Archive for April, 2021
11 April 2021
Day 6 of Spend it Well’s East Timor Flood Relief
Today, a week after the floods, was our biggest day yet.
We delivered food and supplies to 245 families – about 1,500 people in 4 villages in Tibar using 3 trucks and 2 utes. Tibar is only 20 minutes out of Dili, but on the other side of the Covid quarantine perimeter which meant a border crossing and observing Covid protocol.
We spent A$11,000 and delivered:
245 mattresses
245 mosquito nets
490 blankets
360 boxes of sanitary pads
4,900 kg of rice
245 cans pork
245 packets of salt
245 packets of biscuits
380 packs of coffee
245 x 1kg packs of flour
50 kg of onions
50kg of garlic
980 packs of noodles
120 mosquito repellant strips
288 bars of soap
245 x 2 litre bottles of cooking oil
360 x 1.5 litre bottles of drinking water
We have 6 water trucks arriving in Tibar tomorrow and Dr Andre has arranged to return with the Sabeh medical team.
This village would still have nothing without the donations we’ve received in the last week, so a huge thank you to all of our donors. Thanks also to the Sabeh team for packing everything into family packs (the red plastic bags you can see) ready for distribution today.
    
08 April 2021
Day 3 of Spend it Well’s East Timor Flood Relief
We’re going to do today’s update in numbers and photos:
Days of Flood Relief Work: 3
Total Money Raised: A$ 80,000
Total Spent: A$ 27,000
Refuge Camps Supported: 4
Villages Supported: 4
Approx Number of People Supported: 2,000+
% of Donor Money spent on Admin Costs: 0
Items Bought and Distributed:
500 tarpaulins
990 blankets
1900 kg rice
990 kg second-hand kids’ clothes
600 kg second-hand adults’ clothes
220 mattresses
600 mosquito nets
3,800 packets of noodles
720 bars of soap
1920 spoons
1380 plates
2520 sanitary pads
7500 pieces washing detergent
240 mosquito strips
A$1,500 of medicine
Tinned tuna, Sugar, salt, coffee, onions and garlic for 500 people
We’ve been amazed by the generosity of donors. The need in East Timor right now is critical and we are using donated funds quickly to get help to people as fast as possible. We value all donations large and small. If you are able, please donate at www.spenditwell.com.
The gratitude from the people we’ve been able to help has been overwhelming. We received a video clip today from one of the villages we visited thanking us (while standing knee deep in water) – they said we were the only ones to help them so far.
Thanks to everyone whose donations are making this possible from the Spend it Well team – Simon, Nandy, Balkis, Kris, Agostinho and Napo.
     
07 April 2021
Day 2 of Spend it Well’s East Timor Flood Relief
Today’s update is from from me (Kris) sitting in Australia as Simon and the team are still out working and will be for several more hours. Our goal today was to take enough supplies to the 500 people at Tasi Tulo refuge camp. So we bought and delivered 4 utes full of mattresses, tarpaulins, blankets, children’s clothes, plates and spoons, sanitary pads, soap, washing powder, mosquito repellent, drinking cups plus some lollies for the kids. But then we were told that Bairo Pite camp needed help, so the team packed another 4 utes and headed over there. I’ve just heard from Simon that it’s not actually a shelter, but a village that was flooded out. The supplies are currently being distributed through the village in the dark – there are no street lights or any electricity. Sabeh asked us to buy a long list of medication this afternoon because they’d been told that Hera camp, which is 30 minutes out of Dili, has a lot of sick people. The team are headed there next with Sabeh’s volunteer doctors, once they are finished at Bairo Pite.
This is all possible because of the extraordinary donations that we’ve received from hundreds of people – $40,000 in the last 48 hours and more still coming in. If you would like to help with what we are doing, please donate at spenditwell.com (just put “flood relief” in the notes).
     
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05 April 2021
Devastating Floods in East Timor
This is a message from Simon Fenby, one of Spend it Well’s Directors who lives in Dili.
East Timor has been devastated by the worst floods people can remember. I spent yesterday morning on my roof in Dili as the water rushed through my house. Today, I’ve been in the villages where streets have become rivers and people’s houses have had over a metre of water through them. The villages have no water and no electricity. They can’t even try to clean their homes of the mud which covers everything. 23 people are confirmed as having died so far and that number is expected to rise. These are people whose economy was destroyed by the Covid pandemic and have been in lockdown for the last month because of a surging number of cases. I’ve seen men and women just crying, unable to know how to move forward. I walked through a village to deliver some supplies just before writing this email and had people pleading for help. I have no idea how people will recover, but for now the priority is to help them immediately by giving them bottled water, food and clothes. The Timorese are proud and resilient people and they will get through this but now they need support. If you can help, please donate here. Spend it Well will use 100% of your money on the ground to immediately buy food, water and clothes for people who need it desperately.
  
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