Kirsty Sword Gusmão is the First Lady of Timor-Leste, an author and chairwoman of the Alola Foundation.
What was your childhood like? How did it influence your life choices?
I had a fairly normal childhood in Australia. In the mid-1970s I attended Eaglehawk Primary in central Victoria. My mother taught music at my school, and my father was the school principal. Mum and Dad's commitment to social justice and specifically to equality of access to education, their love of travel, and appreciation of other cultures and languages certainly left a mark on me.
What challenges did you experience through your work in Jakarta?
It was extremely challenging and very much a new experience for me to have to live a double life. I could never speak freely about my human rights work for East Timor with any of those associated with my official work as an English teacher. Human rights were dirty words during the Suharto era.
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What were some of your memorable experiences during these years?
Getting to know Xanana (then a political prisoner in Cipinang prison, East Jakarta) and assuming the role of a language teacher! I would smuggle English exercises to him along with my letters. He would complete them and send them back for correction. Other highlights included coming to know some incredibly courageous young East Timorese men and women who were fighting for the freedom of their country against terrible odds and at great personal risk.
How has life changed for you in your current position?
It couldn't be more different to the life I led up until moving to Jakarta in the early 1990s—although, in some ways, it is a logical continuation of the commitments I made during my years as an activist and support person to Xanana.
Being the country's first First Lady is no easy task, particularly since the role doesn't come with a manual and nor do I receive any financial support from the East Timorese state. Thanks to my women's organisation, the Alola Foundation, I am able to go some way towards meeting the needs of women and children in the community.
What made you want to start Alola?
It was my very strong sense that women in East Timor need and deserve a greater voice in the rebuilding of their homeland. East Timorese society is quite patriarchal and women, whilst the backbone of their families and communities, tend to be overlooked when it comes to decision-making on important issues affecting their lives. I wanted the Alola Foundation to play a role in overturning these tendencies and to draw attention to issues such as gender-based violence, maternal and child health, and educational opportunities for girls.
What would you like to see it achieve in the future?
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We at the Alola Foundation believe that, through our range of programs in the areas of economic empowerment, advocacy, education, and maternal and child health, we are equipping women with the tools and skills they require to take control of their lives and to play a leading role in improving their lot.
Our National Breastfeeding Association—and the mother support groups it has established at the village level—is putting responsibility for promoting the good health of mothers and their newborns into the hands of women themselves. Our Handicrafts Industry Development project is helping women to earn an independent income, vital to improving their quality of life and for boosting their status in society.
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What do you think are the most pressing issues in the early childhood area? What would you most like to see happen?
Education of teachers and parents! We have virtually no trained and qualified pre-primary school teachers and low standards of education. There are high rates of illiteracy and extreme poverty in the general population, along with an exceedingly high fertility rate, with an average of eight children per family. It means that very few pre-school-age children are growing up in an environment which adequately nurtures their young minds and bodies.
Current teaching practice and methodology stifles rather than fosters creativity and independence of thought. This, coupled with a lack of appropriate learning materials and resources for teachers, makes for a less-than-stimulating learning environment for pre- and primary school children. Teacher training which emphasises the need for a child-focused approach and materials development are clear areas of need that I would like to see addressed.
We need to create a greater body of literacy materials in the national language of Tetum and to foster a love of reading across the entire population. Parenting skills classes, which help mums and dads to understand the different stages of early childhood development, are also vital.
Kirsty Sword Gusmão spoke with Julian Fleetwood
For more information, or to donate to the Alola Foundation, please visit www.alolafoundation.org or contact:
The Alola Foundation
PO Box 3, Dili
Timor-Leste
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Every Child magazine – Building collaborative communities – vol. 13 no. 4, 2007, pp. 18-19
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