DILI, 26 march 2024 (TATOLI) – The Project for “Improving Nutrition of Children through Increasing Mothers’ Income,” funded by the Government of Japan through the “Grant Assistance for Japanese NGO Project” and implemented by PARCIC, will start its second phase in march 2024.
On monday (25/03) Tetsuya KIMURA, Ambassador of Japan to Timor-Leste, and Junko ITO, Representative Co-director of PARCIC signed the Grant Contract for the second year of this project. The project kickoff meeting was held at the Embassy of Japan in Timor-Leste.
In Timor-Leste, 41.8% of the population lives below the national poverty line. The poverty rate is particularly high in the mountainous areas adjacent to Dili, and the stunting rate among children under five years old is also high in the same areas. Although efforts to enhance knowledge on nutrition have been expanding in Timor-Leste, mothers have difficulty applying the knowledge and cooking nutritious food in their homes because they lack of opportunities to earn enough income to buy nutritious ingredients.
To address these challenges, this project aims to improve household nutrition in mountainous areas by introducing floriculture to women. This will increase their income and enable them to purchase nutritious food. Additionally, the project promotes the sharing of knowledge on how to cook nutritious meals among rural women. In the first year of 2023, PARCIC held nutrition workshops and cooking demonstrations, and also began cultivating flowers with women’s groups in Aileu Vila and Maubisse. In the second year of this three-year project, it will be implemented in Aileu, Maubisse, and Ermera for women’s groups. The total budget for this year is US$384,742.
PARCIC has been working together with rural communities in Timor-Leste to develop their economy by promoting their products. Since 2002, PARCIC has been providing training to members of coffee producers in Maubisse and Ermera, enabling them to produce high-quality coffee beans and connect with international markets. Since 2013, PARCIC has been working with women’s groups that process products using local ingredients from six municipalities (Aileu, Ainaro, Baucau, Bobonaro, Covalima and Liquisa) to create the “Aroma Timor” brand, which promotes product quality and marketability.
In 2019, PARCIC expanded its activities to the nutrition area with the funds from the Government of Japan, based on their experiences from their past projects. PARCIC has established cooperation with women groups in Atauro to produce “KOHAKAHUR,” rice seasoning made with mixture of dried fish, moringa, sesame, etc., and introduced it to the School Feeding Program in Dili and Ermera municipalities, and provided cooking training to school feeding program providers.
With the project contracted this year, the Government of Japan and PARCIC will continue and expand our development assistance projects in the priority areas set by the Government of Timor-Leste: early childhood development, nutrition, and women’s empowerment.
Journalist: Jose Belarmino de Sa
Editor: Filomeno Martins
