Report Back: Library in a Box - Timor Leste
17/05/2010
Education is one of Timor’s biggest challenges, but with New Zealanders’ help ChildFund is supporting a three-year education project in the Dili District. It aims to provide safe school environments, resources and improve the literacy of children and their parents.
To improve literacy, children need books to read so last year ChildFund launched an appeal for donations to provide school books in the official languages of Timor: Tetum and Portuguese.
Thanks to generous New Zealanders, ChildFund has been able to distribute an incredible 5,000 books to children in Timor Leste as part of the Library-in-a Box project. With Kiwis’ support, the project has also:
- Improved learning conditions through the rehabilitation of 17 schools to become safe, fun and effective learning environments. This means that 3,712 primary school students now have access to improved school facilities.
- Increased community involvement in education. When parents become involved in their children’s education children receive a higher standard of education. To date 224 parents and students have been trained to manage libraries and have taken on this responsibility with much enthusiasm.
“Here at ChildFund, our long term commitment is to help these children reach their full potential and truly break free from poverty,” says chief executive Paul Brown.
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