Timor-Leste Tropical Haven

In March this year, the Club sent Rusty Cooke and Tom Vickers on a recce to Atauro to report back on the needs of the village. Three projects were selected for funding this year: 1. Installation of spring-loaded taps and hand pumps near the village of Belloi; 2. Completion of construction of a Primary school at the village of Ilitmur, about an hour up the mountain, and 3. Construction of a well, water troughs and tank stand for cattle at a village cooperative.  

---

 To date, progress has been made with shipping of the taps and two pumps to Atauro and with the cutting of timbers and trucking last week of the first load of building materials to Ilitmur.  The school is partly built and was funded by the President’s wife Isabel da Costa Ferreira. The Administrator of Atauro has agreed on the assistance from Kununurra Rotary to complete this school project for the Ilitimur community. It is expected that the construction of the preschool will be completed by end of November. 

 In November, the Club will be sending Rusty Cooke and Grant Lodge to Atauro to assess progress and report back on future needs. This visit has been planned to coincide with a visit by the Rotary Club of Margaret River (23/11 – 2/12) upon whose earlier groundwork our water supply projects were modelled. The group of Margaret River school leavers will help with our third project, helping a local cooperative build a water well and troughs for their livestock (buffaloes). It is expected this project will be completed while they are there and will  enable the local villagers towards self-sufficiency in farming their animals.  

 Bruce wishes to thank Lars Moir for his unfailing personal support and commitment to this new activity for the Club, our first International project. To Rusty and Tom, thank you for your time commitment, valued expertise and advice ensuring that the Club funds assigned to these infrastructure projects will be of future 
benefit to the local recipients.

Australian Geographic has a 23 min video on Timor Leste to accompany an article on TL  in this month’s Australian Geographic magazine (Issue 128 Sept-Oct, pp. 93-101). The video is mainly aimed at encouraging tourism but gives a pretty good coverage of the entire island including its recent history and arts and crafts.
Click here to view the video:

http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/travel/destinations/2015/09/timor-leste-tropical-haven-free-from-tourist-crowds