TIMOR LESTE

Jim Finlayson (second from right) with Bentmoor Community Members

In a Salesian-run vocational school in Dili, Timor-Leste, students are now learning with tools that began their journey in a shed in Bentleigh. The collaboration between the Bentmoor Community Men’s Shed and the Timor school was made possible by the Rotary Club of Port Phillip and a Rotarian recycling and logistics operation, facilitated by a parishioner of Sacred Heart Church in St Kilda.

It started when the parishioner, Jim Finlayson, a retired carpentry teacher, was approached by Timorese contacts at the Don Bosco Centre vocational school. Having been a volunteer teacher there, he knew what would be most useful for the students. Jim used parish and other contacts to collect tools and educational material, but needed help beyond his local network to get the goods—four cubic metres’ worth—across the ocean.

‘A member of the club, rang me up and said, “Can we help, Jim?”’ recalls Chris Hendricks, of the Rotary Club of Port Phillip. The electrical engineer and past president has decades of Rotary service under his belt and was an ideal contact, as he knew exactly who to call. He got in touch with Donations in Kind (DIK), Rotary’s logistics arm in Footscray, to see if the pallets of goods Jim had collected could fit on the next of its regular sea containers going to Timor-Leste.

Chris Hendricks with Father Bob Maguire

They said, “We’ve got a container going to Timor-Leste soon. We could probably fit them in there,”’ says Chris. The Rotary Club of Port Phillip funded the shipping, which cost about $800 a pallet, and everything was sorted—‘just an email and a couple of phone calls and it was done.’

For the tools themselves, Jim turned to fellow parishioner Bert Dyt, who is the president of the Bentmoor Community Men’s Shed in Bentleigh. The shed has a relationship with tool supplier Bosch and often receives new equipment. ‘We’ve got boxes and boxes of tools,’ Bert says, adding that they often pass them on to other men’s sheds and community groups. When Jim asked if the shed could collect some old tools, Bert told him, ‘I can do better than that!’ and provided brand new power saws and other tools. They also chipped in for a new rotary hoe that Jim will deliver to a Salesian-run agricultural school and farm.
 

The newer generation of Bosch power tools that the shed donated to Timor are lighter and safer to use, a real step up for a country flooded with cheap and often useless mass-produced tools. But Bert is humble about the impact of the top-quality tools, which he estimates were worth about $1200. ‘I just picked it up off the bench and put it in a box. There’s no real effort for us to do it … we just give it away. That’s how it works.’

This was a seamless collaboration, with communities playing to their strengths to get things done. Rotary provided global logistics and funding; the Men’s Shed provided the physical goods through its industry connections; and Jim Finlayson provided the personal link and drive. As Chris notes, this efficiency means help goes directly where it is needed. ‘With Rotary, 99 per cent of what funds are raised goes to the charity. Everyone is a volunteer.’

Chris has had a long association with Timor-Leste, which began when the Balibo House Trust—set up by former premier of Victoria Steve Bracks after the Indonesian occupation—asked for help rebuilding schools destroyed by the Indonesian military as it withdrew in 1999. At one new school in Belola, a town near the Indonesia border, they broadened their focus, with spectacular results.

‘The kids are heavily malnourished,’ Chris says, so they incorporated school gardens. ‘The intent was for them to grow their own fruit and vegetables and have a kitchen on site so the kids can have one decent meal a day. 

‘Those gardens have done so well that the women of the village are now involved. They’re producing so much food that it’s not only feeding all the kids, but they’re taking food home as well.’ They’ve also planted Moringa trees—a wonder plant whose leaves are high in protein and iron—as a cash crop.
Behind the contributions of both Chris and Bert is the guiding ethos of Catholic Social Teaching. Both men articulate how their faith shapes their commitment to community.

‘I used to say I could walk into a room where there were a dozen people,’ Chris reflects, ‘and just by the way that they dealt with situations, I could pick out who were believers and who weren’t. It’s about being fair. It’s about having ethics and morals and standards, and being able to put yourself in another person’s shoes.’

Whatever I’ve given, I’ve got it ten times back.

For Bert, the Men’s Shed embodies a spirit of practical love. ‘It’s very Christian,’ he says, ‘because it’s just there to support one another. All are welcome.’ He sees the shed as a place where men connect naturally. ‘Men talk to each other shoulder to shoulder, rather than face to face. They get to know each other … and each other’s foibles as well.’
Bert says he finds fulfilment in this work. ‘You feel you’re doing some good somewhere, and that’s just makes you feel good.’ Similarly, Chris says he gets ‘great, great satisfaction out of the time I’ve devoted to Rotary. Some of my best friends I’ve met through Rotary, and whatever I’ve given, I’ve got it ten times back.’

And at that vocational school in Dili, Jim has arrived to help translate the men’s gift into the promise of a skilled future for dozens of Timorese students.

Written by Catholic Network