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. This is currently focused on the orphanage 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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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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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 association with an Australian NGO Alternative Technology Association (ATA) the Peter Trust is committed in 2010 to the installation of solar panels to facilitate the operation of a doctor’s surgery in a population centre near the north coast town of Baucau.
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Education opportunities

Education opportunities are 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. Financial support is being organised for the Primary School of Our Lady of Lourdes in Ermera (pictured).
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Nutritional Supplements

Nutritional Supplements have been provided until recently to local children in Railaku each week, and 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.
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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. Two of these – Jeremias Baptista Gomes and Pinto Manuel Soares – are now putting their degree qualifications to work in East Timor in the development of their nation. Three other students are currently being supported in studies in Information Technology in Java, Medicine in the Philippines, and in a Foundation Course for Environmental Studies in Bradford, England.