Timor Rising Sun

Timor Leste comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, located approximately 640km north of Darwin, Australia. For 450 years Timor Leste, (Timor Loro Sae - Timor Rising Sun, as it is named in Tetun) was a colony of the Portuguese. In 1975,  following a change of government in Lisbon, Timor Leste was annexed and administered by Indonesia.

During these periods of foreign dominion, little investment was made into Timor. Social services, business and industry remained for the most part isolated to the national capital of Dili and living conditions for most of Timor’s population remained under-developed.

In 1999, a successful vote for independence occurred, granting Timor Leste self-determination. However, immediately following the vote, Timor Leste fell into a period of turmoil as pro-Indonesian militia groups and street gangs razed much of the country to the ground. This included homes, communities and the majority of the country's infrastructure, including water and irrigation systems, communications, transport networks, schools, and most of the country's electrical grid.

The human cost was high, with many losing their losing their lives and tens of thousands becoming homeless and displaced from their communities.

Subsequently, the fledgling nation was administered by the United Nations (UN), which assisted the people of Timor Leste in transitioning to an independent government, setting up basic governance structures and organising elections. On May 25, 2002 Timor Leste became a fully independent nation.

Today, Timor Leste is one of the poorest countries in the Asia-Pacific region and amongst the 20 poorest countries in the world. It has one of the world’s highest infant mortality rates, unemployment levels of over 50% in the city, and a subsistence existence in rural areas that often results in food shortages, and in the long term, malnutrition.

One of the major challenges facing Timor Leste is creating the infrastructure through which to deliver development and capacity building programs. Its mountainous terrain makes installation and maintenance of infrastructure such as roads, pipelines and power and communications cables an expensive and difficult task.

More so, this lack of infrastructure places severe capacity constraints on a number of organisations to operate effectively and efficiently, including police, health and other community organisations.

As President Jose Ramos Horta stated before the 2002 election, the future for Timor consists of “putting the pieces together, pulling the country [out of] the ashes of destruction, continuing to give hope to people”.