Timor-Leste Module
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TIMOR-LESTE MODULE LET US GO TOGETHER: MAI ITA BÁ HAMUTUK: Journeying to Peace and Hope in Timor-Leste La'o ba Dame no Esperansa iha Timor-Leste We must restore hope to young people, help the old, be open to the future, spread love. Be poor among the poor. We need to include the excluded and preach peace. Pope Francis, October 1, 2013 Using the Module FOR LENT This education module was launched at the time of Lent 2018 and has been designed to integrate with a Lent module. Teachers and students are encouraged to use the Lent module for the first and last weeks of Lent. This country module focused on Timor-Leste could be used throughout Lent with four lessons provided at each learning level. First Week of Lent Holy Week Timor Leste Module Lesson Lesson Lesson 1 - 4 [LENT MODULE] [LENT MODULE] Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 AS A STAND-ALONE UNIT This module can also be used by teachers and students as a separate unit outside of Lent. Lessons from other levels could be easily adapted to provide a range of relevant activities for students across all levels. Online Resources and Curriculum Links All resources referred to in the lessons (including worksheets and videos) can be accessed at www.caritas.org.nz. All relevant achievement objectives can be found within the Teacher Booklet available online at the same address above. This booklet also provides a good summary of the various elements available online and how they can be used together. CARITAS AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND LET US GO TOGETHER: JOURNEYING TO PEACE AND HOPE IN TIMOR-LESTE Country Profile: Timor-Leste Background Timor-Leste is located in Southeast Asia, just a few hundred kilometres northwest of Australia. One of the youngest countries in the world, Timor-Leste gained independence in 2002 after 24 years of Indonesian occupation and four centuries of Portuguese colonial rule. Historically, under colonial rule, the island of Timor was split between the Portuguese in the East and the Dutch in the West. Today West Timor is part of Indonesia while East Timor (or Timor-Leste) is its own country. During the early years of independence Timor-Leste experienced internal conflict which broke out in 2006, but since then there has been significant effort to build a peaceful country with a stable government. Country: Timor-Leste Capital: Dili Language: Tetum and Portuguese Ethnic breakdown: 78% Timorese, 20% Indonesian and 2% Chinese Population: Over 1.2 million (2017 estimate) Currency: US Dollar Religion: 97% Catholic and 3% other Leaders: President Francisco Guterres (known as Lú-Olo) Note: The President is the head of state elected for a 5-year term; the President appoints the Prime Minister following the parliamentary elections. He has limited powers but can veto legislation. Prime Minister: Mari Alkatiri Note: The Prime Minister is the head of government and oversees their activities and chairs the Council of Ministers. Declaration of Independence: 28 November 1975 Restoration of Independence: 20 May 2002 Area: 15,410 km² (Compared to New Zealand’s 268,021 km²) Temperature: Between 20°C and 35°C Credit: Wikimedia Commons Credit: CIA World Factbook CARITAS AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND LET US GO TOGETHER: JOURNEYING TO PEACE AND HOPE IN TIMOR-LESTE Life in Timor-Leste Following on from a very difficult past, Timor- Leste has experienced a period of relative peace and development since 2006. There are still many challenges as the country seeks to establish and deepen a stable democracy and develop its economy. Many institutions in the young nation remain weak, and there are still tensions between the political elites and among security forces. The gap between rural and urban development is significant. Challenges for city-dwellers include intermittent water supply, low paid work, limited housing supply and a lack of jobs for the many young people living there. Most of the Timorese population, however, live in rural areas with life revolving around the village and subsistence agriculture. Farmers are largely dependent on what they can grow themselves Timorese woman outside in the garden in Oecusse and remain vulnerable to bad weather and crop failure. Many of the roads in the rural areas are rough and subject to flooding and erosion during the monsoon season. When the Indonesian troops withdrew in the early 2000s, the military went on a rampage, taking many lives and destroying most of the infrastructure – roads, buildings, public utilities and schools. While much has been rebuilt since 2002, development has been slow in rural areas with low quality roads and limited electricity and access to piped water. There are few jobs and transportation costs are high so there are limited opportunities outside of Dili. Peace and Reconciliation The journey towards peace and reconciliation in Timor-Leste has been a long and difficult one. After the Indonesian occupation, the Commission for Reception, Truth, and Reconciliation found that 102,800 of the 200,000 Timorese deaths