Mr. Say Ranny and Mr. Rous Saron from GDI Cambodia (SOLS 24/7 Cambodia), joined the SOLS 24/7 East Timor Team. Mr. Say Ranny will be responsible for modern agriculture techniques training, while Mr. Rous Saron will be part of the Teaching Team as well as responsible for setting up a District Training Center in the early part of 2007. Both of them have been an integral part of SOLS 24/7 for over 5 years.
Mr. Vicente De Jesus Brito also joined the Team as the Local Program Coordinator. He will be responsible for the Traditional and current agriculture techniques, as well as local administration and translations.
On the 16th of December 2006 we signed a Memorandum of Agreement & Lease for 20 years with the Village of Ulmera for Sekolah Unggul (School for the Elite). This school was built during the Indonesian occupation in the mid 1990s. It’s a six-hectare area, walled all around with classrooms, labs, dormitories, offices and teacher houses. Sekolah Unggul will be turned into SOLS 24/7 TTC. Once renovated, it will be able to easily accommodate 500 –1,000 boarding students. Unfortunately, during the fight for independence in the late ‘90s, all of the structures of the roofs, flooring, toilets, sanitary systems were either destroyed, looted or left without maintenance, resulting in very poor structural conditions. The entire school will require massive renovation. The current TTC in Dili will then be turned into the Academic Training Center.
During Late October through Late December, SOLS 24/7 had also met with several high- ranking government officials, international & local NGO heads, as well as with the local government. Among the distinguished people whom we hope to work with are Ms. Ng Shui Meng – Country Representative UNICEF, the Director General of the Ministry of Education and the Director General of Taxation of the Ministry of Finance and Planning.
SOLS 24/7 also applied for a Technical Volunteer with VIDA (Volunteering for International Development From Australia). The Technical Volunteer will be responsible for Monitoring & Evaluation, reporting & proposal writing.
SOLS 24/7 also applied for Small Grants with USAID and AusAID, and met with the Japanese Embassy for a possible cooperation.
SOLS 24/7 also presented to the UNICEF Country Representative, Program Coordinator and their other officials. Possible collaborations are currently being evaluated.
The next enrollment will be on the 8th of January 2007, and there is already a significant number who have expressed interest in enrolling in our 2-year comprehensive training program. We are currently only able to accommodate sixty full- time boarding students, but as always will look for effective ways to construct and expanding our dorms and classrooms in order to accommodate the growing number of students.
Please view our photo gallery to see the photos.