Mobile libraries bring joy to Timor Leste camps

Boys jumping with joy in a 'child-friendly' space created by Plan in one of the camps

31 March 2008: Children displaced by violence in Timor Leste shout with delight when Clementina de Oliveira and one of Plan’s ‘mobile libraries’ pay them a visit. 

Packed with books, dolls, drawing paper, footballs and guitars, the mobile library buses drive daily rounds between the many camps for displaced persons around the capital Dili.

Clementina and her co-workers visit the ‘child-friendly’ spaces created in the camps by Plan and give the children 2 hour weekly sessions so they can play like ordinary children in any other part of the world.

Toy relief

Clementina playing with children in the camps

Clementina covers 20 camps out of around 40 that exist in the Dili area.  As soon as the bus pulls up she is surrounded by small children. The toys are distributed quickly and Clementina joins in the games with all her energy.

“You have to go full speed. The parents of these children are often traumatised themselves. Quite a few of them are not able to give their children the emotional feedback or attention that they need,” she says.

“One of the most important aspects of what we are doing here, is to provide these kids with our undivided attention. It is an affirmation of their individual value, it services a very important need in them to be acknowledged.”

Easing stress

What was meant to be an emergency response has lasted for 2 years now. Dili is still plagued by the presence of the camps after clashes between army forces and police broke out in April 2006.

For many of the children in the camps, life as a refugee is all they know.

“It is very hard for outsiders to fully understand the strain people in the camps are under. The camps are congested, resources are few,” says Clementina.

“Our job must be to ease their mental stress as much as possible until they can return to a life that is more normalised. In a way, this is at the core of all Plan´s projects here – be it child protection programmes or water and sanitation projects within the camps.” 

Find out more about Plan’s work in Timor Leste