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The 350 students of Memo Primary welcomed UNDP Representative Mr. Finn Reske-Nielsen when he joined them in a ceremony to open their newly rehabilitated school earlier this week.
Memo Primary headmaster, Jose Sequeira and student representatives were happy to receive the UNIS gifts, which will be used as a supply pool for all the students. |
The UN International School helps war-torn village build symbol of strengthJose Sequeira had little time to lose. It was November 1999 and Jose suddenly found himself promoted to headmaster of the primary school where he’d been teaching for many years. Two months earlier the school, in a tiny town called Memo, which teeters on the border between East Timor and Indonesian West Timor, had been razed to the ground. In September of that year, during the terrible weeks after the East Timorese voted “yes” for independence, Memo was one village of hundreds that were systematically burnt to the ground. According to the United Nations Common Country Assessment, more than 70 percent of all buildings and infrastructure was destroyed before peacekeepers managed to quell the post-ballot violence. It is estimated 1000 people lost their lives, while thousands more were forced to flee their homes. In East Timor the school year normally starts in October, so, as Jose simply says, by November 1999 there was little time to lose. Under the shade of thick trees in the playground of the former school, Jose and a staff of seven teachers began classes for the 252 students who had been able to return to Memo. It was not until November 2000 that the first three classrooms were re-roofed, thanks to UNICEF. Today, many of the towns building are still in ruins but the primary school is an exception, with only one room still in need of work. Yesterday the whole village came out to celebrate the official opening of the rehabilitated school, where the student population has now swelled to 350. The UN Development Programme (UNDP) Representative in East Timor, Mr. Finn Reske-Nielsen traveled to Memo to take part in the celebration. During the ceremony he handed over a generous gift of school supplies from the UN International School (UNIS). The gift included crayons, pencils, booklets and games collected by the UNIS 4th graders after learning about the events of 1999 in East Timor. The supplies were sent from UNIS in New York to the UN Agency House in East Timor, where the World Food Programme (WFP) is also located. WFP, through its network of trucks, promptly assisted in delivering the supplies to Memo. “This is not the first time I have visited Memo,” Mr. Reske-Nielsen said in a short speech during the ceremony, “and certainly not the first time I have been touched by the struggle of your community,” he said. “I sincerely hope this gesture of the 4th grade students attending the UN International School shows, in a small way, the extent of support and interest around the world for East Timor,” he said. Mathis, who is a 4th grader in Memo, said he was very happy to receive the gifts and could not wait to use the soccer balls and pencils. Jose Sequeira was also happy. However, he said there is still a great deal of work to be done and like so many schools throughout East Timor, Memo Primary still lacked basic resources, such as furniture and study materials. “But, what we have achieved so far is a symbol of strength for our community,” he said. |
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