Projects Supported by the Peter Trust
Among the projects assisted by the Trust are:
Provision for orphans
Provision for orphans in the care of the Missionary Dominican Sisters of the Rosary. Focused on the orphanage in Dili where around 60 boys and girls are in residence the Peter Trust has also helped fund projects in Dili where 55 boys and girls are in residence. The Peter Trust is meeting the annual costs of their food and education and of the electricity supply to the orphanage. Since its foundation in 2000 the Peter Trust has helped fund projects in Soibada, Natarbora, Salao and Hera for other orphans in the charge of Dominican Sisters. These have included assisting with their acquisition of skills pertinent to the care of livestock, fish breeding, and arable farming.
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AHISAUN HOSTEL
Ahisaun means ‘The Light of Friendship’. It was founded in 2000 by Fr Adrian Ola Duli, a priest of the Diocese of Dili to promote the rights of people with disabilities in Timor Leste. The Ahisaun vision is for people with a disability to work hand in hand and share knowledge with all people. The Ahisaun Centre, a residential facility accommodating about 20 handicapped young people provides care and practical training opportunities, support to go to school and further or higher education and aims to reach out to people living with disabilities in remote areas.
There are several workshops in the facility: shoemaking and repair; a computer suite in which the residents learn and teach IT skills; for the production of Holy Communion wafers; a Kiosk (shop); and a small kitchen garden. There is also a specially appointed Prayer Room in which the residents pray with and for anyone who comes seeking spiritual support. The Peter Trust has been providing significant support to Ahisaun since 2007 e.g. in the purchase of equipment, the provision of further/higher education scholarships, and for the improvement of drainage and sanitation in the Hostel. Several residents have formed a musical group which entertains at weddings and other social events in Dili and the surrounding villages. The Trust funded the purchase of their instruments.
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Provision of medical care
Provision of medical care to the population of the southern city of Suai and the surrounding villages through the purchase of medicines, the training costs of two indigenous nurses and a mechanic/driver who assist the Sisters of St Paul of Chartres in their work in the local hospital and in the mobile clinic which travels to several villages in the vicinity each week. The salary of a medical technician based in the hospital established by the Sisters is met by the Trust, and the Trust also part funds the services of a doctor engaged by the Religious Community for general health care and who has a specialist knowledge of family medicine.
In 2014 arrangements were made for the Mobile Clinic to add the village of Lalalua to its itinerary. This village is newly established by the Timor Leste Government but lacks adequate local medical provision. It lies about an hour’s drive from the SPC Hospital at Suai. The Sisters of St Paul of Chartres and their lay staff are assisted in their visits for diagnosis and treatment by Claretian Sisters whose Convent is half way between Suai and the village
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Education opportunities
Financial support is being organised for the Primary School of Our Lady of Lourdes in Ermera (pictured). Education opportunities are also provided by the Trust to young people in the hill town of Railaku (where solar panels have been erected (in association with ATA) to enable IT and needlework skills to be acquired by students at High School, and in Gleno where students from distant villages are assisted with grants to facilitate their local boarding and so benefit from local school attendance and from further social and spiritual training provided in the hostel. In the enclave of Oecussi the Trust has part-funded the establishment of an asrama (boarding house) in the small township of Baocnana for senior school pupils whose homes are in remote localities and who are thereby enabled to attend lessons and also to develop social skills through community living.
Another asrama has been funded by the Peter Trust in the village of Uatolari in the District of Viqueque which now accommodates 25 girls from the remote hamlets in the vicinity. The residents are in the care of the Holy Spirit Sisters in the adjacent Convent’
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Nutritional Supplements
Nutritional Supplements have been provided until recently to local children in Railaku each week, and in all the villages visited each week by the mobile clinic based in the St. Paul of Chartres community hospital in Suai.
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Income generation supported through a variety of small-scale projects over several years in different localities in East Timor - including the off-shore island of Atauro. These have included supporting students in the practical study of mechanics, in the running of small kiosks, and in the manufacture of building blocks from local gravel/sand and various artefacts made from the leaves and fruit of coconut trees.
Traditional Weaving
The Traditional Weaving skills of village women are being encouraged through the Peter Trust’s marketing of items they have made. This is done through close collaboration with the Women’s Woven Art Workshop in Dili, an initiative of expatriate Australian Tricia Johns who has resided for many years in East Timor.
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Higher Education
The Trust has funded the Higher Education of several East Timorese students in Indonesian and British Universities. All are now putting their degree qualifications to work in East Timor in the development of their nation. Jeremias Baptista Gomes studied at the University of Kupang in West Timor and is now engaged in Health Education in Dili; Pinto Cardoso Manual Soares who studied International Relations at the University of Yogykarta (Java) is currently employed in the Research Department of the Timor Leste Government and at the present time is on a two year training programme in Korea. Amorin Vieira, who obtained his Degree at Glasgow, is now on the staff of the US Embassy in Dili and, amongst other work, is responsible for the Annual Country Report on Human Rights (in Timor Leste) for the US State Department. Ajerino do Carmo Vieira obtained a BA (Hons) and subsequently an MA in Peace and Development at the University of Bradford and has recently returned to Dili in the hope of working within the Government, with the UN, or with an NGO in a field that will engage his qualifications. He is currently employed by the Peter Trust as a local Agent to report on the projects which the Trust funds and in assisting applicants to make submissions to the Trust for financial help.
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Past Projects supported by the Peter Trust
Provision for the handicapped and traumatised
Provision for the handicapped and traumatised by support given to the ALMA Sisters (Asosiasi Lembaga Misionaris Awam – a Missionary Religious Institute, founded by a Dutch priest in Indonesia, which specialises in the care of the physically and mentally disabled, especially children. The Peter Trust supports this ongoing work with over 50 individuals in need and with their families, and has part funded the restoration of abandoned premises in the capital Dili for use as a Convent for the Sisters and as a base for their pastoral work. The Trust has also supplied a motorbike for visits by the Sisters to homes around the city.
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