Health

COMMUNITY HEALTH EDUCATION PROJECT
Integrated Poverty Alleviation Program in East Timor (IPAPET)
HORIZONT3000, DKA, ADA, Austria; European Commission
July 1999 — December 2008

The combination of hardly any health information and the grave sanitary conditions in the rural areas make the need for community health education critical in order to improve health indices. The majority of East Timorese live several days’ walk from health care. For the greatest impact, Timor Aid reaches the rural women through the members of existing community based organizations (CBOs) who are trained to deliver health education to their own communities. The indirect beneficiaries who have received health education from the trainees are estimated at over 65,000 people in seven districts, and the project aims to complete implementation in the rest of the 13 districts by 2008.

HIV/AIDS PROJECT
NAPWA; AusAid; Australia (9/05 -5/08)  East Timor
September 2005 - May 2008

These two projects are implemented by the above Community Health Education Project, disseminating information about both maternal and child health, as well as teaching community volunteers about malaria prevention and the use of bednets. The first phase trained 486 volunteer health educators in the districts of Oecusse and Liquica, distributed training manuals, flipchart teaching aids, and malaria pamphlets, as well as assisted the Ministry to monitor the distribution and use of bednets. The evaluation showed a 17 percent increase in malaria knowledge by the population, and an estimated 97,223 indirect beneficiaries. Phase II continues in one additional district.

TRAUMA HEALING AND TRANSFORMATION PROJECT
Integrated Poverty Alleviation Program in East Timor (IPAPET)
HORIZONT3000, DKA, ADA, Austria; European Commission
July 1999 - December 2008

The people of East Timor have undergone a high level of trauma by any standard. Persisting symptoms found in East Timor include low creativity and productivity, low self esteem, mistrust, and fear of change. For the greatest impact, this project is decreasing the severity of trauma symptoms by training members of existing community-based institutions, and traditional healers, to deliver voluntary trauma healing to their own communities. Over the past two years, the project has trained about 500 volunteer trauma healers in five districts who have provided trauma healing to about 19,125 indirect beneficiaries. Grassroots training by the project is based on the Capacitar methodology which allows trauma victims to talk about what has happened and make the connection between past trauma and current symptoms in order to increase their sense of control that they need to manage their current lives. With the collaboration of the existing national trauma and counseling institutions, the project now aims to cover all 13 districts within the next three to five years.