Claire: BEING IN EAST TIMOR WAS LIKE BEING IN ANOTHER WORLD

40 Hour Famine

Catch up here on the latest comings, goings and general happenings for the 40 Hour Famine in 2011.

We’ll also post tips and advice for how to rock the 40 Hour Famine.  Got a tip for us? Add a comment! Let’s share the love.

Just a few months ago I found myself boarding a plane and traveling to a country in extreme poverty, a country that is more devastated by hunger than most of Africa, a country where roughly half of the children are malnourished. The country we traveled to was East Timor, our closest neighbour and just an hour flight from Darwin.

Being in East Timor was like being in another world. The poverty was so intense, and the people we met were so affected by it- it was surreal. I couldn’t believe that a place like this could exist so close to Australia. We live in one of the luckiest countries in the world, and the average Australian would have no idea that right next door is a country whose people struggle each day to survive.

The work that World Vision is doing in some of the communities of East Timor was incredible to see, and showed me that poverty is not an obstacle too big to overcome.

Little things can make a huge difference to improve living conditions for people in poverty. I saw villages transformed by World Vision’s work, crops that were previously failing that now stood tall over our heads due to effective agricultural training. One of the biggest myths associated with poverty is that we can’t do anything to change it. But in the words of Nelson Mandela: ‘poverty can be overcome and eradicated with the actions of human beings.’ So lets take action!

Over the coming months, I’ll introduce you to many of the people I met in East Timor, but as this is my first blog, I should properly introduce myself. I'm 18 years old, studying Arts at Melbourne University, and I’m the Youth Ambassador for Victoria and Tasmania.

I’m so excited to be helping World Vision in their fight against global poverty, and coming to speak at some of your schools throughout the year!