I was born on Atuero Island (just off Timor-Leste Capital of Dili) to a fishing family. I did all my schooling on the Island and then moved to Dili to attend a university. I was lucky enough to receive a scholarship with from Australia to support my study. I had to do an internship as part of  my university research thesis.  We were given several options of different places we could do this, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do at the time. No one wanted to choose CVTL (Cruz Vermelha de Timor-Leste or Timor-Leste Red Cross Society) because there was no certificate associated with them. However, I had a friend on the CVTL Board and he said it would be a great place for me to apply my study, which was database management.  That was in 2015-2016, and I am still here. I now run computer classes for 30 students from Monday to Saturday – four classes a day. The students come every second day.

I love what I do at CVTL. It really makes me feel happy, because of all the youth involved. I love sharing my skills. I love teaching students information technology and having a chance to build on the knowledge. However, I guess I feel a little sad, too. So many people are really interested in learning how to use computers and to take part in my course, but we only have four computers. Each of our classes have 12 students. Therefore, eight of our students can only sit and watch the other four. I really would love the opportunity to get some more computers. We don’t even need new or working computers. If we are donated broken computers, I have the skills to reassemble them or fix most things.

For the future? I want to continue with this work and activity, but I would love others to have enough knowledge to teach with me. I would like see a greater integration of activities at CVTL, to apply the computer skills to other activities. And for me? I’m getting the experience in teaching and I am learning all the time. I am so grateful to CVTL for giving me this opportunity.