For the past three years Rotary Club of Lakes Entrance has provided support for remote villages in Timor Leste.
Timor Leste is Australia’s neighbour to the north-west, one of the poorest countries in the world. Seventy per cent of its infrastructure was destroyed and 20 per cent of it population killed during the Indonesian occupation from 1975 to 2000.
Since gaining independence in 2002 with the support from other countries, it is now in the process of rebuilding.
Many rural villages
lack clean water, electricity and basic health and
education resources.
Lakes Entrance, together with other East Gippsland Rotary Clubs and the staff from Gippsland Lakes Complete Health, have been involved in supporting a number of projects in rural villages in Soibada and Bachau districts.
The projects include providing water tanks and water filtering systems and providing and delivering health and education equipment and resources to their schools and health centres.
Solar lights have also been supplied to villages that have no electricity. This year more than $20,000 has been raised in East Gippsland to support this work.
“My wife and I have had the rewarding experience of visiting these villages,” Bruce Hurley, the convenor of East Gippsland Friends of Timor Leste, said.
“It was an amazing experience to see the Timorese rebuilding their houses
and villages and living off the crops they have planted. All the children went to school immaculately dressed. It was obvious
that a high value was placed on education.”
“The Rotary Club of Lakes Entrance is pleased to be able to make a $5000 donation to the Timor Leste projects. Donations are always appreciated for this work and can be made online by visiting the Rotary Club of Lakes Entrance website,” president of the Lakes Entrance Rotary Club, Bernard Abrecht, said.
