memorable activities of my life.
I commend this program to you, and urge you all to actively seek to change your lives by taking part as a Rotary volunteer.
