Update - friends of Baucau

Thanks to those who came along to our great public meeting back on the 28th July. It was a fabulous turn out despite the rain bucketing down outside. As a follow up from this event and as we move through the transition to becoming a community organisation we will be holding two more community meetings this year - one on 29th September and one on 17th November 2010.

For those that haven't followed these developments or who were unable to make it to the event, the Cities of Yarra and Darebin have made a decision to support the Friends of Baucau to become a sustainable and independent community association. This means that the project officer role will continue until the end of December. Following this the Friends of Baucau incorporated will receive grants ($30,000 per year for two years is allocated in budgets).

Furthermore the two Councils have signalled a desire to continue in friendship with the District of Baucau, and has committed additional funds to developing a new Friendship agreement. The Councils hope to focus on activities that are focused on local government and have committed some additional funds to developing the agreement and determining what type of activities might be suitable.

Things have been busy over the last couple of weeks - Friends of Baucau has engaged an independent consultant, Gabrielle Samson, to undertake a consultation with various stakeholders regarding the Baucau Buka Hatene centre and it's future direction. You may have heard of Gabrielle as she has worked extensively on Atauro Island including with the Tua Ko'in Eco-Village. Gabrielle is in Baucau in present and will be completing her consultancy at the end of the month. If you would like to have any input into this please feel welcome to email me.

Fiona Young
East Timor Project Officer
Friends of Baucau