DILI —The five resident Asean missions in the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste: the Kingdom of Brunei, the Republic of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Republic of the Philippines, and the Kingdom of Thailand, banded together to launch the first-ever Asean Community Pantry in Dili, Timor-Leste on August 3.
The Philippine Embassy in Dili organized the community pantry and invited Asean resident missions in Timor-Leste to converge in one location to provide help to locals. Around 150 people benefitted from the initiative.
The staging of the community pantry is in-line with the 54th Asean Month celebration, as it fostered stronger goodwill between the regional organization and the Timorese people.
Meanwhile, the Community Pantry in Timor-Leste (CPTL)—an initiative wholly managed and operated by the Philippine Embassy in Dili personnel and their dependents, together with a small core group of Timorese locals—had benefited more than 1,500 Timorese individuals in the capital district of Dili and Timor-Leste’s largest district of Viqueque between April 20 and August 3.
The CPTL was a response of the Philippine Embassy to the damage and hardship caused by Cyclone Seroja in Dili on April 4 and the “mandatory confinement” of Dili from March to June 2021 due to the pandemic’s surge.
Filipinos based in Timor-Leste and from the Philippines were the community pantry’s main donors, with the Policia Nacional Timor-Leste as one of its partners. CPTL was also able to organize up to 100 local Timorese youth volunteers for its pantry operations.