Our Lady of the Cape Primary donations to East Timor drastically exceed expectations

What started as a lesson in sustainability has exceeded every expectation of Our Lady of the Cape Primary School which has donated two truck loads of materials to the East Timor Leste project. A collection truck arrived at the school last Friday to transport the materials back to Perth, only to find the school had gone above and beyond and a second truck would be needed. The East Timor Leste Project is a charity initiative that seeks to provide materials to the less fortunate communities of East Timor with a focus on school materials. After conducting a school-wide clean out, assistant principal Amie Meyer heard about the project online and aimed to teach the students about sustainability and re-purposing their goods. She said the response from students and families was unbelievable. “It snowballed beyond my expectation, they are a really compassionate group of kids who have dug deep to get in there and help out,” she said. “Some even wrote cards and messages of love and hope and support and to also share what they have that they don’t use. We just encourage them to look at the world as one big family and to look beyond themselves and teach that empathy at a young age so they can make a difference. She said the initiative empowered the school’s motto “many hearts one voice”. “While sustainability has been a real focus our desire is to instill in the kids this sense of hope that they can make a difference in the world no matter how small and something as little as giving stuff away that they don’t use anymore to somebody else I think in today’s climate is a positive we can focus on,” she said. The project started in 2007, installing water pumps so the community could access fresh water. In doing so it became clear the local schools were lacking in simple materials such as chairs, desks and outdoor play equipment. In 2010, Bunbury-based Peter Snell put together the school equipment initiative and has been sending materials to Timor ever since. “The first pump we put in was at a school but we saw that they had next to nothing in there and you look at the schools here and what gets thrown out with all the upgrades so together with Rotary we put a program together to send sea containers up of school equipment along with clothing donations and other things,” he said. “We’ve sent over 15,000 school chairs that would’ve gone to landfill ... it’s really fantastic. “Now we’re also starting to get medical equipment and wheelchairs which is great because I was up there once and saw a teacher using a tree branch as a crutch ... so it’s great to not only be helping but preventing things here from going to waste.” It’s clear the project has had a great impact on the students. “I love imagining where it’s all going to go because it’ll make someone happy,” said one student. “Thankyou for giving us the opportunity to help and to change people’s lives,” added another. “To the people in East Timor, good job for being strong without all of this stuff because they don’t have it and we have a lot … so we hope it makes your lives a bit easier and better.”