Recently, members of the ATLAS Board had the pleasure of meeting in Canberra with Sister Inacia Malfalda Fatima from Timor-Leste. Sister Inacia is responsible, on behalf of the Carmelite Sisters, for the program of financial support which ATLAS provides for the care and education of the children at St Therese’s Orphanage Maubara. During the past year, ATLAS also provided funding for the building of a new kitchen at the orphanage. ATLAS is a major donor for the orphanage and we assured Sister Inacia that we would continue providing financial support into the future.
We welcomed the opportunity to discuss a new proposal from the Sisters for assistance to finance the education of girls from the orphanage who have reached Secondary School. The outcome from this discussion was very positive and ATLAS has agreed to extend our support for the orphanage to include this special program. You will find further details in a short article in this newsletter entitled The Education of Girls – a Lifeline to Development.
On behalf of ATLAS, we thanked Sister Inacia sincerely for her accountability for the orphanage program and for the financial reports and the information she sends about the children and their activities.
Josephine Mitchell RSJ