Big cities, particularly those of Southeast Asia, are characterised by such poverty conditions, that in many cases are closer to misery than to poverty. To the lack or scarcity situation that characterises poverty, misery adds up the conditions of disgrace, misfortune or extreme poverty.Poverty in cities is characterised, among other factors, by the high population density, concentration in unhealthy places, marginalisation, lack of resources, deficient environmental management of the environment and the  waste disposal, and in general, the “oblivion” from the organisations and donors that generally develop their activities in the rural areas. Furthermore, when development actions are carried out, have followed traditional schemes and not very innovative that haven’t contributed to a great extent to alleviate the poverty situation of the beneficiaries. Through this project, it is forecasted the identification of pilot initiatives, in order to contribute in an innovative way to reduce urban poverty. Identification of 3 pilot initiatives of fighting against urban poverty in the Philippines, East Timor and Vietnam through the strengthening of three local organisations in identification, design, realisation and evaluation of projects

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

The most effective agents to bring the national languages into the mainstream population are school teachers, writers, translators, and members of the media, all of whom can disseminate the practices through their existing professions. Since almost none of these have ever been exposed to the government’s standardized orthography and grammar before, it is now necessary to bring the orthography trainings to an intensive national level through the training of the latter target groups who will then be able to further spread the knowledge to colleagues, school children, and the general population. Since 1999, this project has achieved successful production of 23 books in the national language Tetum, as well as the teaching of Tetum orthography to about 200 teachers, writers, translators, and members of the media, and contributed to the formal government approval of the Tetum language policy. Plans for the next two years include continued nationwide orthography trainings for teachers, writers, translators, and media; two national conferences; production and distribution across the country of books in national languages, including the first monolingual Tetum dictionary, teachers manuals for junior and senior high school, and student textbooks.

YOUTH CIVIC EDUCATION PROJECT (ENGAGE)
Just World Partners, UK; Mercy Corps Scotland, UK; Department for International Development (DFID), UK
April 2004 - March 2008

This project aims to first, increase the understanding of youth organisations of governance, and strengthen their capacity so that they may participate more fully in civil society, and run effective civic education programmes; and second, to strengthen the relationship between youth organisations and decision-makers at village, district, and national levels, and increase popular understanding of issues, concerns, and restraints facing both youth and decision-makers. In order to achieve this, the main activities of the project are training and assisting existing youth organisations to undertake coordinated civic education programmes at district levels on issues recognised as priorities for youth; building the capacity of youth organisations; and arranging networking opportunities, youth work placements, and study tours for youth and decision-makers to develop a better understanding of each other's priorities and abilities and responsibilities to address issues that are important to youth.

WOMEN’S LITERACY AND INCOME GENERATION PROJECT
Fundeso, East Timor
Jan 2008- December 2009

This project aims to continue the achievements of Timor Aid’s previous “Advocacy and Adult Literacy Project” in order to alleviate poverty of the most disadvantaged and excluded portions of society in East Timor by increasing the empowerment of rural women through literacy and income generation. This project will replicate much of the same activities of the previous project, and add some new ones, in a further four districts and project extend to cover more districts, bringing the program coverage to about 69 percent of the country. The main activities include rural women’s literacy circles, training in income generating activities of their choice, and any necessary post-training support services.