Your sponsorship support will enrich lives

Education is now the focus of Kangaroo Valley East Timor Friendship Group (KVET). We have worked with our partner Padre David Alves Da Conceicao to establish two student houses in East Timor’s capital of Dili. The student homes provide much needed free accommodation for young people from rural villages who come to Dili for tertiary education or vocational training. 

Each year we provide students with tuition, safe and suitable housing and living expenses (food, household goods and electricity).The students come from villages throughout East Timor. The criterion for selecting students is i) that they qualify for tertiary study or training; ii) they come from families who cannot afford to pay for further education; and iii) the students are committed to work hard to complete their education and to share in the household work roster.

Our first house in the Santa Cruz area of Dili has been operating since 2014 and has supported about 20 students to undertake tertiary studies in a range of courses including agriculture, public health, education, social welfare, law, biology, sewing, mechanics, nursing and languages. The second student house (in Manlueana, Dili) was only recently completed and started receiving students in August 2023. Between the two houses, we can accommodate 16 students.

KVET has three partnership arrangements with individuals or groups in Timor-Leste. Our long-standing partner, Padre David, is now the Director of a seminary in Maliana. KVET also works with Friends of Aileu (FoA), another community-to-community friendship group based at Merri-bek City Council in Victoria. More recently, KVET has partnered with Juventude ba Dezenvolivemntu Nasional (JDN), a national youth development group based in Dili, East Timor. Students seeking housing through KVET are identified through these three partnerships.

To raise funds for education, KVET hosts a wide range of fund-raising activities in Kangaroo Valley. However, this is not sufficient to meet the students needs. Consequently, KVET has now launched a Student Sponsorship Program (SSP). The program is seeking the help of people who are happy to sponsor the equivalent of one student’s education. The program operates as follows:

Sponsors provide the annual support of $1000

• These funds are eligible for tax deductibility 
• Funding is channelled through KVET rather than directly to an individual student. This is due to collective management of household living expenses.
• If sponsors wish, KVET can make arrangements for matching sponsors with individual students for communication. However, most of the students have very limited English.
•  KVET prepares an annual report to sponsors about the students’ progress; and, throughout the year, presents stories of the two student households in the Valley Voice.