DILI, 12 december 2021 (TATOLI) – The President of the Republic, Francisco Guterres Lú Olo presented the ‘Sérgio Vieira De Mello’ Human Rights Award to four promoters and defenders of human rights in Timor-Leste.
The 2021 ‘Sérgio Vieira De Mello’ Human Rights Award nominations and winners included Alexandre Rosa Bruno Sarmento (Laklubar-Soibada, Manatuto), Dominican Sisters Orphanage (Bidau, Dili), Casa Vida Child Care Center (DiLi), and Paulina da Costa Soares (Uatolari, Viqueque).
“I congratulate the winners of the 2021 ‘Sérgio Vieira De Mello’ Human Rights Award. I am delighted to see you are present at this special event to receive the award. This award is to recognize the impacts of your works and activities in strengthening Human Rights in our beloved country,” the President of the Republic, Francisco Guterres Lu Olo made the comments after presenting the awards to the four winners at the Palace of the President, in Dili, on friday.
Alexandre Rosa Bruno Sarmento was a current environment and forest defender in Laclubar-Soibada, in Manatuto municipality.
Bruno dedicated his work to carbon offset activities in Laclubar Village of Manatuto municipality, where he had helped many farmers in terms of financial support to boost their family income.
Since the establishment of Bruno’s NGO, called Fundasaun Carbon Offset Timor (F-COTI) in 2009, more than 197 hectares of land had been successfully planted with 220.000 trees. These trees included mahogany, teak, casuarina, diospyros, and loquat.
F-COTI had also planted four hectares with 22.000 mangrove trees in the coastal areas of Wenunuc and Metinaro of Dili outskirts.
F-COTI also provided scholarships to support 600 high school students in Laclubar and 13 university students in Dili, as well as constructing a high school building in Laklubar and a primary school building in Tutuala of Lautem municipality.
So far, he had hired more the 1.500 farmers (212 households), of which he had paid more than US$180.000.
The other winner of the ‘Sérgio Vieira De Mello’ Human Rights Award is Dominican Sisters Orphanage. Since 2005, Dominican Sisters Orphanage had been supporting thousands of orphanage students from pre-school to higher education.
Apart from formal education, the Dominican Sisters Orphanage had also organized extra-curricular activities, including computer, English, and Portuguese language training, guitar and piano lessons, tailoring training, and lecture course.
In addition, Casa Vida Child Care Center was chosen as one of the winners of the ‘Sérgio Vieira De Mello’ Human Rights Award for its dedication to saving children and girls who experienced sexual violence in their lifetime.
Casa Vida Child Care Center also provides essential assistance to the victims in building strength and resilience after sexual violence. It also offers jobs to promote young girls to enter the labor markets to work in the areas that interest them based on their capacity and skills.
It had been working on developing the skills of children and young girls in arts, computers, and formal education.
One remarkable works of Casa Vida Child Care Center is the reintegration program. This program helps the victims of sexual violence to return and live in their communities to take action against gender-based violence.
Paulina da Costa Soares won the 2021 ‘Sérgio Vieira De Mello’ Human Rights Award for her immense work and dedication, by working as a midwife in a remote village called Afaloikai, in Nunumalau Administrative Post of Viqueque municipality.
Soares always rides a horse from her village to Uatolari Health Care Center, where she has to ride across a 15-kilometer distance to take the medical kits and medicines. She walks 4.5 kilometers to work every day since 2006, after graduating from Lorosa’e National University (UNTL).
She alone provides medical services to four villages, including Afaloikai, Babulu, Vessoru, and Matahoi village.
The ‘Sérgio Vieira de Mello’ Human Rights Award is awarded annually on 10 December on the occasion of the anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations and is aimed at bringing focus to the actions of Timorese citizens and foreigners, and of governmental and non-governmental organizations, in the promotion, defense and dissemination of Human Rights in Timor-Leste.
The opening of applications for the award is announced annually. The applications are submitted to the approval of the Council of Awards and Honorific Orders which, in addition to evaluating the applications based on clear criteria, conducts visits to the project implementation sites. It is up to the President of the Republic to make the final decision.
The ‘Sérgio Vieira de Mello’ Human Rights Award was established by Decree no. 15/2009 of 18 March to bring focus to the actions of Timorese citizens and foreigners, and of governmental and non-governmental organizations, in the promotion, defense, and dissemination of Human Rights in Timor-Leste.
The sum of 10.000 (ten thousand) dollars will be awarded to the winners in each category.
The ‘Sérgio Vieira de Mello’ Human Rights Award is an initiative launched in 2008 by the then President of the Republic and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, José Ramos-Horta.
Journalist: Filomeno Martins
Editor: Nelia Borges Rosario
