Timorese Youths Initiative For Development (TYIFD)

We are grateful and honored to have two of the Timorese successful businessmen, Mr. Oscar Lima and Mr. Jorge Serrano, as guest speakers for the Timorese Youths Initiative for Development first event, Business Start-up, and Networking Event. We have learned that starting a business takes courage and risks, but the most important of all is that we do not give up after failing so many times, we need to take them as lessons and keep looking for more opportunities. We would like to thank all of our sponsors because without them we won't be able to make this event happen. We are thankful for all the participants because they have given us their time and trust. Moreover, TYIFD will continuously work hard and hope to come up with another great event.

On 12 August 2017, TYIFD held an educational business and networking event at UNTL auditorium, Dili. This event had an intervention from the president of Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI), President of the National Commercial Bank of Timor-Leste (BNCTL), representative of the US embassy, USAID, IADE, Avansa Agriculture and other professional guest speakers, which was moderated by Mr. Acacio Pinto. Participants of this event also included student delegation from all universities in Dili, some private sectors, public and national media. There was also an exposition from Flora and Fauna Conservation (KFF) and small creative businesses to showcase their activities and products. TYIFD would like to thank all the participation and collaboration to make this event success. We hope we will work together for better to develop our beloved country Timor-Leste through developing our community. Timorese Youths Initiative For Development - TYIFD Promote and Develop Small Private Sectors. Together we Learn, Connect and Start-Up.

On 25 August 2018, TYIFD conducted 3^rd Business Development and Networking event” at IOB hall, Campus C, Fomentu II, Dili. The event was participated from youth entrepreneurs, university students in Dili, the national organizations, and had an intervention from a representative of the US embassy, Dean of Institute of Business (IOB) and full participation from a professional guest speaker. The speakers of this event included former Secretary of State for Vocational Training and Employment (SEFOPE) Mr. Nivio Magalhães, president of the National Commercial Bank of Timor-Leste (BNCTL), Mr. Brigido de Sousa, youth entrepreneurs: Mr. Nuno Ridenio (Owner of Black Box), Ms. Leonia Lemos (nutrition consultant and owner of Varaidame), Mr. Mariano Alves (Owner of Café Atsabe), and was moderated by Mr. Joaquim Viana. This event was supported by IOB, BNCTL, Timor Plaza and Abal-abal production.

In commemoration of World Youth Skills day on 15 June 2019, TYIFD collaborated with UNDP to host event “Inspiring and Empowering Youth Through Skills Development” at Knua Juventude Fila Liman. This event has successfully brought a  range of youth groups to transfer their innovative skills to other youths across the country and talk about their accomplishment and challenges to different key players from government, agencies, including youths and students. It involved presentation, discussion, networking and showcase among participants to identify opportunities and possibly work on a strategic plan to focus on youth.

In an attempt to awakening the environmental awareness of the community of the urban Dili, the EWC Chapter Dili, in collaboration with Timorese Youth Initiative for Development (TYIFD) administering a project aiming at educating people on the environmental issues. By using theater and visual art, which often underutilized, it can further enhance the community’s level of understanding of the global challenges and concerns and investing more in activities and habits that could contribute to the health of the environment. Read more by clicking the image.

As part of the art competition project, TYIFD had been working with other professional youths who have knowledge and experience in an area of environment, theatre, visual arts during the month of September 2019 to provide mentoring programs to 8 existing youths groups which consisted around 40 members.

Saturday, January 19th, 2019, 5 members of the Timorese Youth Initiative for Development (TYIFD) who are Alumni from New Zealand Scholarship for Development Studies (NZDS) held two information sessions for 71 youths about criteria on how to apply for the program which is offered by New Zealand. Thank you Knua Juventude Fila-Liman for providing the Venue.

TYIFD in collaboration with "Movimentu Kiak Serve Kiak" did fundraising to support an orphanage - a school and a home to more than 100 orphans in Halecou, a rural area in Maliana. The fundraising activities included a family movie night, mini-concert at Dilicious restaurant, and social media mobilization. As a result, we gathered school items (such as books, pens, and pencils), kitchenware, toiletries, including some cash to buy groceries.

