Osso Huna Pre-Secondary School - Timor Leste

Classroom in Osso Huna








Entertaining visitors - who came to help out with conversational English classes







Attached are some photos from Osso-Huna Pre-Secondary School up in the mountains south east of Baccau.


School Parents meeting








Lining up before school










Back in 2002 the community gave a high priority to education and established with the help of some teachers from the community a presecondary school. With the help of friends from overseas and funding from TEAR Australia the school has continued to run successfully and constructed permanent class rooms.

Report from the School
For the 2007-2008 school year that began on 6 October 2007 and ended on 30 June 2008, there were 80 students enrolled in the Osso Huna Pre-Secondary School. For Year I there were 33 students; Year II had 27 students, and Year III 20 students. These students received very good grades in English, Portuguese, Mathematics and Biology. In June 2008, the Year III students took their national exams. All but one of them passed. A graduation ceremony was held on 29 July 2008 for the 19 students who passed their national exams.

An alumnus of the Osso Huna Pre-Secondary School, is now continuing his studies in Sydney, Australia. He was one of 30 students that were selected by the Secretary of State for Petroleum in Timor Leste to receive scholarships to study about petroleum in Australia. He graduated from Osso Huna in 2004/2005. In December 2008 another two alumni from Osso Huna, were awarded scholarships to continue their studies in the Philippines.

On Earth as in Heaven

TEAR Australia National Conference and Festival at Stanwell Tops, just south of Sydney, this last weekend was a wonderful event. The conference organisers were almost overwhelmed by a conference attendance of 500 people - probably over half under 35 years of age.

Whatever is happening in the decline of the Christendom model of the church a socially engaged faith inspired by a range of influences from nineteenth century Evangelical reformers such as Wilberforce, through contemporary anabaptism to the new monasticism, is well and truly alive in Australia.

In the local TEAR groups, lobbying activities and community engagement many people are finding a faith community experience that is more coherent and in touch with everyday life than traditional forms of churching. This form of social/faith movement is characterised by leadership that is not constrained by denominational politics and is moved forward by the energy, gifts and skills of ordinary biblically and theologically literate people who are not waiting for clerical permission.

Your Kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven - the conference theme was underpinned by enlivening biblical studies by activist Ched Myers who drew our attention to the social, economic and political reality against which the prophets of Israel proclaimed God's critique and the realities of the empire against which Jesus' ministry was set.

Approaching APEC

The public language used by NSW government ministers and the police in the run up to APEC has had a distinctly aggressive edge to it. There has been an assumption that deonstrations will be violent and a "bring it on" tone.

There has been no attempt to recognise the democratic character of public assembly and no substantive public statement of a willingness to engage in good faith with those people who are committed to the democratic process as manifested through non-violent protest.

Indeed the public stance of the authorities has given great comfort I would judge to those elements that see no difficulty with violence by unwillingness to engage with elements from civil society who wish to use APEC to raise there concerns with a variety of issues. The setting up of an alternative media office by a range of NGO's is an important attempt to engage serously in democratic debate. This too has been greeted with a notable lack of enthusiasm. the presence in this group of faith based age and development agencies like TEAR Australia, who engages with a wide constituency in the evangelical churches should give pause for thought.

A positive approach to engaging with civil society elements who want to raise issues of deep public concern in the context of APEC would have demonstrated a practical commitment to democracy that would have encouraged many people across the world and left those comfortable with the "ultimate forgetfulenss of violence" (Bruce Cockburn "Night Train") isolated.

Instead the militarisation of language and the threat of counterviolence by those in authority (not the upholding of justice be it noted) has proceeded apace.