during the 24 years of occupation were directly attributable to the occupation from killings, starvation and illness. The report placed the responsibility of these actions at the highest levels of the Indonesian government. Recommendations were made that the Timorese government set up a programme to compensate the families and establish memorials to remember the victims. For many, independence did not bring the change they hoped for, with many Timorese having little or no employment and deepening poverty. Many families received compensation for lost family members but the underlying tension, feelings of discrimination, disappointment and sense of injustice remained. In 2006, these tensions boiled over with violence, destruction and death, with soldiers from the east of Timor-Leste fighting soldiers from the west of Timor-Leste, soldiers fighting police, and gangs of young people running riot. The unrest lasted for several months and led to significant destruction of property with over 150,000 people being displaced from their homes. Timor-Leste has its own traditions of resolving conflict and disagreement using a custom of communal meetings. These traditional practices were used as part of the Community Reconciliation Process for community level reconciliation. Communal meetings are used to promote dialogue for peace. After the dialogue, each party signs a peace agreement in which they indicate that they have forgiven each other and will cease attitudes and actions that cause conflict. CARITAS AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND LET US GO TOGETHER: JOURNEYING TO PEACE AND HOPE IN TIMOR-LESTE Poverty and Economic Opportunities Timorese living in rural areas have limited opportunities to earn cash. Rural households are engaged primarily in low-productivity farming with 90 percent of the poor in rural areas dependent on farming for their livelihoods. This dependency on subsistence agriculture means most rural poor families are highly vulnerable to food insecurity. Timor-Leste has markets that are uncompetitive with a limited number of buyers and sellers who have difficulty finding and transacting with each other at reasonable costs. The small population, coupled with low-productivity agriculture, high labour costs and transportation difficulties contribute to this. Employment opportunities are limited with even fewer opportunities available for women. Women in rural areas are unlikely to have formal work arrangements or access to benefits or social protection programmes, and they are more at risk from the effects of a fluctuating economy. Challenges for Women In Timor-Leste, women face poverty, domestic violence and a lack of recognition of their contribution to the political, economic and social spheres. Many Timorese women were widowed because of conflict and are now sole providers for their family and therefore political participation and economic empowerment are particularly crucial. Since independence, Timor-Leste has made good progress towards gender equality with improved schooling for girls but there continues to be gender-based violence, limited participation of women in the formal labour market, high Timorese mother and baby in Aileu rates of maternal mortality and low numbers of female representation in local-level governments. Empowering women is core to the work of HAFOTI where Timorese women make the decisions, access microcredit, participate in training and learn new skills. This enables members to earn money to meet their everyday needs (like food) and send their children to school as well. Food and Livelihoods Food that is grown and consumed in Timor-Leste has been influenced by both the Portuguese and the Indonesians. Commonly grown crops include rice, sweet potatoes, maize, cassava, and taro as well as vegetables like tomatoes, eggplants, spinach and onions. Agricultural work is shared between men and women, where women are responsible for the household garden, men for farm work with assistance from their wives. Women travel to the local market and sell the produce from their gardens. Very little value adding or processing is available and limited storage options leads to wastage. In fishing districts, women are involved in processing and selling the fish that are caught by family members, however this is in small quantities with limited processing or storage options. In the mountainous areas where the weather is cooler, farmers grow coffee (for export), cloves, peppercorn and vanilla. In other areas, farmers grow rice and maize mainly for home consumption. CARITAS AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND LET US GO TOGETHER: JOURNEYING TO PEACE AND HOPE IN TIMOR-LESTE Caritas in Action Caritas works in partnership with Hamahon Feto Timor (HAFOTI) and has done since 2004. The current project, Economic Development for Rural Timorese Women is co-funded by Caritas and the New Zealand Aid Programme through the Partnerships for International Development Fund. This project aims to improve the well-being of rural Timorese women by supporting them to develop and make products for sale in seven districts in Timor-Leste.