Augustinus Mallo, He was born in Soe on 21 August 1966 and he is now 55 years old, married to Ivony Mallo-Patty and blessed with 5 children (M=3/F=2). He is now working as a sub-district head in Batu Putih Sub-district, South Central Timor Regency, East Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia.

The sub-district head who is familiarly called Eddy has a Complete name; Drs. Agustinus F. N. Mallo, has been trusted by TTS Regional Government for 9 years as the sub-district head in the Batu Putih sub-district since 2013 until now, overseeing 7 villages in his assisted areas.

Mr. Eddy is well-known as a hard-worker leader and does not like to sit still behind his office desk. He likes to visit and spend his working hours with village officials and the community in his 7 villages in rotation regularly because he thinks the real office is when he is being with the community.

This father of 5 children admits that he prefers to directly see and identify the problems that occur both in the village government system and those that occur in the community so that they can immediately find solutions to those problems for the sake of the village development and the welfare of the community.

In controlling the village government system, he revealed that there are many obstacles faced regarding regulations and laws that are always changing, while human resources in the area are inadequate, so it is very difficult to keep up with existing developments.

 “The laws and regulations are always changing and require us to adapt. Unfortunately, our human resources are still inadequate. So, we think we can’t work alone, we need other people. Praise God we met TLM Foundation in early 2018 which has an interest and concern in the field on village empowerment. We thought it was a very good opportunity for us to synergize,” he said.

He also told that since 2018 his sub-district area accompanied by TLM Foundation, they have really felt the benefits where TLM had assisted them in identifying the problems they were facing then tried to look for solutions by providing training on village laws, updated government regulations and so on, that they used as references in running the wheels of village government.

“Before we met TLM, we were really overwhelmed in making development plans, village documents, village reports because village officials did not understand their respective main tasks, it made us always late in submitting our documents to the district. But after we were assisted by TLM, it can be said that Batu Putih sub-district for the last 3 years has always been a role model in terms of making planning documents, budget absorption and reporting, that sent Batu Putih sub-district represented TTS district to attend village law coordination meeting in the province these last three years,” said the sub-district head Eddy.

In addition to the training received from TLM Foundation, continued the sub-district head, Eddy, technical and non-technical assistance were also carried out so that there was a follow-up on the progresses in the application of science in real practices. He also proudly mentioned one example of his villages; Benlutu village, which become one of TLM Foundation assisted village, is now quite successful in the field of empowerment, development and establishment of BUMDESA so that many villages, both from the TTS district and from other districts, conduct comparative studies there.

“As the sub-district head, I am proud of the progress and positive values that we have received and felt, for that on behalf of the village officials and the community from 7 villages in Batu Putih sub-district I would like to thank TLM Foundation and donor agencies who have contributed to assist us in running development works in the village. We expect that this collaboration will continue with new things as always.” he ends up.