From Sydney's Northern Beaches to Timor-Leste: The Story That Started With a Question

Some stories don’t begin with strategy or planning. They begin with a question.

In this case, it came from a group of Northern Beaches schoolchildren sitting in a classroom in 2008, asking a simple but powerful thing. How can we help?

Tamara Sloper Harding, a member of the Upper Northern Beaches Rotary Club, had been speaking to them about Anzac Day, about peacekeeping, and about her time in Timor-Leste. The conversation shifted quickly from history to something far more immediate. The children didn’t just want to understand, they wanted to do something.

“They asked how they could help their neighbours,” Tamara recalls, still slightly surprised by the memory all these years later. “And I said I’d try to find out.”

What happened next wasn’t planned. It wasn’t mapped out or built as a formal initiative. It grew because people cared. That one moment led to conversations, then connections, and before long the level of local interest became something that couldn’t be contained.

What started as a response to a group of children quickly evolved into Friends of Soibada, a charity formally established in 2010 but very much born from something more organic.

Today, it’s a long-standing partnership between the Northern Beaches and the village of Soibada in Timor-Leste, one that continues to grow quietly in the background, driven by a community that has chosen to look beyond itself.

“It was never my idea,” Tamara says. “It’s grown because of the care people have for others on the beaches. That’s what’s blown me away.”

Over the years, that care has taken many forms. Schools, surf clubs, churches, Rotary groups, local businesses and everyday residents have all become part of the story. Volunteers travel twice a year to Timor-Leste, contributing to sustainable development projects across health, education and community development. What they’ve helped build is tangible and include schools, a dental clinic, small businesses for local women, and a sense of connection that goes both ways.

But what makes this story different is where it started. Children.

“Children started this project,” Tamara says simply. “And now many of them have grown up and gone over there themselves.”

That continuity is what gives the story its weight. It’s not a one-off act of generosity or a short-term campaign. It’s something that has been carried forward, year after year, by a community that has stayed engaged.

There are moments that stay with Tamara, the kind that don’t leave you once you’ve seen them. The quiet impact of something small that becomes something much bigger. The way a single idea can change the direction of someone’s life. And yet, she still speaks about it with a kind of humility that suggests she’s still catching up with what it has become.

“None of this was my plan,” she says. “I just had no choice but to run with it.”

That sense of responsibility, not as a burden but as a response to something meaningful, is threaded through everything she does.

It’s also reflected in the recognition the project has received. Last year, the President of Timor-Leste, Dr José Ramos-Horta, awarded Friends of Soibada the Order of Timor-Leste medal. For Tamara, it wasn’t a personal moment. It belonged to the community.

“That’s an honour for everyone here,” she says. “They made this happen.”

The story is now being included in the Australian War Memorial, another moment that speaks to the significance of what has been built, not through grand gestures, but through consistent, collective effort. What stands out most is the people behind it.

“They’re ordinary Northern Beaches residents,” Tamara says. “People who look beyond their own lives and see how small things can make a difference.”

That’s the thread that runs through all of it. Not scale, not recognition, but intention.

In a world that often feels fast and disconnected, this is a reminder that change doesn’t always come from big organisations or formal structures. Sometimes it comes from a classroom, a conversation, and a group of children who simply ask the question. And someone who is willing to say yes.

To donate, volunteer or get involved with Friends of Soibada, head to the Projects page on their website here HOME | Friends of Soibad or to learn more about your nearest Rotary Club, head to Rotary South Pacific.