Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home News

COVID-19 forces mother and daughter to end Timor volunteering and pray for people of Balibo

byPeter Bugden
2 May 2020 - Updated on 1 April 2021
Reading Time: 4 mins read
AA

Timorese friends: Gabby (left) and Michele Rankin (right) with friends Rofina, Sidonia and Ella at a women’s advocacy centre in Balibo, East Timor. Photo: Palms Australia

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Timorese friends: Gabby (left) and Michele Rankin (right) with friends Rofina, Sidonia and Ella at a women’s advocacy centre in Balibo, East Timor. Photo: Palms Australia

COVID-19 has torn Michele Rankin and her daughter Gabby away from their friends in East Timor but the plight of the people there calls them still.

The Brisbane Catholics had been volunteering in Balibo, East Timor, for the past year with Palms Australia, an aid and development agency with Catholic origins.

Michele, who had another year to go on her placement, and Gabby, hoping to stay at least until October, were forced to cut short their stay when coronavirus struck.

“When we left there had been one confirmed case but subsequently there’s been another 16 cases and they have come through students – Timorese studying in Indonesia coming through the border, which is about 15km from Balibo,” Mrs Rankin said.

“There’s not a lot of testing being done (for COVID-19) …

“There would be a lot of (COVID-positive) people undiagnosed, because the testing’s in Dili and that’s a three to four-hour drive (away).”

It was Mrs Rankin’s second stint for Palms Australia in East Timor, having worked there in 2016-17 at the Balibo 5 Community Learning Centre as an organisational development mentor in the young nation.

The centre was established by the Balibo House Trust in memory of the five Australian journalists murdered in Balibo in 1975.

Mrs Rankin said Gabby had “fallen in love with Balibo” when she visited her during her previous placement.

Miss Rankin said “the people there are just beautiful”.

Related Stories

Church workers have helped more than 1.2 million Ukrainians during the war, Caritas says

Parishes unite for Logan deanery family festival this Sunday

Lives of the saints – St Kateri Tekakwitha, the Lily of the Mohawks

She had joined her mother in Balibo this time as a volunteer English teacher and mentor, and they had both grown close to the people.

Miss Rankin she worries about the people they’ve left behind “because I know that they don’t have adequate health systems to combat if COVID gets really bad”.

“I just don’t know what will happen,” she said.

Mrs Rankin said, with Palms Australia, she had been trying for the past three years to get medical supplies into the region.

“I don’t think unless you take a trip there that you can even imagine … They don’t even have proper stethoscopes there, let alone personal protective equipment (for hospital staff dealing with COVID-19 patients),” she said.

“So we’ve been working with Rotary International and with, just recently, the (Brisbane-based) Veterans’ Care Association, trying to get supplies … and then I was contacted by the hospital director in Maliana (near Balibo) to see if we could get some COVID-based equipment and supplies as well.

“(The day before) our departure (for home), we made an emergency rush into Maliana hospital because we had some … masks in the dental clinic so the Balibo House Trust donated about 1000 masks, and just in the last four days have donated masks to the Balibo clinic as well as the immigration officers and the police that patrol the borders there, because they have nothing.

“We complain about (having enough) hand sanitiser here but those on the frontlines (in East Timor) have basically nothing.

“On top of what we’re already getting for them … we’re talking about (needing) beds … You’ve got people who are lying on the floors there.

“We’re trying to get more beds at the moment; we’re trying to get masks; we’re trying to get gloves; some clothing; some stethoscopes; some respirators; ventilators …

“There’s no incubators that work; there’s high maternal and infant mortality there as well.

“It’s an ongoing thing.”

The Rankins pray constantly for the people they’ve left behind.

“We’re in constant contact with them and we message through WhatsApp with everyone there to see how they’re going,” Mrs Rankin said.

“It was really a hard decision to make or to come to terms with, having to leave and to leave people when they’re in their most need.

“You hear about people complaining about the small things here, which is hard to adjust to compared to what’s happening over there.

“That’s why we’re trying to help the hospitals with medical supplies.

“We keep in contact every day with someone, at least, in Timor so that they can see that we’re thinking about them and praying for them, because if (COVID-19) hits, it will hit very hard.”

To help support Michele and Gabby Rankin’s efforts in East Timor through Palms Australia or to inquire about volunteering with Palms Australia call (02) 9560 5333.

Palms Australia is registered charity that has been working to reduce poverty through long-term, skilled volunteering for almost 60 years.

ShareTweet
Previous Post

Seeing your kids grow up is one of the big benefits in working from home

Next Post

Couple celebrates 65 years of marriage on Easter Monday

Peter Bugden

Related Posts

Church workers have helped more than 1.2 million Ukrainians during the war, Caritas says
World

Church workers have helped more than 1.2 million Ukrainians during the war, Caritas says

18 May 2022
Parishes unite for Logan deanery family festival this Sunday
QLD

Parishes unite for Logan deanery family festival this Sunday

17 May 2022
Lives of the saints – St Kateri Tekakwitha, the Lily of the Mohawks
Faith

Lives of the saints – St Kateri Tekakwitha, the Lily of the Mohawks

17 May 2022
Next Post

Couple celebrates 65 years of marriage on Easter Monday

New vicar for religious Sr Mel Williams sees great hope, not diminishment

The one habit of taking valued action

Popular News

  • Here are the stories of 10 new saints being canonised this Sunday

    Here are the stories of 10 new saints being canonised this Sunday

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI turned 95 on a ‘very happy’ day

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Angel’s Kitchen serves hot meals to the hungry in Southport

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Parishes unite for Logan deanery family festival this Sunday

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Queensland election: The pro-life political parties committed to abortion law reforms

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Holiness is possible and the Church provides tools to attain it, cardinal says
Faith

Holiness is possible and the Church provides tools to attain it, cardinal says

by CNS
18 May 2022
0

HOLINESS is possible, and the Catholic Church provides the tools for attaining it. That was the theme...

Church workers have helped more than 1.2 million Ukrainians during the war, Caritas says

Church workers have helped more than 1.2 million Ukrainians during the war, Caritas says

18 May 2022
Minority Catholic woman takes pride in Asia’s overlooked saints

Minority Catholic woman takes pride in Asia’s overlooked saints

18 May 2022
Bishops call out racism, gun violence after U.S. shooting

Bishops call out racism, gun violence after U.S. shooting

17 May 2022
Parishes unite for Logan deanery family festival this Sunday

Parishes unite for Logan deanery family festival this Sunday

17 May 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping