Also: Pride and joy

Herald Sun (Melbourne, Australia)

May 26, 2005 Thursday

Cows milked, not eaten

THE Department of Primary Industries has conceded it falsely confirmed that cows it helped send to East Timor for a new dairy college were eaten.

The Shepparton community group Kiwanis yesterday said the cows are now helping provide milk to 400 East Timorese students a day.

The Department of Primary Industries on Tuesday said some of the cows were eaten but yesterday a spokesman for the department conceded the information was incorrect.

Kiwanis group spokesman John Fife said yesterday the group had sent two batches of pregnant cows to start an agricultural college in East Timor.

Mr Fife said the project was an outstanding success with students being trained in how to rear and milk the cows.

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Canberra Times (Australia)

May 26, 2005 Thursday Final Edition

Pride and joy

HERE'S a new toilet block at a school in East Timor, which is the pride and joy of the students and villagers who built it with the help funds from the Canberra Soroptimists. In a slide show at a fundraising dinner by the soroptimists and the Rotary Club of Canberra South, the indefatigable Sister Josephine Mitchell, of the Mary McKillop Institute, proudly showed the smiling faces and simple amenities of this school.

The Mary McKillop Institute began working with the poor in East Timor in 1994 and guest speaker Julie McCrossin said education was the key to freedom and success for the tiny nation.

Adopting the school is a positive step by the Canberra team to make a difference -next on the agenda is a new school. The current one is likely to blow over in a storm as it's built with no foundations, the roof leaks and there's a distinct lack of windows, desks, blackboards, books, pencils -pretty much everything we take for granted. The evening progressed to the auction, the raffle and some fine Rotary methods of extracting money from the guests to support the school. And, with a full house for the event, it's pretty obvious that Canberrans will continue to do the right thing by our neighbours. social@canberratimes.com.au

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