Welcome to our First Web FoA Newsletter!
Dear Friends of Alola - to streamline our communication efforts and to move with the times - we have changed our newsletter to web format so you can now visit this page to link you to all the new and updated information on our website.
Please enjoy navigating our website and please also feel free to provide us with feedback and ideas of how we can continue to improve the site and this newsletter. Just click on the light green words in the text to find a link.
Message from our interim Operations Manager
Everyone who has given donations or time to Alola Foundation in the past few months has every reason to feel proud of their contribution to some truly excellent work being done in Timor-Leste.
Under the leadership of Kirsty and Anne Bunning and a team of quality local Program Managers, Alola Foundation has moved from strength to strength in all of its Program areas. As the interim Operations Manager with a bit of an outsider’s perspective, I am so often not just impressed but immensely moved by the commitment shown and the results that are being achieved.
Take the widows' project for example. The details are on our website, but in essence it involved Kirsty making contact with the widows from the crisis of 12 months ago and linking them with Alola’s Advocacy Program.
Over the last 12 months they have moved from being sad, poverty stricken women without hope to women whose kids are going to school (with the support of Alola’s scholarship program); who have made some income from training given in jewelry making and sewing (thanks to our Economic Development Program) and most importantly have a voice.
To see them presenting their petitions to Ministers and writing and producing their “Memory Books” gave me a real thrill, and I really hope that you, our supporters, can feel something of this when you read the stories in this newsletter.
I must say that a lot of the strength that Alola now has must be attributed to Anne Bunning’s leadership and management. Even though she has returned to Australia for family reasons, the organization she has left behind is now strong enough to weather the change and keep focused on its goals. Thanks Anne.
We have a big year ahead. The Maternal and Child Health program is starting a new and inspirational project called “Friendly Villages for Mothers and Children” which aims to make remote villages safer places for pregnant women and new babies. It involves a whole different community development approach and will have a big impact on our work.
And the Handcraft Shop is getting bigger and better every month. Its new premises help, part of a construction program sponsored by GyeongGi Province in Korea which has made the whole Alola office so much more professional in its operations.
So thank you sponsors, volunteers and friends. Your generosity is underpinning so much good work here in Timor-Leste.
Andrea Martin
A Million Thanks and farewell to Anne Bunning
We also want to say thanks and farewell to Jenni Graves & Anne Kelly - follow their links to the farewell messages (scroll to the bottom) from their respective teams.
Education Update Read about all the progress and new developments in our Education Programs
The Advocacy Team has been very busy with the new NORAD/PRATT funded District Support Workers Program; our new Health Promotion Small Grants funded through Fundacao Calouste Gulbenkian; the Women in Elections campaign and setting up the new Childcare Centre. In addition we have continued to provide crucial support for the widows of the crisis. On 25 May we held an event to present the widows with Memory Books and to mark the first anniversary of the police massacre. For a summary of all our Advocacy Programs please read our update.
The other major activity that all the staff worked very hard for was the Alola Fair on 19 May 2007 which celebrated Independence Day and the end of Kirsty's mandate as First Lady of Timor-Leste. Coined 'End of a Mandate is a Date for Women.' Alola presented 10 women with Strong Women Strong Nation Awards.
A few more thankyous
We would also like to take this opportunity to say Thankyou to a few of our Volunteer Friends who have moved on to other things. Sheila Boston singlehandedly set up the Maternity Packs project and did a fantastic job before passing on to the capable hands of Francisco Belo. Sheila, forever the entrepreneur, has now set up a paper making workshop, employing numerous Timorese women and making beautiful quality items which we also now sell at the Alola Shop.
Jan Hayes, finished up as Finance Officer for Alola in early 2007. Jan put in many many hours of hardwork handling the growing number of donations and receipts. She handled the Australian end of the Maternity Packs program when it took us all by surprise and took off like a storm. Jan has been a wonderfully generous supporter and friend of Alola and we are glad she is now offering her skills and large heart to the Friendship Schools Program. We all enjoyed Jan's visit to Alola in 2006 in the midst of the crisis and we hope she can return again soon. All the best, Jan.
