August 31 - September 6, 2022
Friends prepare for September Timor trip By ANITA McPHERSON
FOUR members of local group Friends of Lacluta are bound for Timor Leste next month; the first time a visit has been possible since the arrival of COVID more than two years ago. Rabela Punif from Springhurst, Linda Sexton from Wangaratta and Karen Jones and Jess Ruiz from Myrtleford, will head over to Lacluta for a multifaceted venture to the country they support, where they look forward to meeting recently appointed Friend of Lacluta liaison officer, Ebron Amaral. Linda said the group wanted to wait until such time that it was safe and they would be welcome to visit, but it is also fortuitous as Rabela and Karen will be part of the rollout of the educational play booklet they created, “Learn and play in your home”, to local communities. The booklet is a home-based parent resource for children’s learning through play and it includes photographs taken by the pair and also illustrations by Lacluta-born Benny Gonsalves - a longtime friend and assistant to the Friends of Lacluta in Timor Leste. While the project was initially supported by the June Canavan Foundation to help get 1000 copies printed, it drew the attention of the New Zealand Foreign Affairs and Trade Aid Program and the Ministry of Education in Timor Leste, who will roll it out to 20,000 homes across Timor Leste. A regular visitor to Timor Leste, Karen said as soon as she knew she was able to visit again, she felt her heart light up. “I just wanted to go back and meet everyone again and see how they’re going,” she said.
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◆ Friends of Lacluta’s Karen Jones and Rabela Punif are looking forward to returning to Timor in September.
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