The Alola Handcraft program is getting bigger and better every week. Dete Da Fonseca is our new Economic Development Manager, who has already initiated a number of new projects. Rui Carvelho, our designer, is in Bandung, West Java, increasing his design skills.
We have also employed Monrique dos Reis to coordinate a new employment program at an IDP camp half an hour East of Dili. To read about the progress of the project click here
Their latest creations include strong and attractive computer bags made from tais (the traditional woven cloth of Timor-Leste) and a very popular range of earrings made from beads and scraps of tais.
The Alola Shop has developed a reputation for stocking traditional tais with natural dies and high quality production and continues to work with weaver groups to increase the marketability of their products.
The more we can sell, the more tais we can buy from women weavers, some of whom live in the most remote, inaccessible parts of Timor-Leste and have virtually no other access to cash.
Look out for selendang (woven scarves) from Alola in Oxfam shops later in the year. Oxfam Shops are very supportive of Alola Handcrafts and we are working hard to supply goods that will be popular in Australia.
The Alola Handcraft program manages theTaibessi Warehouse which employs women to produce items for the maternity packs for our Maternal and Child Health Programs.
The Creative Team, from Left: Helen (shop assistant/designer), Alarico & Natalina (sewers) Rui (Product Designer) and Helena (sewer) model the new Alola Shop Uniforms.
Economic Development
Strategies
•
Create employment
for women
• Develop
handcraft industry
• Provide
family friendly
workplace role model
• Maintain
cultural traditions
in women’s
handcrafts
• Strengthen
support services
for women in enterprise
Alola
Mission Statement: To
empower women to
achieve economic
independence
Women
and Handcrafts in
East Timor
The 24-year Indonesian
occupation of Timor
Leste (East Timor)
and the violence
and destruction
of 1999 resulted
in much social and
economic disruption.
Due to the high
number of orphans,
widows and dislocated
people, households
headed by women
with little economic
and material means
to survive are common.
New economic opportunities
appropriate to women’s
skill and education
levels are essential
to assist in achieving
self-sufficiency.
Craft production
holds out an important
hope for women of
the poorer sections
of society with
limited literacy
and education and
few other work opportunities.
Village handcraft
co-operatives have
been re-established
all over Timor Leste.
In 2002 the first
step in an endeavor
to help foster a
national handcrafts
industry for Timor
Leste was taken
with a national
survey conducted
to provide an overview
of handcraft production
and marketability.
The
overall goal of
the endeavour has
been to assist poor
women in Timor Leste
with the development
of a sustainable
income source for
their families and
selves through handcraft
production. Three
clear pathways have
been identified
to pursue:
the development
of the handcrafts
industry within
Timor Leste driven
and owned by the
producer groups
the exploration
of an international
market for traditional
handcrafts (such
as tais)
and non-traditional
handcraft products
(such as bags
made using tais fabric);
the preservation
and protection
of the cultural
traditions associated
with handcraft
production (in
the areas of traditional
production techniques
and their artistic
and historical
significance).
Oxfam
Community Aid Abroad
Trading, Australia has
offered to assist
with practical product
development methodologies
through provision
of technical support
and advice on marketing
issues in Australia.
In Timor Leste it
is proposed that
the project be administered
and partly resourced
by the Alola
Foundation with support (funding
and technical assistance)
provided by Oxfam
GB and overseen
by a Steering Committee
comprising a representative
from the Alola Foundation,
Oxfam GB and FKSH
and convened by
the Project Manager.
