| Sister Cities Australia Featured Award Winner |
| Category Entered: |
Category No. 2 | Youth Project |
| Entrant Name: |
City of Casey |
| Name of Project: |
Casey-Ermera Friendship Schools Concert |
| Date of Project: |
25th August 2009 |
| Participating Sister City |
Ermera, East Timor |
Project Summary:
In the weeks following East Timorese vote for independence in 1999, 80 percent of buildings and 90 percent of schools were destroyed. A humanitarian need arose for neighbouring communities to provide assistance.
The Friends of Ermera, a community-based group operating within the City of Casey was formed in 2002 with the aim of helping the people of Ermera, East Timor, to rebuild their lives and communities. Since then, these Casey community volunteers have undertaken many projects, large and small, to provide practical assistance to the East Timorese people.
On 25 August 2009, over 250 Casey school students and kindergarten children, together with their families, participated in a Friendship Schools Concert. Young students performed music and dance items in celebration of their links with East Timor and to raise funds for Ermera – to rebuild and rehabilitate the water supply for the town of Letefoho and the surrounding nine remote villages.
This celebration and fundraiser was organised by volunteers from the Friends of Ermera Inc. in conjunction with the six Casey schools and one kindergarten which have a friendship link with a school or kindergarten in Ermera, East Timor. These Friendship School links aim to build partnerships between schools, students, teachers and their communities in East Timor and Australia and to raise awareness of the situation faced by the East Timorese in rebuilding their communities.
The Concert brought together Casey school communities to celebrate these links in a cultural performance of music and performing arts. The event was successful in raising over $5000 for the Letefoho water supply rehabilitation and extension project.
The funds raised at the Concert enabled the people of Letefoho town and neighbouring villages to access uncontaminated water.
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