Girls Reading Lafaek, the magazine

Lafaek, a colorful magazine for school children in the four-year-old nation of Timor Leste. 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.

Delivering the Lafaek
It takes three fully loaded trucks and 13 men on motorbikes to deliver Lafaek.

Kids Greeting the Truck Delivering the Lafaek
Lafaek is the main source of reading and learning material for 300,000 students in 1,025 schools.

Lafaek Editor
Timorese writers, illustrators, graphic designers and editors keep up the hectic schedule of turning out and distributing magazines and teachers' guides every two months.

Teacher with the Kids
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.