When 20-year-old Marciana was in high school, she got pregnant and had to quit school. After a few years, as is often the case with unplanned marriages that result from unplanned pregnancies, her husband left her, Marciana moved back to her parent’s house, which also home to her 11 siblings. No one in the family, […]

Before joining Timor Zero Hunger activities with CWS, 33-year-old Julio de Jesus liked to joke that he only planted weeds in his garden. “I didn’t know how to plant vegetables properly, nor was I in a farmers group”, he said. But after he joined a simple ag information and skill-building session, Julio learned how to […]

Last month CWS celebrated a new water system’s inauguration in a small rural village in Timor-Leste. This celebration was not just about easier access to water, but opportunities for a better future. Through information sharing, monthly monitoring and technical support, 25 family farm plots and two communal gardens have been cultivated using improved inputs, techniques […]

From June until December, which is dry season in Timor-Leste, 270 people in the small mountain village of Maumetalao used to rely on one water source. Mothers, children and young men would spend their mornings, and often a few hours in the early evening, taking turns filling five-liter jerry cans. Sometimes, arguments occurred because some […]

Afanso de Jesus is a village Delegate in a small mountain community in Liquisa, Timor-Leste. As such, he is a go-between for his fellow villagers and their leaders. He shares information, moderates and facilitates conversations and … troubleshoots problems. For this efforts, Afanso receives about $60 semi-annually. Clearly this is not enough income to live […]

Brigita Maria Kefi is a 35-year-old mother of three girls, all under the age of 10. She, her husband and daughters live in simple straw house in Maumetalao, which is a coastal village near the Banda Sea, which defines the north coast of Timor-Leste. For the past several years, changing weather, especially drought, has greatly […]

Amansio dos Santos, his wife, five children and four grandchildren live in a small bamboo hut in the mountains of Liquiçá on the north coast of Timor-Leste. They are subsistence farmers, growing pumpkin, cassava, chili and corn. When they have extra produce, they sell locally. With this money, the family buys instant noodles – because […]

When CWS staff first visited Gariana hamlet, we were surprised at how many challenges the community faced to get basic health care. For two years, we learned, no one had access to government-guaranteed Integrated Community Health Services, that are meant to bring doctors and other health care workers, and vital vaccinations, to rural families nationwide. […]

Lucia Martins lives with her mother, husband, two children, and 10 siblings in a modest bamboo house in rural Timor-Lest – Liquisa village about several miles outside Dili. And, even though the village is not all that far, distance-wise, from the country’s capital city, it is light years away in terms of socioeconomic development. This […]

As its government’s integrated community health service, SISCa brings care to communities across Timor-Leste. Mothers and young children are among health service staff priorities. Weighing and vaccinating under-fives is a key aim according to Augusto Guterres, a long-time Ministry of Health worker. Back in 2008 Augusto was named SISCa Program Coordinator in Liquisa, where he […]

CWS has partnered with Victor da Costa for a year in his Timor-Leste village to help families improve their diets and lower young children’s malnutrition. A first step in this has been sharing modern farming practices, including better water use. Recently, when CWS hosted a three-day horticulture training workshop in Maumeta, Victor opened it with […]

Leonito dos Santos da Silva lives in Caimegohou, a mountain community in rural Timor-Leste, where he supports his extended family of 11 by working the family farm. “I have always worried about how I will keep supporting my family”, says Leonito. “Until now, I have never gotten help to try to improve my life”. That […]

Maumetalau, a small mountain village in northwest Timor-Leste is like many rural communities in the country where people rely on farming for their income, and they have little access to services. Markets at which to sell vegetables, and safe road conditions and reliable water systems, are things to which most rural people have little or […]

Garianah and Lebucaileti are two small villages high in the mountains of northwest Timor-Leste. Most families in these villages have two homes. One “house”, which is more of a shack, is near the family fields outside of the village. It is where they live during corn-growing season from December to May. The other house is […]

Paulinho Martinez, like most of his neighbors in Gariana, makes a living from the land by farming and raising animals. For the past year, Paulinho and CWS have been working together to help families within his community to work smarter in order to improve the quality of their lives. In talking to CWS team members […]

Lebucaileti is a small community high in the mountains of Timor-Leste, where living conditions are extremely hard. Most of the time, there is limited water, and during the dry season (July to December), there is almost none, which makes farming – which is most families’ main livelihood and household food source – extremely difficult. During […]

Alfonso Riberio dos Santos is 35 and his wife Filomena Dos Santos da Cruz is 32; they have two young children, ages two and four and they live in Maumeta village. Many families in this village are poor subsistence farmers. Afonsos and his family were prioritized in their community to join Timor Zero Hunger activities […]

Leandro Oliveira and his family live in Maumetalau hamlet in Liquiçá district where, like most of their neighbors, he and his wife Angelita Vidigal depend on agriculture for their livelihood. Life has been hard for the family in the past when they earned only about $5 a week selling cassava and vegetables. And even that […]

This blog is the last in a four-part series focusing on CWS water, sanitation and hygiene programs in each of four Asian countries where we work. This one focuses on Indonesia and Timor-Leste. It’s important to know that the acronym WASH stands for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene. Access to safe water is a rising concern […]

About 35 kilometers from Dili, Timor-Leste, up a winding dirt road lined with banana trees, lives a uniquely blonde-haired 5-year-old girl, Beatrice who enjoys playing with her older siblings and cousins, and following her mother around the house, “helping” her mom with chores. Juliana da Silva Gonçalves, Beatrice’s mother, is a fairly typical Lebucaileti village […]