Timor Leste COVID UPDATE – June 2020

As the world continues to look to ways to manage the COVID19 pandemic, in Timor Leste our team is continuing to work with and support the Timorese staff working in the Community Health Centres. We are continuing to work closely with the Timor Leste Ministry of Health and to be supported by DFAT funding.

Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) is fundamental to the management and control of the the COVID19 virus. Everyone must practise good hygiene to protect against infection and prevent the virus spreading.

Over the last 3 months Maluk Timor has:

  • Provided training on Infection Prevention & Control (IPC) and Triage at 14 health facilities within greater Dili, with more than 500 health staff trained.
  • Established triage booths and systems in each of these centres – to identify and ensure patients with COVID19 get immediate recognition and care and protect non COVID19 patients and staff
  • Established handwashing stations in the health care centres – 58 hand basins or taps installed and 233 additional handwash stations created
  • Relocated the HIV centre to ensure that this vulnerable group of patients received uninterrupted care
  • Developed and disseminated COVID19 related messaging in Tetun including:
  1. Infographics
  2. Community awareness videos, including a video competition
  3. Celebrity interviews about COVID-19 and how to respond
  4. COVID-19 education videos for people in quarantine
  5. Myth-busting
  6. Q&A on Facebook
  7. Weekly radio interviews
  8. Posters and printed materials
  9. Maluk Timor’s Facebook page became one of the preferred sites to which Timorese people were being directed for accurate up-to-date information on COVID-19 with over 50000 viewers regularly reached.


Just some of the public health messages we have been producing and sharing on Facebook

While our staff in Timor Leste are providing front line services , we ask all our supporters to  help slow the spread of COVID-19 in Australia by:

Our family – our Maluk Timor Family need you now more than ever – stay connected – do what you can.

Dr Jeremy Beckett
CEO – Maluk Timor

Help us do even more

Even though healthcare in Timor-Leste has improved, there is still so much more to do.  

A small amount of money goes a long way with the per person health budget less than US$100 per year. 

$24

Covers the cost of petrol for a month so a healthcare worker can provide home visits around Dili.

$58 p/month

in 12 months

Covers the cost of running a nutrition referral project in one community healthcare centre.

$650 p/month

Covers the full cost to employ a nurse who can help deliver our programs.