The Xanana Vocational Education Trust aims to assist the people of Timor-Leste to develop a sustainable vocational education system that meets their unique needs, and leads to an increase in skill. sustainable incomes and economic activity.

The Trust is working with the Timorese to develop and implement long term programs of assistance to build capacity, infrastructure and skill.

Within Australia the Trust aims to raise money directly, but more importantly to facilitate significant funding from government, private sector, donor organisations and the general public to support its programs in Timor-Leste.

Refer to the The Trust website at http://xananatrust.org for more information.

The development of links to people and organisations in Australia who can offer financial support to the Trust.

The Trust would like to attract people and organisations who will carry out fund raising activities with the Trust as the beneficiary.

Programs supported fall into the following categories:

• Vocational Assistance Grants to vocational institutions in Timor-Leste. These are often by way of fee-replacement support for students of nominated vocational courses.
• Development of business skills to enable people and activities to be more productive and lead to additional employment opportunities.
• Initiatives for new industry development so that new income earning possibilities are created with an emphasis on larger-scale job creation. Concurrent delivery of training and development of a market based approach to achieve sustainability is an essential part of these inititatives.
• Support for major infrastructure developments which will lead to the delivery of wide-scale vocational education provision.

Some of the more significant achievements are:

• The development of a transparent and accountable organisation with internationally significant Patrons - His Excellency Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao, Former President and now Prime MInister of Timor-Leste; and Sir William Deane, former Governor General of Australia.
• The Trust has been granted specific listing as a tax-deductible gift recipient organisation.
• Rotary Clubs in Victoria and NSW, the Victorian Government, have been significant donors and supporters of the Trust together with some major private donations.
• The Trust has provided several Vocational Assistance Grants to Timorese vocational institutions resulting in excellent outcomes. In particular, major support to DIT enabled it to survive the violence and troubles in Timor-Leste in 2006. Grants were provided to non-government not-for-profit, church sponsored, and government institutions - rural and urban. Support was in the areas of automotive training, office skills and , horticulture/agriculture.
• The Trust established an office in Dili and appointed Mr Helder Encarnacao, a Timorese with significant training and experience in Portugal and Australia, as Country Manager. Helder also served as Chief of Mission for the Timorese Olympic team in China.
• A significant Trust program has been the facilitation of executive support by former Victorian Premier, Mr Steve Bracks for Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao and his Government. Governance was the principal feature of this program leading to the development of a Civil Service Commission and support for building and strengthening audit, public accountability and anti-corruption initiatives. This program was made possible because of a major private donation to the Trust.
  
• The development of significant links with the Government of Timor-Leste to ensure the Trust's support is aligned with national priorities.

The Trust has commenced a program of new industry development to help the Timorese create a large number of rural incomes. With significant support from the US Government through USAID, the Trust has started an initiative to develop a dairy industry based on using the large numbers of buffalo in Timor-Leste. These are widely distrubuted in rural areas and owned by a large number of families. The aim is to encourage participation by families to build small income producing businesses, or to build cooperatives, to add regular incomes to rural areas. The initiative has a market focus, and is based around training for farmers and others to bring skill and sustainability to the industry. It is anticpated that milk will initially be sold to the Government to enhance its school feeding program and so contribute to better health outcomes for children. Processing of the milk into cheese and yoghurt can also lead, with appropriate training, to development of associated small industries and more jobs.

The Trust aims to try and use the above initiative as a model for development of several other new industries which also have the potential to create a large number of income producing opportunities for Timorese families.

In Australia the Trust is building a supporter base and developing ongoing strategies to secure major funding for its work in Timor-Leste. Particular emphasis is on securing larger-scale Australian government support for similar inititives to the above.

Download a current newsletter from the Trust's website at http://xananatrust.org