BETTER (BUILDING EAST TIMORTHROUGH EDUCATION/RESOURCES) LIMITED BETTER (BUILDING EAST TIMORTHROUGH EDUCATION/RESOURCES) LIMITED

Field of Interest

  • Education/training and employment
  • International aid and development

Target Population

  • Young people (6-25)
  • Not applicable

Organisation Summary

BETTER is an innovative leader of charitable education within East Timor. Our Founder, Ornella Byak, has been working on education in East Timor since her first visit in 2013 at the tender age of 14 years old. That day Ornella made a promise to the Timorese community: to do everything she could to create the same education opportunities she had growing up in Australia. She never forgot that promise…​

Prior to starting BETTER, she redeveloped a rural senior school that ranked fourth in the country and has provided over 650 students an education. However, that wasn’t enough.​

BETTER was then founded with a big dream to set a new national education standard in East Timor. In 2023, BETTER opened the Bakhita School of Excellence in the rural community of Same (Sah-May). BETTER’s progressively built school and custom curriculum has the backing of the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and the President of East Timor, Josè Ramos-Horta.​

BETTER’s Bakhita School of Excellence is the first school outside of Timor’s capital, Dili, to teach English from the Foundation year – providing an international standard of education to rural children.​

With 70% of grade 1 students in Timor failing to meet basic learning outcomes, this isn’t just another school project… it’s the start of an education evolution for the people of Timor-Leste.

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Contact Us
Level 6, 126 Wellington Parade, East Melbourne VIC 3002

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first inhabitants and Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we live, learn and work. We pay our respects to Elders past and present.

Australian Communities Foundation is a proudly inclusive organisation and an ally of LGBTQIA+ communities and the movement toward equality.