I would like to welcome you all to this Annual General Meeting of the Mornington Peninsula Friends of Lospalos. I am delighted to present this Presidents report for the year ending 30 June 2023.
Once again, we come together to reflect on the work and accomplishments of the Friends during the year ending 30 June 2023.
As always, our priority is to ensure that our work and fundraising aligns with the growing needs of the Lospalos community in Timor Leste. This is driven by their “ground up” decision making as a community supported by our reciprocal Lospalos Friends of the Mornington Peninsula Commission. This basic structure has been an integral part of our friendship relationship now for over twenty years.
Focal Point Worker For several years now, we have been working with Fredy Sampaio, Focal Point Worker, “on the ground” in Lospalos, participating by the internet in our monthly committee meetings and facilitating communications between the friends’ groups and the Lospalos local government administration implementing projects in Lospalos. This helps to promotes the most effective use of time and resources to implement projects for Lospalos community.
Our previous work reported at our last AGM and across our events has helped us to continually improve the efficiency and effectiveness, for future projects.
Ongoing efforts by the volunteer group have focused on the following areas during the period under review. At the end of this report, I shall add some up-to-date comments on more recent activities.
Cacavei community village project This was successfully completed during the year and it has allowed the community to meet in what is a Youth Training Centre to develop skills in English, computer literacy, music and art.
Teacher training scholarships The Friends annually sponsor the further education for teachers from the Lospalos region at the Marist Teachers College in Bacau - a major town and administrative centre which is about half way by road from Dili to Lospalos.
Our scholarships allow students to be fully funded for board and tuition for the duration of their Bachelor of Teacher Training degree – an investment in their passion for education and commitment into their community in Timor-Leste where (in 2022) 42 percent of the population is under 18 years of age and education is highly prized.
Azefina and Erfina are two of the Friends recent scholarship recipients from the Lospalos region. Our own Australian citizen and member of the Order of Australia Margie Beck has for many years worked tirelessly to promote the College, the students and scholarship funding.
“The Circle of Silence” film screening at the Classic Cinema in Elsternwick hosted by Demand Films was supported by the Friends and friends’ groups thorough Victoria. Introduced by the former premier Steve Bracks and with the presence of Victorian Consul for Timor-Leste Andrew Mahr, it is the penetrating journey of Shirley Shackleton uncovering the appalling 1975 murder of the five journalists at Balibo and subsequent coverup by the Indonesian and Australian governments.
The Friends acknowledge the efforts of all Timor Leste supporters who strived for self determination and independence for East Timor and now allows us, as an NGO, to offer and provide continued desperately needed support and development of Timor-Leste and the community of Lospalos.
Council Delegate For an extended period, the Friends have not had a council appointed delegate to the committee. This is a requirement of our Memorandum of Understanding with the Shire. This oversight has now been rectified by the Shire and we are delighted to have Cr Brooks as our council appointed delegate. We welcome Cr Brooks to our deliberations and his contribution to our ongoing working relationship with the Shire – a key foundation of the formation of the Friendship group now over twenty years ago.
Fundraising and donors Fundraising and our donors support are necessary prerequisites to get projects off the ground and completed to the required standard of use, longevity and sustainability. In addition to the generous annual support from the Shire, the Friends have received many very generous individual donations. This is most humbling that the Friends work is supported in this way.
The Mornington Peninsula Friends of Lospalos, and the committee, most strongly believe in “community” as the very basis of our work here on the Mornington Peninsula and in Lospalos.
Rotary Club of Dromana and Two Bays Brewing Co and Wine Lovers Warehouse We were grateful to be approached by Joseph Sofia and the Rotary Club of Dromana to host a wine, craft beer and pizza evening in partnership with Two Bays Brewing Co and Wine Lovers Warehouse. This provided an excellent platform for the Friends to outline what we strive to achieve through our volunteer organisation, outline the ongoing open invitation for new members and of course, solicit donated funds.
The evening and Virginia Brooks presentation on behalf of the committee were a great success generating over $3,150 in donations toward our underway projects. It was so great to hold an in-person event, which allowed us to mingle with local members of the community and Friends supporters.
The Friends are incorporated, a registered charity and have deductable gift recipient endorsement from the Australian Taxation Office since 2020. All financial donations allow donors to receive a tax deductibility.
As a result of this year’s fundraising efforts, the Cacavei Youth Centre was completed.
Coffee and “on line” wine sales continued throughout the year. The packaged Timorese coffee was [and continues to be] available from Tim Rodgers Furniture workshop at 54 Peninsula Avenue Rye and continue to be a great form of passive fundraising for our projects.
Ongoing projects The main infrastructure projects now completed or nearing completion, the Friends focus for the forthcoming year will centre on a visit to Lospalos to inaugurate the completed projects with the local communities and local government administration in Lospalos and Lautem Region.
Specs for Lospalos clinic More importantly, the Friends are undertaking preparatory work towards conducting a second Specs for Lospalos clinic at the Lospalos Hospital in the first half of the new financial year. This clinic will provide necessary eyecare screening and provision of spectacles to be donated by Lyons Recycle for Sight program. This will be on the back of the community support from our 2019 inaugural clinic enabling significant improvement in eye care for the Lospalos community. [The clinic has now been undertaken by the volunteer team in August conducting 340 eye examination and dispensing prescribed spectacles.]
This proposed visit will also provide an excellent opportunity to met with our corresponding Lospalos Friends of the Mornington Peninsula Commission to discuss our ongoing working relationship and future projects now that the current projects for the sucos near Lospalos are nearing completion.
Membership Your committee will continue promoting the work of the Friends. We thank our members for sharing in that goal. As always, we thank our members for renewing their membership subscriptions each year, and bring with them family and friends who are also passionate about supporting the great work our committee does on a range of “ground up” projects.
We hope that member involvement and our outlining of successful projects will welcome new members with fresh ideas and the drive to continue the great work our volunteers do throughout the year. [A specialist membership sub-committee has now been established.]
Committee Our ability to reflect on the current year’s outcomes highlights both the achievements thus far and highlights the areas that will continually require our efforts as an organisation, that only operates with your ongoing support.
So, with that what I want to say is an overwhelming thankyou and to our hardworking committee, its Secretary Xiao Li Ma and Treasurer Harry Pittock.
We look forward to continuing to work with you and the communities both here in the Shire and in Lospalos to further develop the Friendship relationship for the benefit of the Timorese of Lospalos.
With thanks,
Colleen Hammond
President
Mornington Peninsula Friends of Lospalos Inc.