Above: Life, Love and Health members visiting the kids at HOPE Orphanage in Gleno, Ermera District.

Gleno Orphanage

Support to the orphanage in Gleno has included food, nutritional supplements and basic medicines. Life, Love and Health has also provided tools and sewing machines for skills training and the materials required for the building of a chicken coop. Future requirements for Gleno include the re-roofing of the main accommodation building for the 24 children living at the orphanage and the sponsoring of permaculture training for the children to create sustainable vegetable gardens at the site.

HOPE Orphanage

Life, Love and Health is proud to be partnered with the HOPE Family Community in Gleno, Ermera District. This orphanage is home to 18 orphaned children in need of love and support to guide them through the formative years of their lives.

Brief History
"HOPE in East Timor" is a Timorese Non Government Organisation. Hope began as a humble Australian/Timorese NGO in early 1999 in the partnership of Mr. Isa Bradridge & Mrs. Ina Varella Bradridge. In 1999, HOPE mostly served fleeing refugees providing: food, clothing, medicines & shelter.

Since year 2000, HOPE has aided returning refugees, street children, supported established orphanages, helped pay school & university fees, supported various small community projects & prepared written proposals for groups to help them find donors.

It began from a "Christian calling to come & serve in Timor". It’s work remains motivated by the same "calling".

Hope Family Community
In 2001, Fr. Adriano Ximenes, then Parish Priest of Ermera, invited us to establish an orphanage in Ermera, as none existed.

In 2002, with the help of the Ermera Land & Property Department, the District Administrator & Local Community Leaders, we began the conversion of an old Portuguese School into what has become the "Familia Hope Community" (HOPE Family Community).

The costs of building and renovations have been extensive, and we would like to thank all those who have helped either with financial donations or material goods.

Isa Bradridge, an Australian Aid Worker, has been working with refugees, street children & orphans in East Timor since 1998.

Isa and daughter Xyanna in 2000. "She was my inspiration to return to a battered but Independent East Timor to do what I could to help other Timorese children not as well off as her"

Ina Varella Bradridge is the mother of 3 children, Xyanna(5yrs), Laeticia(4yrs) & Aydn(8 months). Ina has spent most her life fighting for Timor’s Independence. Now her energies are focused on helping those still struggling, especially children.

Purpose
During the Indonesian era, many children who in English would be classified as orphans (no parents) entered orphanages. However other children who were either abandoned or being abused also entered "orphanages" for protection. The HOPE Family Orphanage is made up of orphans only. Community leaders carried out the selection of these children.

The purpose of FAMILIA HOPE (HOPE Family) is to provide East Timorese children who are orphaned and living in poverty, the opportunity to live in a loving, healthy environment that will cater to all of their needs.

This will be achieved by creating a center in Gleno/Ermera that will provide: