Oecusse Hospital and Pradet Womens Refuge.

OECUSSE HOSPITAL 

Our first stop was to Oecusse hospital. 

It was built with the assistance of OzAID money and was a fairly modern facility.

We met the hospital administrator and were shown around by his assistant.The hospital seemed well equipped, however the pathology testing equipment did not appear fully utilised.

Diagnosis with diseases such as TB is extremely important here, because the highest rate of occurrence in South East Asia is in East Timor.

A key challenge is to encourage early visits during sickness and illness, because many older people associate with death due to their extremely poor health and delay in seeking attention. Young mothers are seen to be the best way in overcoming this.

PRADET WOMENS REFUGE

Next we went to the Pradet Women’s refuge, where we met the manager Meta Bano  (shown in the center of the picture) and the rest of her staff.

We were very moved when they told us about their work in dealing with domestic violence – probably more extreme than Sydney although it has the same issues.

Epping Rotary made a significant cash donation towards their work and we also gave them a donation for the use of their car and driver during the week that we were there.

A fond farewell from airport on our last day in Oecusse

 Meta, who is a lawyer, archives the highest conviction rates for domestic violence in East Timor, which encourages more women and their families to come forward and make their case known. Her next step they way she sees it is to improve her formal training in counseling.