On 22 – 24 February 2019, TYIFD in collaboration with Movimentu Kiak Serve Kiak, Cocoustic Official, MAC – Criancs Unidas, Dilicious Timor, Fundação Oriente, Youth Vision Timor, Fortune Star, and Varaidame did community service at Halecou orphanage. Through the partnership that we had, we were able to support the school items, toiletries, and kitchenware to the orphanage. We also used that time to share our knowledge, skills, and experiences in the area of environment, sustainable waste management, geology and petroleum, aquaculture, agriculture, nutrition, civil engineering, and information technology to the students. We had a joyful weekend with the children at the orphanage as we exchange knowledge and skills, sharing experiences, and having fun.

On 15 – 16 Fev 2020, Some of TYIFD members who are also the alumni of St. Joseph College batch 2011, spent their weekend at Colégio Santo Inácio de Loyola (CSIL), Kasait, providing training to student council’s members about leadership, communication, networking, wall magazine, environmental information, resource mobilization, and opportunities, including fun games and music"

March, 19th 2020
For the right information to spreads into the community and not to confused to choose and access the credible source from Media, TYIFD is working with Uma Amerika in organizing an information session on Thursday last week where we corporate with Maluk Timor in sharing information about the importance of the prevention methods from COVID-19 (such as: Coughing and sneezing ethic, The correct way of using mask, How to correctly wash your hands, Have a healthy diets and Avoid contact with affected person) to university students who attending English Class provided by Uma Amerika. Dr. Teem Wing Yip, a Public Health Specialist along with two general medical doctors, Dr. Sofia Lima and Dr. Tarcisia da Silva and Nurse Deonisia Soares from Maluk Timor. At the same time we showed two short videos on Youtube from VOX, the videos are about, how the virus originally came from China and how exactly soap kills virus during washing hands!

In March of the last year 2020, during the first COVID-19 outbreak in Timor-Leste, TYIFD had volunteered in one of the Associação Maluk Timor COVID-19 response projects, the self-care packaging. Associação Maluk Timor has been working hard to provide resource packages to support hundreds of people during their time in quarantine. Through their supports, many people felt relieved from the amount of stress they encountered during their time in the self-quarantine and many said that it helped to prevent them from feeling isolated. With the delivery of the packages, we hope that people in the quarantine would think of taking preventative measures to help protect themselves and to think positively in coping with the situation they were in.

Timorese Youths Initiative for Development (TYIFD) along with the Youth of the Streets (YOTS) played important roles in the preparation and delivery of the packages for 6 days in August 2020. The collaboration between the Associação Maluk Timor, UNFPA, TYIFD, and YOTS resulted in the delivery of 1000 resource packages for people in the quarantine sites around Dili. Furthermore, in the same year in December 2020, TYIFD volunteers were once again spent two days helping Maluk Timor to prepare another round of packaging to be delivered to people in Liquica Municipality. This was one of the projects implemented by Maluk Timor to distribute the same amount of packages around 1000 to households in 9 villages in Liquiça.

Our volunteers and beneficiaries had participated in the Basic Life Support Training (BLS) facilitated by the nursing team from Maluk Timor last August 2020.

The training focused on identifying a life-threatening situation, implementing a basic life support DRABC procedure, otherwise known as the primary survey (DRABC: Danger, Response, Airway, Breathing & Cardiac), and how to recognize when to call for help and use the structured ISBAR (Introduction, Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation) approach when asking for help and providing a clinical handover. There was also a simulation practice on how to perform the CPR practice on an adult, a child, and a baby as well as practice on how to communicate through ISBAR.

The importance of this training is the practical knowledge that our volunteers and beneficiaries would use to provide immediate assistance to others in need of first aid treatment during an emergency.

Indo-Pacific Program was created by the United State President, Donald Trump, accompanied with the Prime Minister of India, Narenda Modi, on 6^th of June 2017. The program focuses largely on all the 24 countries within Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean, particularly the small islands. In 2019, Paeraravong and Dircia Belo were the first Timorese youths delegates to participate in ALLI (Advancing Long-term Initiative) exchange program in Tokyo. As the result, they conducted a seminatr on 15^th August 2020 with the theme INPAC TIMOR: Lideransa no Oportunidade ba foinsa’e. The seminar was hosted at KJFL and participated by TYIFD volunteers, TYIFD beneficiaries, and volunteers from 3R organization.

