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Kay Rala Secundaria |
 SETRA has supported the students of
Seattle's Nova High School in establishing a continuing sister-school
relationship with Kay Rala Secundaria (High School) in Manatuto. Ashley
Barnard, who is graduated from Nova in 2005, provided the energy to make
this connection. She followed leads and e-mailed dozens of folks, trying to find
a way to connect with a sister school in Timor Leste. Finally, she found the
Alola Foundation, an organization founded by Kirsty Sword Gusmao,
the wife of President Xanana Gusmao. The sister school program at Alola had
been connecting elementary schools in Timor Leste with Australian schools for
several years, but Nova is the first American school, and the first high school
in the program. Through Alola Ashley found Kay Rala Secundaria, named after the
President, and recently awarded a grant to build in Manatuto. The school's
original building had been destroyed during the Indonesian occupation. So the
relationship began, and NOVA and SETRA began raising money to support the
school. |
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| Money raised has been
used for windows for the building, supplies, books, musical instruments,
desks and, until recently, scholarships for the many students unable to
afford the $4.00 per month cost of attending public school. Since
the East Timor government announced they would begin funding public
school tuition this year the current focus is on providing enough desks
for all of the students. |
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The school’s census has nearly
doubled for this year, up to 600 from 350 last year, due to the influx of
students escaping the unrest in Dili. Many students come and stay with relatives in Manatuto, which has remained
unaffected by the violence. Naturally, this creates a new hardship for the
school, because with only 8 classrooms and about half of the desks needed,
overcrowding is extreme. Your generous help continues to be needed to help
improve the educational opportunities for current and future Kay Rala students. |
“Our thanks a lot to Mr. Joe, Debra and all Nova
students that had worked hard to
collect money to pay our fee school in Kay Rala. All of us very happy
because we
were passed for this year! ”Taken from a letter from Kay Rala
students to Nova High School. |
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Read more about the Nova Project and the East Timor sister
school:
http://www.novaproj.org/east_timor/
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/jamieson/225431_robert23.html
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/132637_pac28.html
http://www.etan.org/et2003/october/14-20/13seattle.htm
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