CURRENT PROJECTS

1. Integrated Poverty Alleviation Program in East Timor (IP APET) (European Commission;HORIZONT3000, DKA, Austrian Development Agency , Austria ) (7/99- 12/08):
1. Language Standardization Project
2. Trauma Healing & Transformation Project
3. Community Health Education Project (maternal & child health)
4. Institutional Capacity Building
2. Microcredit Facility for the Poor (Dr. Jose Ramos-Horta) (9/00- ongoing)
3. Civic Education Curriculum Development Project (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Belgium ) (2/03 -6/07)
4. Traditional Weaving Promotion Program (DKA, Austria ) (9/03- 7/07)
5. Youth Civic Education Project (YCE) (Mercy Corps Scotland , UK ) (4/04- 3/08)
6. Community Irrigation Project in Casabauk, Suai district (Timor Hamutuk, City of Elche , Spain ) (11/04- 3/07)
7. Australian HIV/AIDS Partnership Initiative (AHAPI) (National Association of People Living With HIV / AIDS -NAPW A; AusAid; Australia ) (9/05 -5/08)
8. Weaving Skills Consolidation and Product Development Training (NZAid, East Timor ) (12/05- 5/07)
9. Emergency Support for the Displaced Population in Metinaro(CIDA East Timor ) (10/06 - 3/07)
10. World Citizens Project (Mercy Corps Scotland , Development Awareness Fund -DAF, Scottish Development Education Centre, DFID , UK ) (10/06- 7/08)
11. Clean Drinking Water & Capacity Building Project ( Fundeso , Spain ) (3/07- 8/08)
12. Trauma Healing Training~r Pradet Staff ( Trocaire , Ireland ) (4/07-3/08)
13. Treinu Timor Tetum Language School (2000 -ongoing)
14. Timor Aid Social- Welfare Assistance/Community Projects (Various donors) (1998 -ongoing)

AGRICULTURE AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

PERMANENT COMMUNITY IRRIGATION PROJECT IN CASABAUK, SUAI
Timor Hamutuk, City of Elche, Spain
November 2004 - December 2005 and August 2006 – February 2007

The second phase of the project will increase the sustainability of the first project period. Timor Aid, together with the Casabauk community, constructed an irrigation system from two different springs, with the following distance details: The first spring is located around three kilometers away, and is to irrigate 2.5 hectares of paddy field during the dry season and 12 hectares of paddy field in the rainy season. The second spring is located 2.5 kilometers away and is to irrigate 5 hectares of paddy field in the dry season and 18 hectares in the rainy season. This irrigation system construction has benefited around 25 farmers directly and about 270 house hold of 1,210 community members indirectly. In order to increase the sustainability of the project impact, Timor Aid will provide additional training to the Casabauk community to increase the farmers' income and production quality in utilizing the irrigation channels that were constructed. Since less of the land is irrigated during the dry season, the people strongly need the skills to optimally cultivate their paddy field in the dry season by cultivating other crops on their land, i.e. dry-land farming, so that their field is cultivated not only during the rainy season.

SUSTAINABLE CLEAN WATER FACILITY IN KOTALALA, SAME
Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand
April 2006 - February 2007

This project will increase access to clean drinking water and improve the health standards for the sub-village Kotalala through the placement of a filtering system at the only existing spring and construct two public access water tanks and a community standpipe. The water tanks and the standpipe will be connected with the spring through the installation of pipelines. The new sustainable clean water system will benefit a total of 228 people, 38 households. In addition, the project aims to organize and train the community on how to operate and maintain the new water system and implement health education. The main activities include monthly stakeholder coordination meetings, technical construction work, formation of a water management group, training for the group as well as for the community members, and ongoing mentoring.

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.

COMMUNITY MALARIA AND HEALTH EDUCATION PROJECT I & II
Global Fund for ATM, East Timor
February 2005 - August 2005 and December 2005 - September 2006

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.

CAPACITY BUILDING AND EDUCATION

INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY BUILDING PROGRAM
HORIZONT3000, KFB, DKA, Austria; AFAP, Australia, European Commision
2000- ongoing

In order to increase the capacity of East Timorese non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to manage the development of their own country in the future without having to rely on the technical assistance of international NGOs and foreign experts, and to collaboratively support the efforts of the national government in providing the basic and long term needs of the population, this program provides basic and advanced training for national NGOs with the goal of each of those NGOs to continue the same training for other NGOs in their own turn, resulting in a multiplication effect across the country. Main activities include basic training in computers, language, and administration, as well as more advanced topics in organizational management and project design and implementation. Additional components are the advisor / counterpart system, study abroad, and internship opportunities.

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
USAID, East Timor
August 2005 - July 2006

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, 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.

INCOME GENERATION

TRADITIONAL WEAVING PROMOTION PROGRAM
DKA, KFB, Austria
September 2003 - August 2006

This project develops the long-term Timor Aid weaving program to a new level, shifting its focus from immediate financial relief, to expanding Timorese weaving to a wide reaching and sustainable commercial enterprise. The project comprises three main elements. First, the comprehensive upgrading of the current production technology for competitive markets will be continued through technology transfer from Thailand, a highly acknowledged producer of fine materials. Second, appropriate markets for the unique East Timorese textile product will be researched and attracted. And finally, authentic traditional tais samples and production processes will be recorded and replicated, both for their inherent social and cultural value, and for commercial purposes. This three-year phase will benefit at least 22 continuing weaving trainees, and at least 20 new trainees in each of the three districts, as well as all the families and communities of the trainees will benefit from the greater income generation of the weavers.

WEAVING SKILLS CONSOLIDATION AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT TRAINING NZAid, East Timor
December 2005 - May 2006

This project aims to provide a critical period of skills consolidation and practice to 20 female weavers and 4 male carpenters in four districts that have been participating in Timor Aid’s weaving program for the past few years, particularly the First and Second Thai Trainings in which they learned how to use and construct the Thai upright loom in order to produce modern but uniquely East Timorese fabrics with an improved production method. This practice period is necessary to allow the trainees to integrate the skills into their daily lives and to improve and diversify their products, as well as to learn critical commercial skills as product development and business administration before they will be able to set up their own independent production in the future. The main activities in this six-month period will include support during the trainees’ continued skills practice, specific training about product development, including sewing, and training on basic business administration.

MICROCREDIT FACILITY FOR THE POOR
Dr. Jose Ramos-Horta, East Timor; AFAP, Australia
2000 - ongoing

In response to the massive destruction in 1999, Dr. José Ramos-Horta, the now-Senior Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, committed USD 66,287 of his Nobel Peace Prize to Timor Aid to launch a microcredit facility in September 2000. Hundreds of people approached Timor Aid when informed about the credit facility. The team disbursed loans to people who needed to re-establish their businesses; those who became unemployed after the conflict; and the widowed and the handicapped. The demand was enormous, but the capacity of the staff and loan resources were still very limited compared to the needs.

The Timor Aid microfinance facility provides small loans to groups and individuals, most with existing businesses, prioritizing widows, the disabled, and the poor. The maximum first loan is USD 200, and the amount of additional loans is determined according to the clients’ capacity. Interest is charged at 15 percent per year, and the repayment period is flexible up to twelve months. Each new client must undergo basic business and bookkeeping training before receiving the loan. By November 2004, it disbursed a total of about 300 loans with a membership of about 900 people.