25 JUN 10 @ 02:43AM BY ANDREW PRIESTLEY When Guilhermina de Araujo was 12, she hid under a bed as pro-Indonesia militiamen fired upon her.
Now, she's in Australia learning English to help rebuild her country.
Ms de Araujo, now 23, remembers the havoc in Dili after the East Timorese people voted for independence in 1999.
Her family hid in the mountains to avoid the militia, which went on a rampage hunting down and killing independence supporters.
"We were under the bed when the militia went (through)." she said, imitating the sound of machine gunfire.
"The militia shoot and burn everything. The militia burned Dili. Everything was gone. All the neighbourhood was burned."
Ms de Araujo has now come to Australia as a guest of Lindfield Rotary Club, which helped her get a scholarship to the Australian College of English in Sydney.
She will finish her 30-week course in October and return to East Timor to help Rotary support young East Timorese leaders.
Ms de Araujo was enthusiastic about helping East Timor.
"I really want to help my country. I can use my leadership to help people," she said.
Ms de Araujo's main goal was to build education and employment opportunities in East Timor, particularly for women.
Education, she said, was vital to for the East Timorese people.
"We need education. Education can change people," she said.
"I hope in Timor, when we have a lot of education, we can change it."
Former Lindfield Rotary president Maggie supported Ms de Araujo in her in her education endeavours.
She believed Ms de Araujo could do great things for her country.
"I think she's got all the potential to be a future leader of East Timor," she said.
Ms de Araujo hoped she could help her country be a better place.
"I love Timor. I love my country," she said.
"I want to contribute what I have ... I want to work hard ... to help people in my country."
