June / July 2026
Railaco, Kasait, Maubara and Maliana
On Friday 19th June, after early starts, Henry and David met in the Darwin Airport and continued on Dili, arriving in the mid-afternoon.
After a relatively uneventful passage through customs we were met by Judite who delivered the Troopy to us. Into Dili for last minute supplies and then we were off on the one hour drive west to Maubara. Whilst the road has been upgraded there were still many Tuk-tuks to negotiate before arriving safely.
It was good to meet and chat with Ana Martins again at our dental clinic (upgraded with air-con and privacy curtains) whilst we prepared the equipment and materials for the next days packing.
Next morning, Tison arrived to provide a bit of muscle to help pack, Sisters car was purloined from the orphanage and both cars then filled to the gills with all the necessities needed for our 2 week trip.
A mid-day departure saw David in the Troopy heading into the hills for Railaco whilst Henry took the Sisters car to Dili airport to pick up Dr Charlotte, our teammate from last year, before also heading for Railaco.
Saturday afternoon saw us unpacking our equipment into Father Bongs small medical clinic, the cooler mountain air somewhat alleviating the cramped conditions.
Whilst we saw many community patients over the next 4 days we concentrated on school aged children, their being a large Jesuit boarding school next door and a government school not far down the road. We’ve been doing this trip for the last 3 years and it’s heartening to see the oral health improvement of these young people. The school numbers are growing and it seems that the closer we get to completing them, we find there is still more work be done.
However, at least half of every high school class now need no treatment other than some scaling whilst the rest of their cohort still needed restorative help and of course, the odd fokit (extraction)
The Jesuits are well aware of oral health and its relationship to school attendance, general health and growth, all directly related to student life potential.
Our clinic started after mass on Sunday and with the priest advertising our presence we had a steady flow of patients in their Sunday best. Weekdays our routine was to see Community early, send some of our team to the school to screen and then herd those needing treatment back to the clinic. Finally on Wednesday it was time to pack up and head down the hill for 2 days on the coast in the Kasait clinic. We take over a purpose built medical clinic, complete with a ward of 12 hospital beds which prove to be handy for the boys sleeping quarters.
We are now seeing impressive improvements in the teenage children’s teeth at both places we worked.
Friday afternoon we sent Judite into Dili to pick up Dr Rupa, freshly arrived from Australia. Finally our two gun extractionologists (Rupa and Charlotte) were able to meet after chatting on WhatsApp for some time.
Packing up and upon returning to Maubara (with a short detour to the Lahauta Beach resort for a medicinal coconut) we made our way to the orphanage for the traditional T-shirt gifts, a lot of fun for the kids. Even for the big kids!
Dinner with the nuns followed, it’s always good to catch up with old friends and also an opportunity to refresh our working agreement that the TLDP has with the Carmelite Sisters.
Saturday saw Dr Charlotte transported back to Dili for her flight home (although not before having her hair braided) whilst the rest of the team checked the orphanages children’s teeth.
Whilst in Dili we picked up our old friend Ana Tilman, joining the team for the first time after having her baby.
Of course, the dental health and overall general health of the children in the Orphanage is second to none, thanks to the loving care they received from the Carmelites and the many supporters of the Orphanage.
Packing up about lunchtime, we then headed for the large provincial town of Maliana, a 5 to 6 hour trip nearly to the Indonesian (West Timor) border. Of course no trip to Maliana happens without stopping at the Balibo fort for pizza and we were no exception.
Although the roads are in general getting better the mountainous areas are blighted by landslides which can lead to sections of the road dissappearing, luckily not as we drove past.
We have a good relationship with the executive team at the Maliana hospital and they make a large clinical room available for our dental program. It is well spaced, with good light, tiled floors and air-conditioned making it much easier to manage all the patients we needed to see.
Starting Sunday, we were busy right up until Thursday night with many of the community, the hospital staff and local school children.
Labele Hau Midar……
………….Don’t Eat Sugar!
We have been especially supported by Fr. Roberto from Collegia, the boarding high school on the outskirts of Maliana. He works very hard with the oral health and health in general of the kids under his care and makes sure we get to see those children with pressing dental needs.
We always stay at the Bethania guesthouse/priest residence and are well looked after there. Whilst breakfast is catered for we needed to make our own arrangements for dinner. If we provided the ingredients the cook would rustle up a good meal.
On one afternoon Judite was dispatched to buy chicken only to return with an unhappy fowl tucked under her arm, pushing the paddock to the plate philosophy to its max.
A group of Aussie school children from the Monte school in Sydney were also at Bethania doing a cross-cultural program with the collegiate school and it was good to catch up and compare notes with the teaching staff who we’d met on a number of occasions previously.
Maliana is in a valley basin surrounded by large mountains, quite striking in setting, but a poor dusty place with a large population of children. The roads may have improved but there is still a great need there for dental care.
The hospital clinic is probably the best place we visit and so our TLDP team can provide optimal treatment. With an overflow annex for just tooth extractions we were able to provide a lot of much needed treatment.
With a newly donated ultrasonic scaler each of the 3 restorative chairs all were able to provide tooth scaling and were much in demand.
Our technique for using silver fluoride restorations is now very much validated with many examples of successfull previous treatments seen in returning patients.
The hospital dental surgery is desperately under resourced and we were happy to donate a headlight to Dr Jakob where it will be of great benefit.
Up early on Friday, July 3 we returned to our Maubara clinic to unload, stocktake and clean all of our gear. Dr’s Rupa and David then headed to the airport saying goodbye to AM and AT whilst Dr Henry dropped Judite at Dom Bosco and headed for the bright lights of Dili and a well earned refreshment at the Skybar.
Whilst we are very comfortable with the places we visited it was still a very busy and somewhat exhausting two weeks in Timor Leste.
Dental Treatment carried out
- Exams :723
- Fillings :534
- Extractions :536
- Silver Fluoride : 234
- Periodontal Treatments: 147
In total we carried out over 2,300 treatments during the 2 weeks trip thanks to a very committed Timor and Aussie dental crew.
Regards
Dr David and Dr Henry
Timor-Leste Dental Program 