Official Bank Sites Multimedia April 5, 2006—It takes three fully loaded trucks and 13 men on motorbikes to deliver Lafaek, a colorful magazine for school children in the four-year-old nation of Timor Leste. Sometimes horses are needed to get the magazine to very remote places. But when Lafaek—which means Crocodile in the local Tetum language—arrives, children come running from every corner of the village. It’s because Lafaek is the main source of reading and learning material for 300,000 students in 1,025 schools. The magazine captures children’s imaginations through stories, comic strips, letters and features on everything from health, nutrition and human rights to favorite local musicians. The history of Lafaek closely follows the recent emergence of Timor-Leste as a new nation after a long period of violence and conflict. The end of Indonesian occupation in September 1999 left primary school education in Timor-Leste with huge challenges. Some 90 percent of schools were damaged or destroyed. Schools couldn’t hire enough qualified teachers to replace the Indonesian teachers. Portuguese and Tetum replaced Indonesian as the languages of instruction, but no reading material was available in Tetum, and schools lacked books and materials. Then along came Lafaek. Named for the country’s most sacred animal, Lafaek started life in 2001 as a Tetum language children’s rights publication produced by CARE International. The magazine was also supported by several donor agencies - the European Commission, New Zealand’s aid agency, NZAid, the Irish Aid and United States aid agency,USAID. When the Timor-Leste Ministry of Education approached CARE in 2004 to help it increase the learning and curriculum content of the magazine, the World Bank gave its support through the Fundamental School Quality Project (FSQP). The move allowed the magazine to expand and include learning materials, such as posters and teachers’ guides. A special junior edition was then added for primary school grades one to three, focusing on literacy, numeracy and creative development. Over the next five years, the World Bank will be the lead financier of the Lafaek magazine and learning materials. It’s expected the Ministry of Education and Culture – whose vice minister plays a key role on the magazine’s editorial board – will become increasingly involved in the financing. Now, the CARE International office in the capital of Dili is a hive of activity as Timorese writers, illustrators, graphic designers and editors keep up the hectic schedule of turning out and distributing magazines and teachers’ guides every two months. The motorbike delivery team returns from the districts after each edition with news of how well the magazine is received. The immense popularity of the magazine is evident in periodical assessments and focus groups with teachers, children and parents. In every village, battered and dog-eared copies of Lafaek are in constant use. Those involved in the project say Lafaek has helped children learn about key development issues and has led to positive health behavior. Lafaek has also provided information about the history, geography and culture of the country that was available from no other source. |
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