>It is only 400 kilometres from the coast of Timor to Australia’s coast. Our two twentieth century histories are intertwined in ways that have created strong bonds between many Australians and many Timorese. Our dream is for the Hospital of Hope to be another such strong bond. Let me set the scene…
The 1.2 million people of Timor, half of them children under 15, most living below the poverty line, face many challenges. Australia is the developed nation close by. If we don’t help the people of Timor no one else will see it as their role to do so.
The people of Timor have very under resourced and limited medical care. Their Department of Health has 3,500 positions to be filled but only 2,700 staff because there are not enough trained workers. The staff that fill the 2,700 positions are in need of more training and mentorship.
Our plan is to develop, over time, a Hospital that delivers free care, staffed by international volunteers to bring the skills needed, augmenting not straining the resources of the public system.
The aim is to create a centre filled with people who are dedicated and capable and who can reach out beyond the Hospital, working with the Timorese Government to bring improved care across many illnesses and disabilities to the whole island.
Above all, as the name implies, we want our existence to give hope to the people of Timor who are ill, or whose children or mother or father or brother or sister or husband or wife are ill. Hope that something can, and will, be done. Along with that hope, we also wish to bring to the Timorese a sense that someone cares for them. And for them to experience compassion from a stranger, for what may be the first time for many, if not most.
We are about medical care, but through medical care, we are even more about hope and compassion.
The Hope Report allows us to link with you, the reader, so you can walk along the way with us, be part of this hope and help us make it happen.
Welcome.
Dr Chris Fenton - Managing Director, Hospital of Hope
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