Article from Robert Fisher, Rotary MelbourneA third container load of school furniture in the past three years has just been delivered to Dili from the Donations in Kind warehouse in West Footscray. Project lead, Bob Glindemann, speaks with pride of how Rotary has been able to support the charity Spend It Well www.spenditwell.com which in recent years has itself built eight brand new schools in various locations around East Timor.
Following independence in 1999, the State Education Department was short of funds to renovate many run-down schools, and that’s where Spend It Well, a small family-oriented NFP, stepped in to support “one of [Australia’s] closest neighbours”.
Typically, each new school will have 4 or 5 classrooms, toilets, a water tank and hand-washing facilities. East Timor Roofing, a company that was originally set up by Rotary Melbourne and is now locally owned, supplied some of the school roofs and continues to be a supplier to Spend It Well.
The desks and chairs (which would otherwise end up in landfill) are donated by State, Catholic and independent schools in Victoria. At the destinations in East Timor, school children themselves offload desks from the containers or trucks that deliver them from the port, and position them in their own classrooms. And this time round, Spend It Well actually purchased the container and placed it at one of the new schools for storage.
Bob says that the next container to East Timor will be towards the end of the year, this time filled with playground equipment. Then around April/May 2026, another container of school furniture will be shipped to the country.
The overall project is registered at RAWCS (Rotary Australia.World Community Service).
School children unloading
Unloading container at its destination