The workshop aimed to provide leadership training to the participants and sharing information associated with national and international opportunities. In addition, all the participants were so excited and motivated as the guest speakers were very experienced and the topics they presented were very interesting which encourage them to be leader in the future.

The guest speakers were: Paerara Vong, Dircia Belo, Nelania Sarmento, Juvelino Sequeira, Maria Guterres, João Maria Tapel, Luvima Pereira, Grace Vong, Ghezio and team, Leão and team, Filteda team. The topic included Indo-pacific identity, Sharing Opportunities, Project Management, Networking Skill, Leadership and Management, Innovation Challenge, 3R & Ecobricks and Theater influence people behavior. After the workshop, all the participants and guest speakers had a field trip to Arte Moris. After a month a month, TYIFD coordinated with CVTL organizing the same workshop in CVTL Baucau, on September 19^th 2020. After the workshop, they continued with a field trip to Filteda Baucau.

The Season of creation is a time to renew our relationship with our creator and all creation through celebration, conversation and commitment together. During the season of creation we join our sister and brothers in the ecumenical family in prayer and action family in prayer and action for our common home. The season stars 1 September, the day of Prayer for creation and ends 4 October, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi and the patron saint of ecology beloved by many Christian denominations. To celebrate the Season of creation in Timor-Leste, Timorese Youths Initiative for Development (TYIFD) organized an info session.

The Laudato Si Animators for their final project through sharing ideas from our guest speaker who are working in the environmental sector such as the 3R Timor-Leste and Timor-Leste’s Ocean Ambassador Jake Lasi. In addition, the team also celebrated this special season by doing meditation to express the feeling of gratitude for all the things that God has made, especially for the environment that is rich with resources to support our life. It also includes reflection on each individual’s principles and values which have a relationship with their volunteer’s life.

To conclude the season of creation celebration, TYIFD Volunteers camped together in Dolok-Oan (behind Cristo Rei Statue) to appreciate the beauty of nature while conducting sharing knowledge and experience sessions. More than ever before, the Global Christian family united to pray and take action for our common home.

Puberty is a big deal for everyone who soon transition to adolescence. It helps us to know about the major physical changes, emotional and psychological, that every girl and boy should expect and when these changes happen. We believe that everyone should be informed about this. However, not everyone has the same access to a proper basic education, particularly in underdeveloped countries in Asia such as Timor-Leste. Cultural beliefs and norms are also the major contributors to hinder people from learning about key physical changes in their body.

Our volunteers were lucky enough to have participated in a workshop organized by Associção Maluk Timor, a local NGO, where they get a chance to learn about basic reproductive anatomy and physiology. The workshop was led by an HIV doctor at Maluk Timor, Dr. Bonifácio de Jesus, who is a junior doctor working closely with HIV patients and actively involved in the various youth groups in Dili. An interactive game around HIV was delivered with useful information about:

• The virus transmission through sexual intercourse and HIV-infected instruments.
• Window Period.
• The risk of getting an opportunistic infection in HIV.
• Knowing the risk factor (such as sex workers, MSM, etc).
• And emphasize the preventive measures.

The fun part of the workshop was the condom demonstration; it was equally bizarre and fun at the same time to our volunteers.

On Monday, the 12th of October, both TYIFD volunteers and beneficiaries, along with DMUN alumni attended an information session organized by the UN Volunteers Timor-Leste. The session aimed to provide information on UNVs existence in Timor-Leste and around the world; including teaching the participants regarding the mechanisms of applying to volunteer opportunities offered by UNV Timor-Leste as well as on how to access the registration profile on the UNV website.

To carrying on the task, volunteers would extend this important information to other youth and university students who are interested in becoming either a national or an international UN Volunteer.

On the 7th November 2020, TYIFD conducted job hunting training for its volunteers at Xanana Gusmão Reading Room, which was facilitated by Mr. Ali Gluham. The main objective of this training to educate, build capacity, and support our volunteers in areas that are needed, as has been stated in our mission. Mr. Gluham is a Master of Business and Administration who has experiences related to working recruitment, selecting resumes and had held various interviews in different companies and NGOs during his time in Timor-Leste.

