1. Timor Leste
Why study Timor Leste?
Close neighbour

2. A significant place for East Timorese as it was where the Portugese landed. My conneciton with Manly Friends of Oecussi , SEEN , AAEE etc , OZGREEN Trees for East Timor.
Oecussi

3. Oil will bring $10billion USD into East Timor over the next 40 years
Coffee is 90% of current export ( excluding hydrocarbons)
Textiles is traditional . Local markets , fishing and building
Work and trade

4. Governance Parliament Dili Independence Day 20th May 2002
Democratic Republic of East Timor formally declared on 20th May the Portugese colonised for 400 years. During East Timor was occuppied by Austrlian and Dutch forces and then invaded by the Japanese. 50,000 Timorese died during WW2. Then Portugal tried to rebuild East Timor and in 1975 East Timor declared itself a republic quickly followed by an invasion by Indonesia. In the next 4 years 200,000 East Timorese were killed. In % of the population voted for independence. This was immediately followed by a ‘scorched earth ‘ policy from Indonesia and militia causing 2/3 of the population to be displaced. The Australian led Interfet restored peace and in 2001 East Timor held it’s first free elections. 20th may East Timor formally became the world’s newest democracy.
Independence Day 20th May 2002
Oecussi’s eastern border with Indonesia

5. Aid
As a close neighbour, Australia is strongly committed to East Timor's development priorities and provides support to assist the Government of East Timor to achieve stability and greater prosperity. Australia's Overseas Development Aid budget for East Timor in is $96.34 million . Australia is assisting East Timor to build appropriate institutions and policies for the efficient use of its petroleum revenues. Australia continues to support improvement in the delivery of basic services in East Timor. Australia has also been working with the East Timorese Government to assist the development of East Timor's security forces . Australia is also a lead donor in the development of the East Timorese Defence Force.

6. People and culture 90% Catholic
Strong cultural traditions and subsistence agricultural economy and village living.
Life expectancy in 2004 was estimated at 55.5 years, 54 for males and 56.6 for females • Half the population do not have access to safe drinking water and 60% do not have adequate sanitation • For every 1000 live births, 90 infants die before their first birthday • Maternal mortality is 800 per 100,000 live births • Adult literacy rate is 50.1%, with two-thirds of women aged illiterate (compared with less than half for men) • Up to 30% of primary school age children are not in school and less than half complete 6 years of school • Fertility rate is almost 8 for each woman • Over half the population is under 15 years of age • The Timor-Leste HDI of is the lowest among the ASEAN countries
People and culture

7. No railway lines 8 airports , mountainous, 2000 km of roads, mostly unpaved.
Transport

8. Education
Most of East Timor’s teachers left or were killed and schools were also destroyed. Very few books in Tetum (Caritas books) , community education on breast feeding ( due to water contamination this is safest) and education for women on raising chickens ( from alola foundation). There is a friendship schools program.

9. Traditional house

10. Village action planning by OZGREEN
Villages

11. Access to fresh water
50% of people do not have access to clean water and this is a major cause of childhood death. Water for villages sourced from wells- contamination a major issue . Judy Charnaud investigating purifying equipment and testing wells.

12. %90 Catholic
Religion

13. Local trade

14. Nino Konis Santana National Park
East Timor has inaugurated its first ever national park in a move to protect and preserve 123,000 hectares of land and sea on the eastern tip of the island.
Both the government and the communities living in the park hope the park will lead to increased income generation and open up the door to tourism possibilities.
East Timorese Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao opened the park, which is named after his former comrade Nino Konis Santana, who was born in the park's mountains and fought for most of his life for East Timor to gain independence from Indonesia.
"[I am] very happy because we start something that it is an important process of preservation of our forest," he said.
Unlike most national parks, the new East Timor park is home to 10,000 residents, who will sign contracts to establish them as community guardians.
The National Park is named in honour of Nino Konis Santana, national hero and former Commander of FALANTIL (Forcas Armadas da Libertacao Nacional de Timor-Leste), the armed wing of the resistance movement in the struggle for independence who was born in the village of Tutuala within the National Park .
Nino Konis Santana National Park