Balibo Kindergarten – A Community Project

Many of us at Alto Hotel have an association with East Timor; over the years we have concentrated on educational and child/family, welfare projects. We do this through our membership of the Balibo Flag House Trust and Rotary Club of Port Melbourne. We are represented on the boards of both these organizations and in the past 12 months we have contributed to a number of different projects. Balibo Kindergarten – The Balibo Flag House Trust, The kindergarten currently looks after 40 children with the help of 1 kindergarten teacher and one teacher’s assistant. Alto Hotel contributes to the kindergarten directly by paying half the assistant teacher’s wage and indirectly by contributing financially to the Trust’s many other Balibo Community activities including:- o Administration and financing of the Flag House memorial to the Balibo Five, (the 5 Australian based journalists who died at the hands of the invading Indonesian troop at the beginning of the East Timor invasion, in 1975). -Management of the Community Learning Centre, which is an adult participation centre, training residents in carpentry, computers, sewing and mechanics. -Management of the kindergarten. -Managing the redevelopment of the Balibo Portuguese Fort, into a community ‘Visitor Accommodation Centre’ Alto Hotel does not contribute only financially, we are actively involved with the design and construction of the buildings and assisting the Trust generally, including frequent visits to East Timor.