Rotary Hawthorn proudly supported an equipment drive led by Rory Vial, who travelled to Timor-Leste to deliver donations just after completing his final year of high school. This compassionate initiative reached multiple communities, providing resources, including sports equipment to rural primary schools, new bedding for a girls’ orphanage, and football jerseys for an aspiring youth club. In collaboration with Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA), the project demonstrated how local action can foster positive community change – heartfelt thanks to Rory!
Rory's Report
Landing on the cracked tarmac of Dili, the humidity struck rapidly and unexpectedly. Passing impoverished conditions but consistently warm smiles, the attitude for this trip would be set. Prior to our first interactions with the young communities, I was taken on a brief but insightful tour of Timor’s history, learning of the Portuguese and Indonesian rule that heavily impacted the people who occupied this island so close to Australia.
But even with this conflict-riddled past, not once did I witness its history impacting its current residents. Firstly, visiting Vocational Technic School, we donated a box of soccer balls, boots and a football/soccer net. Being our first school environment visited of the trip, the sheer scale and magnitude of smiles and gratitude were unparalleled, continuing for the remainder of our stay. Working closely with RYLA, they also distributed more sports equipment to the Catholic school, Saint John Brito, on a date after I had left.
After the first school had received the goods, Leigh, the RYLA team and I stopped for a bite. But this was no Burger King or Macca’s, it was hundreds of pre-made meals of chicken or fish and rice, dressed in chilli spices my Westernised self couldn’t handle. Leading on, numerous dances were shared on our small veranda space, conveying the real heart of the charity institutions in Timor, their volunteers.
Simply crossing the road from our little lunch venue, we entered the gates of the orphanage, Gabriel Manek Liquiça, an all-girls orphanage of roughly two dozen girls coming from all over South-East Asia. Here we donated new bed sheets, followed swiftly by a pre-prepared song of their gratitude, as much applause filled the small shelter we piled into. After these exchanges, Leigh, RYLA and I joined in on games to fill the time with the orphanage, as even despite the language barrier, many similarities could be drawn between cultures, joining us in confusion yet laughter.
Finally, as we ventured not far from here, we were taken to a large opening, levelling the grass with rocks and goals on either side, it was a soccer pitch! Entering the already vast audience in the stands, a friendly match was to take place between a youth football club of the area and RYLA’s representatives. But before this, we handed over a dozen new football jerseys to this club, being produced locally for this spirited club. Following an intensive game, the conditions grew aggressive, and rain plummeted down. But the game still played on, as these locals were unfazed by the lakes appearing underneath their feet, determined to win, even though no real resolution was given once the game eventually concluded, either side was well and truly wrecked. With the day drawing to a close, many fled to their respective homes as we too drew closure on a truly successful expedition.
Though it was a brief adventure to Timor-Leste, Leigh, RYLA, and I achieved quite a lot. Distributing sports equipment to two rural primary schools, new bed sheets to a girls’ orphanage, and new football jerseys to a youth football club, the scale of gratitude was something I wasn’t prepared for. It shows how much can be done with the right people and support behind you.