It was a meeting of old and new friends at the GVFS 10 year celebration dinner held recently at The Davidson Restaurant. The connection between Geelong and East Timor has resulted in many partnerships and ongoing friendships, and we are incredibly proud of the work being taken up by the schools of Geelong. Education is... Continue Reading →
A Life That Matters
John Butler 1941 - 2015 Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end. Then will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours, days. All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else. Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance. It will not matter... Continue Reading →
John Olding Butler 26/11/41 – 10/05/15
JOHN BUTLER: Our deepest sympathy to Gael and family. A gentle and thoughtful man whose strong commitment to social justice continues as part of his legacy to Timor Leste. President and Committee, Geelong Viqueque Friendship Schools. Read the In Memoriam published in The Geelong Advertiser, Saturday May 16th.
2014 President’s Report to the AGM
The full transcript of the 2014 President's Report can be found below in the Newsletter Section. Here is a highlights package! The Butler Donation We have had another good year both in Viqueque and Geelong. The highlight has been the commencement of the allocation of funds from the Butler Donation, a most generous gift from... Continue Reading →
Opening a new page in Viqueque
Mariano Da Silva reports that work on the new library that we are funding is proceeding and he has sent some photographs of the teachers working in the space. A more detailed report is expected soon.
2nd Compact Teacher Training Program
Mariano Da Silva, the Geelong Viqueque Friendship Schools Project Officer, has sent back a report on the second Compact Teacher Training program. The program ran for five days in May and involved four days at four Viqueque schools; Craras, Loihonu, Mamaluc and Uamori schools. The Monday program as opened by the Director of Education and... Continue Reading →
Our Language Project in Viqueque Commences in January
2014 will usher in some big changes with the start of our Language Project in Viqueque. The project has three components, chief of which is the training of teachers by highly skilled providers based in Timor Leste. The Institute of Mary MacKillop will commence its four day teacher training in Viqueque in January. This program... Continue Reading →
Gearing Up for 2014
Our final meeting for 2013 was a Review Session conducted at Geelong Grammar School. We had 22 members and guests at the meeting where our focus was to identify the key areas for improving our program both in Viqueque and in Geelong with our partner schools. We began by reviewing the SWOT analysis conducted in... Continue Reading →
Geelong-Viqueque Friendship Schools 