During the training, our volunteers assimilated about how to write an outstanding Curriculum Vitae (CV) and Application Letters, differentiate the CV and Resume, including watching a short video about the interviewing tips. There was also a simulation training about how to properly write a CV and the Application Letters.

Mr. Gluham had also shared some adequate tips on how to find a job that suits everyone by identifying your soft skills and hard skills, as well as interest, passion, motivation, target industries that you would like to apply for a job, including meeting with relevant people or networking. We hope this training will help our volunteers in their future careers.

Hence, with the support of UN Volunteers in Timor-Leste, both TYIFD volunteers and DMUN Alumni have successfully facilitated two information sessions (on October 6th and 13th) on UNV's presence in Timor-Leste including how to create an account in UNV Vmam talent pool official website. The activity was conducted at the UN compound in Caicoli - Dili and was attended by different youth groups in Timor-Leste which include the SAHAJA youth group, Rotaract Club Dili, and Hamutuk Ita Rezolve. The main purpose of this activity is to also share the information regarding the benefits of working as a volunteer at UNV; guide participants on how to register the UNV Vmam talent pool to have access to career opportunities provided by the UN Volunteers.

In partnership with INpaktu Youth Timor-Leste, our 14 youth volunteers had successfully supported and organized a “6-day Social Innovation and Development Incubation Bootcamp”. The bootcamp aimed to connect and empower 30 youth leaders from 15 youth groups to discuss, ideate and innovate in a collaborative project.

It covered various activities including the discussion on Timor-Leste 2030 strategic plan and how we should follow the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. For example, we should use some of the social innovation tools such as: design thinking, project managements, grant opportunities, impact investment, etc., team building activities, experiential learning such as Traditional Cooking training, weaving Timorese traditional clothes and Mangrove planting.

At the end of the bootcamp, 15 youth groups pitched their project initiatives to a group of national and international panels representing different institutions. After a rigorous selection, 3 promising proposal were selected and were awarded a $1K grant each. The grants will be used to implement their projects effectively to the communities as well as sharing their knowledge and skills which they learned during the bootcamp. The grantees were: Laudato Si Animators Timor-Leste, Interfaith Cooperation Forum – ICF TL and Millenial Youth Association – MYA.

The event has brought tons of positive impacts to the participants where they were able to connect with a lot of institutions and donors, expanded their network and more importantly it helped them to learn skills and experience for bringing a greater impact to their family, friends, and community.

The 6-day social Innovation Bootcamp was fully funded by the US Mission to ASEAN under the YSEALI Seeds for the Future Grant 2020 and the US Embassy in Dili.

TYIFD in partnership with National and International organizations (such as the Australian Volunteer Program, UN volunteers, New Zealand - Volunteer Service Abroad, Red Cross Timor-Leste, etc.) organized a “THANK YOU” event as part of celebrating the International Volunteers day, held on December 5th, 2020. The p

urpose of this event is to express gratitude and handing over a certificate of appreciation to a passionate group of volunteers and individuals who have provided their endless supports to the community who struggled during the occurrence of COVID-19 and the cause of floods in Timor-Leste.

The “Thank you” event was conducted at the Tower Conference Hall, Fatuhada, Dili and took part by especial guest such as Mr. Roy Trivedy (UN Resident Coordinator), Mrs. Lazima Onta Bhatta (UN Acting Resident representative), Mrs. Idelta Maria Rodrigues (President of UNE-TL), Mr. David Tomas de Deus (Representative of Secretary of State for Youth and Sport). The participants for this event came from different youth groups, national organizations, and various volunteer groups, along with organizing partners and supporters: UNDP, Peace Corps, Australian Volunteer Program, JICA, KOICA, UN Volunteers, New Zealand–Volunteer Service Abroad, and Red Cross Timor-Leste, UNE-TL, TYIFD, DMUN Alumni, etc.

On April 4, heavy rains across the country have resulted in flash flood and landslides affecting all 13 municipalities in Timor Leste to varying degrees and the capital Dili was the most affected. The impact of this flood not only destroyed houses but also claimed the lives of more than 10 people. The incident also affected our young children, many of them fled with their families to several evacuation centers such as Dom Bosco.

