Kirsty Sword Gusmão

East Timorese activist

Kirsty Sword Gusmão was the first lady of East Timor from 2000 to 2015. Gusmão wanted kids to be able to learn. Gusmão started the Alola Foundation.  The Alola Foundation helps girls, their families and helps poor people. She helped free East Timor from Indonesia. Gusmão was a spy for twenty years.[1][2]

Kirsty Sword Gusmão

Early life change

Gusmão was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1966. She went to Melbourne University and studied education.

East Timor change

Gusmão first traveled to the East Timor part of Indonesia in 1991. She was finding information for a movie on the area and was the interpreter for the movie maker. She became a teacher in Jakarta, Indonesia. She worked there from 1992-1996. She was worried about human rights in East Timor. While she fought for human rights she met the East Timor independence leader, Xanana Gusmão. He was in prison. She met him through going to his jail cell.[3] She married him in 2000.

She moved back to Melbourne, Australia , for cancer treatment in 2012. In 2015, Sword Gusmão and Gusmão announced their separation.[1]

References change

  1. 1.0 1.1 Murdoch, Lindsay. “Xanana Gusmao and Kirsty Sword Gusmao announce separation” The Sydney Morning Herald.  22 March, 2015. 7 May, 2018.
  2. “Kirsty Sword Gusmão Biography” ALOLA Foundation, May 8, 2018
  3. Alola Foundation. "Kirsty Sword Gusmão Biography." http://www.alolafoundation.org/general.php?pageID=426 Archived 2018-07-17 at the Wayback Machine May 9, 2018.