DILI 17 october 2022 (TATOLI)– In line with the celebration of rural women’s day, the Alola Foundation has assessed the implementation of four important programs aimed at intensifying the ability of rural women to contribute to the country’s sustainable development.
Advocacy Program Manager Maria Evelina Iman in an interview with Tatoli said that the Alola Foundation has implemented four rural women’s empowerment programs, namely the Education program, Women’s Economic Empowerment, Maternal, and Child Health, and the Advocacy program.
“To ensure women’s participation in the country’s development we implemented these important programs,” Maria Evelina Iman told TATOLI in Masquerinhas, Monday.
Iman said the Alola Foundation has been working with rural women since 2003, through the implementation of the four programs.
According to Iman, Since Timor Leste’s independence in 2002, the Alola Foundation assessed that many local and rural women lacked the information and capacity to become leaders, saying, therefore, the Alola Foundation had worked with rural women to identify their problems and find solutions to their problems.
Iman said the women’s economic empowerment program was implemented to encourage and ensure the participation of rural women in the economic development process: “more than 50 women’s groups participated in this program, these 50 groups have knowledge of financial management and business development and they can also support their family’s economy,” She explained
In the implementation of the Advocacy program, Iman said, the Alola Foundation has provided advocacy and capacity building for rural women to become leaders: “They learn about leadership, public speaking, and campaigns and transformative leadership. So currently more than 54% of rural women can compete in the elections in the coming years,”
“In 2017, we held a dialogue in rural areas with women activists, parliamentarians, and potential women in four municipalities consisting of Bobonaru, Baucau, Dili, and Ainaru while in 2022, we provided leadership management planning, monitoring, evaluation, and writing proposals, and financial management due to the decentralization of elections,”
After the program was implemented, the Alola Foundation identified many women competing to become leaders, so a 2006 study identified 102 women who were elected to be village heads.
Research from the Alola Foundation also reveals that in 2009 another 11 women were elected to become village heads. In 2016 more than 21 women became heads of villages and 87 were heads of posts. In 2012, women’s participation increased to 38% of this percent, including women’s participation in the National Parliament.
In addition to advocacy programs to increase leadership capacity, the Alola Foundation also implemented advocacy programs for gender-based violence.
“We also advocate for the promotion of women’s and children’s rights in Timor-Leste by providing opportunities through youth forums on the prevention of gender-based violence, legal frameworks for preventing women’s rights, and Villagers’ forums level,” said Iman.
Iman said that during the implementation of this program, the Alola Foundation identified many outbreaks of violence due to limited income to meet family needs.
So far, the program implemented by the Alola Foundation is funded by Women’s Action for Voice and Empowerment (WAVE), UN Women, UNFPA, BMETS, Canada Found, and Alola Australia.
Journalist: José Belarmino De Sá
Editor: Nelia B.
