Students Visit East Timor

(l-r) Claire L, Tim Lake (teacher), Stephanie M, Evangline L, Rathi S, Nicole F and Tiffany W in East Timor.

Imagine a school that has no power, no internet access and where students have to walk for up to an hour and a half to get to school.

Six Berwick Campus students witnessed such a school first hand when they visited the College’s ‘friendship school’ in East Timor.

The pre-secondary school,  ’20 Setembro De 99’, is situated in remote Hatolia, four hours’ drive from Dili.

The school was badly damaged during the 1999 troubles, but is being rebuilt using money raised by Beaconhills College.

With support from the City of Casey community group ‘Friends of Ermera’ (Ermera is a district of East Timor), the Year 10 students travelled recently with teacher Tim Lake to visit the school for a week.

Our students visited the school each day, helping children to build a fence, do artwork, write letters and taught them how to play Aussie rules football.

Mr Lake said the visit was an eye-opening experience that “significantly affected” each student.

“The students were fantastic and they were just overwhelmed by the experience. They didn’t want to leave,” he said. “It was wonderful to see them form strong relationships with the East Timorese students – and they are staying in contact with them from Australia.”

The ‘friendship school’ arrangement grew from a scheme introduced after the East Timor upheaval, which links Australian councils with various districts in East Timor.

’20 Setembro De 99’ is named after the date that Australian troops entered the area to reclaim it for the locals.

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