SALESIAN MISSIONARY IN FOCUS
A glass of milk
the Timor Leste Dairy Project
he Don Bosco Agricultural School
in Fuiloro where Australian
Rotarians brought lots of dairy cows a
couple of years ago is a testament to the
sense of joy and hope to the future of
Timor Leste. The milk facility is still going
strong after six years, and kids all around
Fuiloro are healthier for it.
The Timor Leste Dairy Project began
in 1998 when the Kiwanis Club of
Brighton (Victoria, Australia) undertook to
provide fresh milk for the children of
Timor Leste. (formerly East Timor) The
club had learnt that many of the children
in the Fuiloro District of Timor Leste
walked over 5 kilometres a day to get to
school and were in urgent need of
nutritional support.
With financial assistance from the
Kiwanis Clubs of Australia and New
Zealand, and the co-operation of
Christian College, Geelong, the project
committee reared a herd of tropical
tolerant cattle whilst volunteers
dismantled a disused herringbone dairy
from near Shepparton locale.
The complete milking facility requires
a refrigerated vat, a hot-water system, a
diesel generator, a two-ton refrigerated
truck, fencing, and stainless steel
containers, to name just a few items.
Delivering the cattle required a portable
stockyard, a cattle loading ramp, trucks,
and water transport. Private donors and
organizations provided much of it, and
the Australian Army helped unload the
cattle after arrival in Timor Leste.
The diary was reassembled at
Fuiloro Agricultural School in Timor
Leste and the first herd (comprising
30 pregnant heifers and two bulls)
left Australia in April 2002.
The agricultural training facility
is capable of providing basic
training in dairy operation, a secure
home for the herd, and the capacity
to distribute milk to children. It has also
reared healthy and well cared for calves
which are the future of the East Timor
Dairy Project. It supports 500 farming
families in six villages by constructing
water-supply systems, cultivating land,
and establishing poultry and pig projects.
When the delivery truck arrives in
villages, kids run from houses yelling
"Susubeen!"- the Timorese word for
milk. The dairy peaked at 250 litres of
milk a day and almost 1000 children were
able to drink of fresh milk from the dairy
almost daily. Their smiling faces summed
up the feelings of everyone.
The people of Timor Leste are again
struggling for survival amid chaos caused
by a breakdown of civil authority at the
present times. Despite the political unrest
in Timor, the people among them the
Salesians continue to work hand in hand
with foreign help from Australia and New
Zealand. The people had never stopped
in working for the continued success of
the farm operations combating
malnutrition and even bring hope that a
brighter future is possible in a land torn in
turmoil.
Milking the cows as part of the dairy operations
(The establishment of a Dairy in Don Bosco Agricultural School, a project of Kiwanis Australia and
supported by numerous groups including AusAID and Australian Volunteers International, has
been a major achievement. It is an investment in excess of $500,000.)
