We arrived in Timor-Leste on 4th June. We were four Australian Catholic University (ACU) students undertaking our placement at Klibur Domin (KD). Not one of us had ever been to Timor-Leste. We were very excited for what the next four weeks would have in store. We had our first day at KD on 5th June. Our first impressions of this program were that it provided a safe and well thought out home for people with a variety of conditions including tuberculosis (TB), drug resistant TB, stroke survivors and children with developmental and learning difficulties. On our first day, we were introduced to KD’s Executive Director, Sr. Joaquim Soares. He explained to us the background information about how KD started, the funding it receives and the purpose of the program.

Whilst completing our ACU placement at KD we spent time with many of the program’s residents. Despite the language barrier we were able to build and maintain strong bonds with our clients and enjoyed working with the KD staff to understand their treatment approaches and to share our knowledge. We were also given the opportunity to visit clients and their families in rural communities. This experience was like nothing we had seen before. We will forever be grateful to be given the opportunity to help their families in any way we could.

A big part of our time in KD, was spent assessing the student house and proposing changes to accommodate a student in a wheelchair. We worked alongside Martin (volunteer) and Sr. Joaquim Soares to consider the financial and time restrictions that KD faced. As a team we were able to come up with three modifications to allow her to access and move at ease around the house.

A big part of our role whilst in Timor-Leste was to not only share our knowledge and experiences from Australia, but to also learn and be immersed in the Timorese culture and way of life. I speak on behalf of my fellow classmates and supervisors when I say that the people at KD were welcoming, supportive and determined to learn and develop their way of working with individuals with disabilities.

We hope to come back to Timor-Leste in the future and visit KD once more.

Ellie