Left to right: Students Lourenco Alves, Patricio Guterres and Rosita Aparicio with teacher Leopoldina Guterres (September 2018).

 

1. Lourenco Alves is from Alua Kraik. Both his parents are alive but his father went to jail for 14 months under suspicion of colluding with the rebels. Lourenco was chosen for this scholarship shortly after his father was sent to jail, as he has 5 sisters and 3 brothers. None of the girls are attending school, but the other boys are attending the government school in Baguia.

 

Lourencois now 16 years old and his favourite subject at school is Science. He hopes he can get the opportunity to continue next year into Senior High School in Baguia, as he would like to go on to be a doctor.

 

2. Patricio Guterres is from Hae Coni. While both his parents are alive, his mother is partially blind and suffers from poor health and so can’t work. He has 8 brothers and a sister. One brother is at University and two are at the senior high school in Baguia. The two younger brothers are still in primary school and his eldest sister stays home to help run the household.

 

Patricio is 17 years old and his best subject at school is Mathematics. He wants to go to Senior High School in Baguia next year, as he is very keen to become a teacher. 

 

3. Rosita Aparicio is a girl from the village of Samalari. Her father died a few years ago and her mother has 6 children. The eldest is a labourer making bricks, one is at university and the rest are no longer attending school. Even the youngest boy stopped going to school once the father died. 

 

Rosita is 18 years old and enjoys studying English language at school. She hopes she can obtain a scholarship to attend Senior High School in Dili, so that she can then get high enough marks to get into Medicine and become a doctor.