Therefore, TYIFD had been trusted with an Emergency Program from Maluk Timor to help entertain children in Dom Bosco evacuation center with activities such as games, storytelling, dancing and other fun activities.
These activities are schedule twice a week in one hour per visit, to trying and take away their minds from the disaster.

On April 18th to May 2nd 2021, Timorese Youth Initiative for Development (TYIFD) held a series of live webinar through zoom on TYIFD Facebook page. The webinar was called "Earth Day Webinar" aimed to educate young people about protecting the environment. The general theme of the event was "Restore Our Earth” and delivered by different key speakers on variety of interesting topics regarding the environment.

Below is the list of 6 presentations and the name of the speakers:

• Jafet Potenzo Lopes talked about wildlife conservation in Timor-Leste. In his presentation, he emphasized the importance of conserving wild animals and its habitat.  He said that currently there are a number of animal species such as birds whose habitat are in danger of going extinct because of wild hunting and forest burning. In addition, he also introduced a number of new species from his current work with Asosiasaun Turizmu Maritima in Timor-Leste such as dolphin, turtles and other animal species.
• Eva Borges Pereira talked about what we can do to reduce plastic pollution in Timor-Leste. She started by introducing different type of plastics and showing some facts around Dili, such as the people generated about 80% of plastic trash in a given period of time and very little of them are used in recycled. Most of the plastics trashes ended up either in the ocean or river.  The consequences are very obvious it might causes flooding and even kills about 46,000 animals every year.
• Martinha da Conceição Amaral talked about her working experience with ANLA (National Agency for Environmental License). During her presentation, she laid out what ANLA does with respect to granting environmental licenses for companies and organization. She explained in details what the processes are, who can apply and other key steps. For example, she said that ANLA usually gives three (A, B, C) categories of rating for any companies or organization after the assessment. Category A being a high risk; Category B being medium risk; Category C being low risk.
• Jake Lasi talked about marine tourism as alternative revenue for Timor-Leste. He mentioned several ideas about marine tourism, which anyone could think of such as diving, snorkeling, whale watching and underwater diving. He said that these ideas would have more value if we could develop because it can attract more tourists to come. In Timor-Leste scientist have found the water nears Atauro Island encompassing 643 species among the most biodiversity in the world.
• Joctan Lopes talked about ICT for small-scale fisheries in Timor-Leste from pesKAAS Perspective. PeskAAS is an end-to-end software solution that connects open source programs to collect, communicates, analyze, and visualize small-scale fishers movement and catch data. On his presentation he highlighted about "As of August 2020, almost 59,000 fishing trips have been geotracked, representing over 810,000 km travelled over more than 313,000 hours. Catch data also recorded about 22,750 of these trips, resulting in 35,000 species and family level landings records representing a total catch weight of 304 tons.
• Dircia Sarmento Belo talked about Youth for Climate Action. She began by distinguishing the differences between weather and climate where weather refers to short-term conditions like rain, temperature, and wind over hours to days. While, climate refers to the average weather conditions over a long period of time (30+years). And she also explained about how global warming works, e.g. it comes from fossil, fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) which produce Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and heats up the planet. She also mentioned about how youth can help to tackle this by "Learn more about climate change in your country, get together in a group to discuss climate change, raise awareness, volunteer to get youth concerns heard, create a project to reduce the impacts in your community.”

In the end, the goal of the webinar is to raise awareness on climate change with the hope that to encourage our audiences to protect the environment. This webinar was a success as it drew lots of discussion and Q&A in each of the six presentations. We hope this initiative would continue forward so that everyone should start thinking of saving and protecting our environment.

Mini Digital Library is an online tool that gives people an opportunity to read both Fiction & Non-Fiction books. On June 21 – July 12 of 2021, Timorese Youths Initiative for Development (TYIFD) started this initiative allowing people to have access to books online during this global pandemic. As we all know that Covid-19 is an unprecedented challenge with the immediate impact on our daily life because it limits our mobilities and discourages everyone. Therefore, we believe that through “Mini Digital Library” people can find something to do or to read. There is a saying that “people always have strong desires to learn something new even they are in difficult times”. So, we hope this program will help entertain and elevate their reading skills during this unpleasant situation.