DILI, 29 may 2024 (TATOLI) – The NGO MOVE, a Portuguese non-profit organization, is going to provide entrepreneurship training to Timorese entrepreneurs with a view to strengthening entrepreneurship and business development in the country.
MOVE’s coordinator in Timor-Leste, Sancha Pinto, emphasized the importance of entrepreneurship as a powerful tool for promoting social and economic inclusion.
She said that entrepreneurship can be an effective means of empowering individuals, allowing them to create business opportunities that can lead to self-sufficiency and sustainable economic growth.
Pinto explained that MOVE has three programs, WAKE, SHAKE and MAKE: “WAKE aims to ‘promote and inspire the germination of business ideas’ in communities, through the dynamics of problematizing the surrounding reality. The SHAKE program aims to ‘support entrepreneurs in transforming a good idea into a viable business model’, while MAKE assists consultancy, side by side with entrepreneurs, to create viable projects into sustainable, self-sufficient businesses with an impact on themselves, their families and the community.”
“MOVE arrived in Timor-Leste in 2011. The aim is to lift people out of the cycle of poverty through entrepreneurship. So what our volunteers do in the country is giving entrepreneurs enough materials to be self-sufficient in their businesses,” Pinto told Tatoli, Dili.
She emphasized that MOVE beneficiaries have been successful in different areas, such as catering, art, and digital marketing. “We’ve already had 15 entrepreneurs accompanied by MAKE, some of whom have been successful, such as Kios Matenek and Mehi Cafetaria,’ she said.
According to MOVE’s data, between 2020 and 2023, MOVE provided training to 21 entrepreneurs in the WAKE program, 30 in SHAKE, and 20 in MAKE.
‘MOVE will be organizing an entrepreneurship fair in the near future, where SHAKE beneficiaries will present their business models to a panel of judges. The winner will then be selected and supported by MOVE in the management of their business activity,’ said Pinto.
MOVE was founded in 2009 and operates in Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Timor-Leste.
Journalist: Camilio de Sousa
Editor: Filomeno Martins
