Perpetua Ana Merry Estela Laot

Health - East Timor (East Asia)

Merry Estela Laot identifies low life expectancy as a serious problem to the growth and advancement of her fledgling nation, East Timor. United Nations figures for male and female life expectancy is 49 years and 50 years respectively.

Merry has resolved to change these statistics. Through her work with Oxfam Australia in East Timor and attending OIYP2004, Merry intends to implement a system of education that will target reproductive health, nutrition and sanitation. She identifies childbirth-related deaths as alarmingly high; insufficient nutrition as the major factor in slow rates of recovery from illness; and sanitation as a key to preventing the transmission of diseases.

Merry is studying community health at university to equip herself with the knowledge needed to tackle this issue. Merry says, "the key to changing the attitude is to increase the knowledge". In this respect, young people are her target. By training young people as facilitators for the health education programs, Merry forsees the beginnings of an exponential improvement in community health.