This project connected young people living Aileu and Lautem through the following activities.
Plan recognises the significant cultural, social and economic barriers that young women face in participating in society in Timor-Leste. Efforts have been made to work with both young men and young women to make interventions accessible to all. Young women have been keener than young men to join the community radio, while young men have been the main participants in the bands.
This project has finished, and it will be replaced by the Youth Empowerment for Sustainable Development strategy in FY 2012.
Your donation will help cover the costs to train young people in the skills required, in order to participate actively in their communities, This will enable them to run district sporting leagues, record traditional music onto CDs, and develop programs as youth journalists on community radio.
Opportunities for girls
This project involves equal participation of young men and women at every level. This in itself is an important outcome among the more traditional rural areas in Timore-Leste where the project runs.Young women in these areas often face obstacles to participating in activities outside of the household.
Recognising the significant cultural, social and economic barriers that young women face in participating in society in Timor-Leste, Plan will ensure that they have equal opportunities to participate in projects. Activities have been chosen so that both men and women can be involved e.g. volleyball as opposed to football. The project has also been successful in involving young women equally, particularly training youth journalists and within sporting league organising committees.
Selection criteria for all programs will also ensure a gender balance which will be monitored closely through gender sensitive indicators. Young people will also be given training on the concept of gender equality, and more specifically, gender-based violence.
Project Activities
The project will seek to connect young people living in two districts of Timor-Leste, Aileu and Lautem. During 2010 your donation will contribute to the following activities:
- Training across a range of areas such as human rights, technical management of organisations and radio programming;
- Mobile music recording and television performances on TV Timor-Leste for young people in bands playing their local traditional music;
- Development and transmission of youth radio programs; and
- Young people organising and running district-wide volleyball competitions.
Project partners
District Youth Council: Aileu and Lautem
Plan seeks to strengthen the organisational capacity of the two District Youth Councils with which we are working. The District Youth Council is made up of elected young people who volunteer their time, but often lack the skills necessary for organisational and financial management. Through building the skill levels of young people in the District Youth Councils, their ability to seek funds from government initiatives and implement activities is greatly improved.
Community Radio: Aileu and Lautem
Community Radio is often the only access rural communities have to media, and as such play an important role in community life. Strengthening community radio’s ability to have youth relevant programming not only provides vocational training for youth journalists, but provides a vehicle for youth issues to be heard.
Part of a larger project
This Footprints funded project is a part of Plan Timor-Leste’s Youth Engagement in Timorese Society Program ( full details below)
Project Aim
To enable young people to participate more effectively in their own development and act as catalysts and key players in Timorese society.
Why is this project needed?
An unusually high proportion of Timor-Leste’s population is young. More than half the total population are under the age of 18 and a quarter of the total population are 15 to 29.
To offer young people meaningful participation means involving them in decision making and giving them ownership over the process. This way, young people aren’t passive recipients in the development process, but are actively leading their own development. Only by being in control do young people really learn how to lead, speak out, communicate with others, make decisions, problem solve, and learn practical organising skills. These are all processes which can instil a sense of responsibility, essential for young people to become active citizens.
What is being done?
Plan’s Youth Engagement in Society project is achieving its project aims in three key ways.
- Strengthening capacity of youth organisations, youth groups and youth representatives to mobilise other young people to access sport, media and music activities;
- Increasing young people’s access to information and opportunities to express themselves; and
- Increasing awareness to youth, parents and local leaders about peace building, participation, human rights, gender, reproductive health and traditional culture.
The ultimate aim of the project is for young people to have the knowledge and opportunity to make decisions about their lives, the skills to express themselves and organise other young people to participate in society.
The outcomes of the whole project are to:
In FY2011 Plan in Australia will continue to support Plan Timor-Leste and local partners to:
Train young people as part of the organising committees for district volleyball leagues involving around 300 young people in Aileu and Lautem districts;
- Train youth journalists to develop programs to transmit on local community radio;
- Record traditional music in villages where young people live, selling CDs in both Australia and Dili;
- Televise young people who have been recorded on TV Timor-Leste, the national television channel;
- Advocate at government level in Dili for decentralised services to young people in the districts; and
- Deliver training to young people in human rights, peace building, human rights, gender equality (including gender based violence), reproductive health and traditional culture.