In the villages around Venilale, in the heart of Southeast Asia, the Salesian sisters combat malnutrition by educating children and encouraging them to build a different future.
By Sr. Elisa Molinari, FMA Mothers make up the majority of people at the Maria Auxiliadora clinic in Venilale, Timor-Leste, which is run by the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. They are mothers with children who, once weaned, start to lose weight and show signs of inadequate nourishment. “It is not widespread malnutrition, nor is it mainly due to a lack of food; rather, it stems from a pervasive mindset in which weaning after breastfeeding is not taken care of, or from the persistence in villages of certain mistaken beliefs about foods and how they should be combined,” explained Sister Alma Castagna, FMA, an Italian missionary and doctor. Venilale is a city with about 16,000 inhabitants some 150 kilometres east of Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste. In 1999, after decades of conflict, this small country in Southeast Asia gained its independence from Indonesia, though for a high price for local communities and with a strong impact on rural economic development. The Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (FMA), also known as the Salesians of Don Bosco, have been in Timor since 1988, where they were called to oversee an orphanage for girls with no family who were found in the forests, where a large part of the population had taken refuge. Having arrived during the Indonesian occupation, they witnessed referendums, war and the country’s declaration of independence in 2002. Since then, the sisters have been involved in reconstruction, through education, which is a key aspect of their charism. In 1990, Sister Paola Battagliola, one of the first missionaries, decided to open – with the help of government nurses – a health clinic which is a point of reference for the population today. Recognizing the need for education in the field of nutrition, initially, during medical visits to the villages, it was decided to work with mothers by explaining the principles of proper nutrition and cooking some foods together. The initiative however, proved to be a complete failure, as it was extremely difficult to dismantle the very strong mentality of the Indigenous people. It was therefore decided to start with children, at a stage of life still free from conditioning, using a nutrition programme in all schools (from preschool to high school) in the areas around Venilale, reaching even the most remote villages. In 2023, with the support of the Catholic Mission organization, the project took off from the Maria Auxiliadora Clinic in Venilale. It was coordinated by Sister Carolina Maria Correja, FMA, and overseen by a team of about 20 people, including nurses, young women in technical school, teaching staff and mothers. After an initial formation phase, they visited schools: they weighed boys and girls, measured their height and put the data into tables, comparing them with relative age parameters. The work was extensive: made up of eight villages, the Venilale suburban area is vast, and 27 schools were covered. Underweight boys and girls were more frequently found in the villages farthest away from the centre. Thanks to the collaborative effort with Catholic Mission – which provided scales to every school and helped cover the various expenses – teachers were able to periodically register the children’s weight in the tables. Those flagged as underweight were given a food supplement (milk and beans). This first screening phase was followed by formation. Staff members were invited to the schools in pairs, first for general education on personal hygiene and on correct lifestyle habits, then more specifically on nutrition and practical cooking classes using local products, particularly fruits and vegetables. The Salesian sisters are committed to the laity through accompanying the youth in their journey of integral development and through the empowerment of women, according to Don Bosco and Mother Mazzarello’s education system. Their goal is to create a different mindset, laying the foundations so that children can break away from outdated beliefs which do not promote their harmonious development. “A seed, a different thought, begins to be glimpsed,” said the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, recounting an episode of a child who tried to explain to his family the correct use of food. Contradicting his grandfather, he bravely said, “But this is what they taught me.” In this way, children become teachers for adults, as Pope Francis highlighted in Timor-Leste, when, during his Apostolic Journey in September 2024, he visited the school for children with disabilities run by the Irmãs Alma Congregation, in Dili. “I want to thank you for what you do and I also want to thank the girls and boys and young people who spoke to us about letting themselves be cared for,” said Pope Francis. “They teach us to let ourselves be cared for by God.”