Funds raised by the trek will go towards our projects in East Timor

Blue Mountains East Timor Friendship Committee
In 2006 the Blue Mountains partnered with Hato Builico. Our committee includes Blue Mountains community members, councillors and council staff, committed to improving the lives of this very poor community.

Hato Builico is located inland, south-west of the capital Dili, at an altitude of 2,400m on the slopes of Mount Ramelau. It is a mountainous rural area, one of the four sub-districts of Ainaro in East Timor. The people of Hato Builico use simple farming methods and endure atrocious roads, lack of electricity and telephones and the tremendous problems arising from deforestation during recent conflicts.
http://www.bmcc.nsw.gov.au/yourcouncil/easttimorfriendship/

Blue Mountains East Timor Sisters (BMETS)
BMETS formed in 2005 to build friendship between women in East Timor and women in the Blue Mountains. We work though a Timorese non-governmental organisation (NGO), APSC-TL, which pays for community development, scholarships for young women, pre-schools, weaving co-operatives, and building the capacity of other NGOs. We regularly visit East Timor and sponsor Timorese women to do speaking tours of Australia. We focus on small community-to-community projects, working towards building generations of international friendship.
http://www.bmets.org.au

Australia has a long association with East Timor which began with the vital and unstinting support that East Timorese people gave the Diggers in World War II.

East Timor is one of Australia’s nearest neighbours and among the world’s poorest countries. Colonial rule and invasions are all part of the country’s history:

• 28 November 1975: the end of 400 years of colonial rule by Portugal
• 7 December 1975: East Timor was invaded by Indonesia
• 1975-1999: during a period of vigorous resistance against Indonesian occupation about 300,000 Timorese were killed – one third of the population
• 30 August 1999: referendum on independence, monitored by the UN; 78.5% voted for independence; vicious retaliation campaign followed, supported by the Indonesian military, in which public buildings, houses and infrastructure were destroyed in a week of terror
• 20 May 2002: East Timor became the world’s newest democracy

In 2010, with the aid of many NGOs, governments and small organisations like our own, East Timor is beginning on the road to recovery. Community to community projects are amongst the most successful forms of support as long-term relationships are built alongside infrastructure and education.

See how far your funds will go:

• $30 buys a set of Tetun schoolbooks for a family
• $60 buys guitars for music programmes
• $80 a week pays preschool teachers
• $100 helps to keep a child at school for a whole year
• $150 buys 500 small trees for a reforestation programme
• $150 buys a treadle sewing machine
• $200 funds tourism development through printing of maps and brochures
• $250 provides a scholarship for a young person to go to university in Dili
• $500 pays a teacher to teach English for a whole semester

Our bigger projects include:

• Building kitchen and toilet facilities for the local community centre established by volunteers
• Solar power at central community locations, providing villagers with much-needed communications