Barry Anderson Visit to Letefoho, Timor Leste, September 2015
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Denis Fernandez and I, together with Denis’ son Gabriel, travelled to Letefoho & spent three days there. We met members of the Rotary Club of Dili which is also supporting the project.
The Rotary Club of Northbridge water project in Letefoho, East Timor, for which Rotary Global Grant has been approved. The RI funds, totaling US$25,000, are now in the club’s bank account.
Our host for the week was Mr Eddie de Pino, General Manager of the St Bakhita Centre in the village of Eraulo in Letefoho, a sub district of Ermera, East Timor.
In 1999, this man - Eddie de Pina, returned from Perth where his family had escaped to during the occupation and where he had finished his schooling.
He felt he had to help his people.
He has been extraordinarily effective. He has built the buildings in the following images and set up a wide range of services for his community.
He has been totally focused on these community projects - he doesn't own a home himself.
Until recently, there was no water supply in Letefoho and families had to walk long distances every day to transport water in small containers back to their houses. Every hour spent doing this - usually by the children is an hour not spent at school
Some individuals set up unique water supply systems - using bamboo - to get water near their houses
He has built this wonderful St Bakhita Centre, the object of which is to provide accommodation for visitors, volunteers and paid workers. During our stay, 4 UNICEF workers stayed overnight as did the 4 men working on Eddie’s projects
From the Centre, the activities of 17 staff – some under training and some contractors – as well as volunteers are directed to provide facilities and services to 2500 local residents and also to others within an area of about a 50 km radius.
The dining and communal area in the St Bakhita Centre
Examples of additional services are
- An ambulance service for which payment is voluntary
- Emergency services – eg funeral assistance
- Materials storage and distribution
An adjacent ablution and bakery block supports the additional accommodation made from shipping containers.
The site provides this beautiful view of the valley from the verandah. It is hoped that a small number of tourists will be attracted to provide additional funds for the centre.
Eddie, who describes himself as “only a truck driver”, with support from Rotary clubs and many other benefactors has built this extraordinarily well set up medical clinic with a birth records room - each bundle holds the records of births since the clinic was opened
He now has 7 individual water projects completed.
Each is aimed at providing water and toilets to the schools and medical clinics, in particular hand washing basins to improve hygiene.
Where possible outlets are also provided for communal distribution and clothes washing. We visited three of his existing facilities
Almost all projects rely on gravity feed. The system sup-lying the Bakhita centre has an electric pump – as it is higher than the other facilities. This pump is now 11 years old and has been trouble free
This work must be done before “the wet” or "the hungry months". If the roads are cut, so are supplies of rice - all now imported. And no vegetables are harvested in “the wet
Currently an extension to the school - a toilet block – is being built to be ready for the water supply that is to be built by the funds raised by Northbridge Rotary.
Our project will feed two schools, a nearby clinic and villagers along a 3km corridor in the valley.
Eddie is now including water tanks with the roofing projects. These tanks are for the school in the above photos
