Income Generation

WEAVING SKILLS CONSOLIDATION AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT TRAINING 
DKA, KFB, Austria, AFAP, Australia
September 2003 - September 2008

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-East Timor President, 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.