Fostering friendship, support and cross-cultural exchange

During Covid…

Although we are yet to be able to visit each other we remain in close contact and continue to progress a number of projects, and help where we can from afar.

Health Clinic Donation

We continue to support the Ossu Health Clinic, and they have recently been able to secure additional preventative essential COVID 19 supplies.

Book Publishing – Manual de Resumo’ de Bilogia

Memensio Sequeira Freitas, a professor at the General Secondary School of Olocassa Ossu and Joa da Costa professor at the Sao Pedro School in Dill launched the Biology Summary Manual for High School.

Published in Timor- Leste this book has been written in Portuguese and covers a broad spectrum of biology topics for secondary school students including biodiversity, evolution, and classification.

The Willougby Friends of Ossu are pleased to support this publication through the donation of funds to produce copies for local schools.

Teacher Exchange Program Update

We were ready for the 2020 Ossu teacher to leave in March, but due to Covid 19 this has been postponed to next year. The health and safety of our friends in Ossu remains most important.

‘Friends across the Timor Sea’

The Friendship Book “Friends across the Timor Sea: A history of Friendship Groups” has been published. The 70 page book was showcased by Ambassador Abel Guterres during an official reception in Melbourne, as part of his State Visit June 2019. Copies of the book have be distributed to the 35 active Friendship Groups, and we are delighted to be part of it.

Great to see all the projects underway. Collaboration by the Australian Timor-Leste Friendship Network Inc, State Government Victoria, and Australian Embassy Timor-Leste.

If you would like to see a copy please join us at one of our meetings or get in contact with the team.

Timor-Leste’s teacher exchange – Constancio

In March 2019 Constancio joined us from our Timor- Leste’s teacher exchange program selected from teachers in Ossu. This program is an exchange of ideas and teaching methodologies, with Constancio taking part in school visits, discussion, English language learning and understanding of Australian culture.

His visit included highlights like meeting the teachers and students at Castle Cove Public School & Willoughby Girls High School, discussions with Willoughby Mayor, Gail Giles-Gidney, a trip to UNSW and tours of our beautiful environment like the Manly headland and Centennial Park.

We were also fortunate to share the local Fauna Fair with Constancio, where the Friends of Ossu took the opportunity to share the message of our work together in Timor Leste, and gather support.

Willoughby Ossu Teacher Exchange – ClubGRANTS

Congratulations to the team at Friends of Ossu (Timor-Leste) on receiving a grant for their teacher exchange program 2018/ 2019.

Big thanks to Chatswood RSL Club for generously supporting this important project.

Committee members Ollie Howes & Eli Kitchen were presented the grant by Willoughby’s Mayor Gail Giles-Gidney.

OZ-TL Friendship Paves the Way for Sustainable WASH Program in Ossu

By Tara Bartnik, WASH Program Quality Mentor at WaterAid Timor Leste/Engineers Without Borders

View of Mundo Perdido

Recently I went on a week-long fieldtrip to a mountainous area of Timor Leste called Ossu, in Viqueque district. The town of Ossu lies at the feet of the Mundo Perdido (Lost World) mountain peak, and looking out of my window from our cosy accommodation in the local nunnery at the mist floating over the rocky jungle it wasn’t hard to see where it got its name from. Apparently it was a stronghold of the resistance independence fighters, which is also easy to understand.

The reason for our visit is that Willoughby Friends of Ossu, a group of generous Sydney-siders, are funding one of WaterAid’s local partner organisations to undertake the rehabilitation of the water supply in this area, and we were there to check the progress to date.
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This area is notoriously difficult when it comes to their water supply – in the past it was classified as urban due to relatively high population density, meaning the government was responsible for the operation and maintenance of the system. It is now designated as rural, meaning the community has to manage their own system – and as you can imagine this has caused some issues. As a result, there have been multiple attempts at rehabilitating the water supply in the past decade, but they consistently failed because they were purely infrastructure projects, without community engagement.

This time the partnership of organisations is determined to do things differently, and implement a sustainable solution. The first step was to set up a GMF (water user group), which is a group of (volunteer) community members in charge of the management of the water system, including collecting tariffs and operation and maintenance activities. On our first day in Ossu we had a chance to meet the GMF, and discuss their thoughts on the system. They seemed motivated and dedicated, and keen to receive training on topics such as sanitation, hygiene, financial management and operation and maintenance. It was interesting to finally see a group like this in action, after reading so much about them during my studies.

Meeting with Community GMF Leaders

We spent the rest of the week in Ossu looking at the progress of the work, and working out what to recommend as a possible second stage of the project – there are many houses downstream from this new system (relying on a different spring) still only receiving water once or twice a week.

I really enjoyed my week seeing some work in the field and experiencing just how important it is to provide ‘software’ (community groups, training etc) alongside the ‘hardware’ (water systems).

WILLOUGHBY FRIENDS OF OSSU INC.

ABN: 47304274883

Postal Address: PO Box 213
Northbridge, 2063
New South Wales
Australia

Contact the Friends of Ossu

Within Australia
Ph: +61 0410 545 585
Ph: +61 0403 055 397

Email: info@friendsofossu.org.au

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