Florencio is a loving father to three children in Lautem, Timor-Leste. Every morning he walks his children to school, drops them off, waves goodbye, and then goes to work on the village farm. He is back at the school every afternoon in time to pick his children up.
His eldest son is in the second grade and his second son is just starting at a preschool supported by ChildFund Timor-Leste. Florencio has a reputation amongst the community for being very passionate about his two sons receiving a quality education in Timor-Leste.
Florencio pictured with his youngest son.
Every morning he can be seen smiling walks his sons to school. Florencio was only able to complete a middle school education until he was pulled out to focus on generating an income to help support his family. But now he wants a better future for his children.
“He is one of the best fathers. I don’t know how he manages it with his work on the farm, but he comes to school every day to wait for his children to finish. Only after that will he go tend to work or other chores,” said a volunteer teacher at the school.
Last year, he was recognised by the school for his dedication to his children’s education in Timor-Leste. This is the first time this award has been given out. In a community where traditional gender roles are entrenched in daily life, it is unique for fathers to be so heavily involved in their children’s education.
The boys’ mother stays home with their third child, who is four years old. “For me, the most important thing is my children, I share work with my wife, my wife takes care of our third child, and I take the kids to school every day. Every important thing that I must do I always do it after my children come back from school,” said Florencio.
ChildFund has supported the local preschool by providing basic learning supplies and running information sessions with the community to demonstrate the importance of early childhood education in Timor-Leste and encouraging parents to send their children to preschool.
Florencio’s oldest son, Arjun, is one of the top students in his grade. Florencio makes time to sit and study with his children twice a day – usually around dinner time. He will read magazines with them to help them with literacy and they’ll play games together supplied by ChildFund at the preschool.
Florencio thinks that the support from organisations like ChildFund is vital to making sure more children attend and stay in school. He says that through ChildFund, he learned more about why childhood education is important for his children, particularly early childhood education.
He says that children who have graduated from the ChildFund supported preschool are always some of the best students. “Preschool prepares children and helps them be more confident learners. They have a head start in reading and the alphabet which is very important for all children because their minds are so open at that age.”
“My dream to all my children is for them to have success in every way they choose. I had a dream for one of them to become a teacher and military because I want my kid to be part of the Government and to keep teaching what they know to others,” said Florencio.
Learn more about how ChildFund Timor-Leste is working with local partners and communities to improve access to early childhood education.
You can also support early childhood education and make a difference to the lives of children in need. Consider donating one of our educational Gifts for Good, such as a school supplies set or a scholarship for a child. You can also sign up to donate monthly to ChildFund Australia, enabling us to support many more children to go to school and to stay there.
By ChildFund Australia and ChildFund Timor-Leste
In the mountainous countryside of eastern Timor-Leste, several hours from the country’s capital Dili, there is a village that is extremely poor and so remote that families living there need to walk almost three hours just to reach the nearest health facility.
It is a world away for many people in Australia, but for Ana and her family, it is home.
At only two years old, Ana has her whole life ahead of her. But extreme poverty and the challenging circumstances in which Ana was born into, are subjecting her to childhood malnutrition and preventing her from reaching her full potential.
Ana and her family live in a household of 17 people, who are together surviving on less than $4 a week. Until recently, Ana’s diet consisted of mostly porridge made from rice and water.
‘I was so afraid … Ana didn’t want to eat’
About 12 months ago, Ana experienced childhood malnutrition. She was extremely unwell and her life was at risk. A severe worm infection worsened Ana’s condition. Her mother, Maria, noticed that Ana was losing her appetite and that she had stomach pains and diarrhoea. Eventually, Ana stopped eating and began losing the already little energy and strength that she had.
Maria was extremely worried about Ana, and called on a community health volunteer in the village for help.
“I was so afraid when I saw Ana didn’t want to eat,” Maria said.
The community health volunteer, trained through ChildFund’s health and nutrition program, immediately referred Ana to be treated for malnutrition.
Ana received medication to treat her worm infection and was placed in a supplementary feeding program where she received nutritious food. Eventually, Ana became stronger and her health improved.
Apart from a small grocery store 10km away that sells basic supplies, there are no health or education facilities near Ana’s community. Few families can afford their own vehicle, and public transport to the nearest health facility passes through the village only once a day. This is why community health volunteers, who live and work in the villages they serve, are essential to helping children like Ana stay safe and healthy.
The burden of childhood malnutrition
Nearly 1 in 2 children, or 49 per cent, of children under the age of five in Timor-Leste are stunted – a condition caused by a form of malnutrition – compared to only 2 per cent in Australia.
Children like Ana are more likely to become malnourished because of poverty and a lack of access to health facilities and knowledge in their communities about good nutrition.
Childhood malnutrition can have lasting negative implications on a child, their family and community. It increases healthcare costs, and can prevent children from finishing school, which can limit their future job opportunities, perpetuating a cycle of poverty.
How can we prevent childhood malnutrition?
Nearly 1 in 2 deaths in children under the age of five are linked to a form of malnutrition. But malnutrition in children is preventable and treatable.
With your support, we can help train community health volunteers to regularly monitor children’s growth for signs of malnutrition. These volunteers also learn how to identify common childhood illnesses and make referrals to health specialists. They also help ensure mothers attend postnatal and antenatal care, and lead mother and father support groups. The work of these local health volunteers in rural and remote communities, where health facilities and doctors, midwives and nurses are hard to access, can be lifesaving for children like Ana.
With your donation to ChildFund’s Malnutrition Appeal, we can also provide supplementary feeding programs to treat malnutrition in children, support families to access de-worming medication for their children, and run community cooking, nutrition and health workshops for parents and caregivers.
Through a ChildFund-supported cooking workshop, Maria learnt about the nutrition content of various local foods, and how to include some of these foods in Ana’s diet.
Today, Ana has fully recovered from childhood malnutrition, and Maria incorporates vegetables such as moringa, a highly nutritious plant that she sometimes gets from neighbours or other members of her community, in the rice porridge she makes for Ana.
Good nutrition is essential for a child’s health and development, which is why it is a key focus of ChildFund’s health programs. The first 1,000 days – from the time a woman becomes pregnant to her child’s second birthday – is critical to a child’s healthy development.
ChildFund’s health and nutrition program in Timor-Leste focuses on supporting mothers like Maria to care for themselves and their children during these first 1,000 days, and longer. Make a donation to ChildFund’s Malnutrition Appeal today and you can help to train community health volunteers, assist parents to access child health support groups, or facilitate cooking workshops for families.
