Green Games, Timor Leste

#Botany #Randwick #Timor leste #botanyrandwickrotary
As a part of our International Service, the Rotary Club of Botany Randwick has been a longtime supporter of the Sustainable Villages Project, which is a Rotary Australia World Community Service project in the remote Oecusse enclave of Timor Leste.  Our funding has supported improved water supply to a number of villages as well as the Green Games.
 
The idea for the games came up in 2006 when Luis Armando, Director of GREENTL and Judy Charnaud, a Sydney Rotarian, were having a general conversation re young people in Oecusse having too much spare time on their hands and not seeing a bright future for themselves, many finished school, could not afford to go onto further education and had little opportunity of employment, leading to disenfranchised and easily angered young people.  Luis suggested organising a sporting competition to give them something to do.
The inaugural GREEN Games were held in 2007 and the event has been a great success ever since. Since 2007 the Youth in Action GREEN Games has evolved, changed, grown and become the single, biggest, most important, annual sporting competition in the enclave. Over the last 14 years the majority of the population of Oecusse has been involved in one way or another, some of the players watched from the sidelines when they were too little to play and are now taking their turn! Games have been held in several sub-districts with the intention of giving as many people as possible the opportunity to participate – Obeau, Padeia, Pune, Passabe, Boaknana and now Lifau. The importance of sport, especially in a developing country such as Timor leste with a very large, disenfranchised youth population, cannot be over emphasised. Sport is very popular in Timor leste and young people have natural, well developed fine motor skills.  Even though there is very little training received in these outer, isolated districts, enthusiastic locals who do their best.