World Vision projects put Timor-Leste village in top five
A Timor-Leste village where World Vision runs four projects has been judged one of the top five in the country for raising the nutritional status of its inhabitants.
Estanislau Guterres, the ‘chefe suko’ (village head) of Bahamori village in the eastern district of Baucau, was presented with a President’s Nutrition Award by His Excellency Taur Matan Ruak, the President of Timor-Leste, and a plaque from Australian Ambassador Mr Peter Doyle, at an Independence Day ceremony on 28 November.
- Listen to these interviews (in Tetun) with the five award-winning chefe sukos.
- See these Facebook photos of the awards ceremony.
The President initiated the nationwide awards to identify and reward villages that ‘demonstrate leadership, mobilise community action and achieve sustainable positive change’. The overall winner, Biqueli village from the island of Atauro, received $10,000, while Bahamori and the other three finalists received $1200 each.
Estanislau is elected by the community and is in year four of a six-year term. The award is a great honour, he says, but he’s also proud of the improved nutritional status of Bahamori children.
He heard about the awards from a local administrator and decided it would be a challenge to enter. ‘We’re a rural community and it’s hard to get here. Some national people [from Dili] just visit the district towns and I wanted to show the progress we are making and what we can do at the village and community level.’
Bahamori was up against stiff competition. It lies in the sub-district of Venilale, which has eight villages, and they all applied too. Once Bahamori won the Venilale nomination, then it had to compete against six other villages from across Baucau district. On clearing that hurdle it was in the national race, with each of Timor-Leste’s 13 districts putting forward their best village.
In compiling the Bahamori application, Estanislau was able to show some impressive improvements in the health and wellbeing of Bahamori’s 2400 inhabitants, largely a result of World Vision projects. According to government health statistics, Bahamori has the best nutrition standards in Venilale with the rate of malnourished under-five-year-olds the lowest in the sub-district’s eight villages.
Four new water systems now deliver clean water to 318 households. A total of 522 households have private toilets with hand-washing and rubbish disposal facilities. In agriculture, 32 farmers’ groups have been set up, along with 14 groups dedicated to growing vegetables for market. In education, four early childhood centres educate nearly 80 pre-schoolers.
World Vision development facilitator Abel Mario Soares (left) works closely with Bahamori chefe suko Estanislau Guterres.
Abel Mario Soares, World Vision’s development facilitator, says that Estanislau strongly supports World Vision’s projects and his skill as an administrator is one reason the village has gone ahead.
Abel has lived in Neo-ho’o, one of the six small aldeia or sub-villages that make up Bahamori, since October 2013, He enjoys a close relationship with the community. ‘They all know me and treat me like one of the family, not as an outsider,’ he says.
He and Estanislau work well together and are already planning how to spend Bahamori’s $1200 prize. Their plan has a strong nutrition focus with better food for under-five children who attend health clinics, quarterly cooking demonstrations, and setting up ‘kitchen gardens’ close to peoples’ homes.
Estanislau is also thinking about next year’s awards. ‘I’ll talk to the community about what we need to do to be number one. But the key is to maintain good practices, to strengthen education and information, not just to win an award.
‘As a local leader, I recognize that the community has its limits. We hope that World Vision will continue to support us with coaching and advice on how to improve our areas of weakness.’