Esmeralda Rego de Jesus Araujo is the daughter of a local chief of Hatulia in Ermera.
[1][2] As a young woman she worked with the East Timorese resistance before joining the Roman Catholic Canossian order of nuns.
[5][6] Despite directly confronting the local militia, Sister Esmeralda and 700-800 refugees were forced from their convent, at gun point.
[3] In 1999, she contacted the Vatican news agency and pleaded for help from the outside world, warning that, when the United Nations left, the militias would go on a killing rampage.
[11] In 2001, as part of the Inter-religious Tolerance project working group, Sister Esmeralda told "major stake holders" and representatives from Catholic Relief Services of her upbringing in a multi-religious community.