The St. Bakhita Centre

The Saint Bakhita Centre is a Community Youth Centre that is being built in Eraulo, Ermera, East Timor. The idea of the centre is to provide the local people an opportunity to develop skills, experience and services in the local and wider community.

The main part of the plans includes the building of classrooms, student and volunteer accommodation, a community kitchen for cooking and nutrition classes, a local health centre and clinic and a Chapel.

In May 2003 the first building of the centres plans was completed and inaugurated thanks to the financial support of School Aid.

Since then the centre has been running programs in English, computing and sewing and currently has over 150 students participating in courses. The courses are free for all local people and attract students of all ages.

The idea of the project is not to just provide educational opportunities in the classroom, but to also develop skills as part of the design, development, planning and actual building process. It also incorporates the production of locally produced materials on the site to support embryonic enterprises – this might include brick making, timberwork, carpentry etc. Not only that but it also supports locally skilled people and provides employment through a sponsored employment program with locals actually working on the job.

The Saint Bakhita Centre is seen as a place that is being built in order to provide the opportunity to share experiences and skills with others. This may involve and include people coming from other countries to share their skills, information and expertise with local and regional people from of East Timor. It is through this philosophy that the volunteers working out of the centre have built strong relationships with Australia and particularly in Perth and Darwin.