Read part one here. In 2019 I travelled by taxi on the highway north from the Syrian capital, Damascus, to Aleppo. It was late April, the most beautiful time to be in Syria. I had last visited Aleppo a decade earlier, before the war, when it was still Syria’s largest city. The war had raged for six years when my journalist father and I took … Continue reading From Brutality to Beauty: Collective trauma, culture and meaning – Part two

Words by Alex Ray and Maria Lopes for UNDP Timor Leste – Photos by Alex Ray – (c)UNDP Timor-Leste 2021 Nada is the Tetum and Portuguese word for ‘nothing’ and a good summary of what Flavia Ribiero Soares and her family – of seven children and one grand-child – have left after the Easter Sunday cyclone and flooding. The cyclone devastated communities across Timor-Leste – … Continue reading Nada: Easter tragedy washes away lives and livelihoods of Timor-Leste’s most vulnerable –

by Alex Ray Originally published by DevPolicy Blog on May 24 2021 Fifty kilometres east of Dili is the site of one of Timor-Leste’s most renowned scuba diving locations. It is reached via the nearby Santo Antonio Grotto rest stop where timber-slat huts sell plastic bottled water and noodles in Styrofoam cups. Directly behind the shops are mountains of burning plastic packaging in a seasonally-dry … Continue reading Burning ambition: Timor-Leste’s waste management problem

A trip into the mountains touches on some of the fundamental challenges still facing rural communities in Timor-Leste.

Words and photos by Alex Ray

When doctor Andre Belo told me how he spends most weekends I was impressed and wanted to know more.

Nearly every Friday he leaves his workplace, the United Nations clinic in Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste, to lead volunteer medical missions to some of the country’s most remote villages.

Continue reading “Health for All: The volunteers serving Timor-Leste’s remote communities”