"Leprosy no longer public health threat in Timor-Leste"
Dili, 24 March 2011 - Leprosy, a chronic disease once endemic in South East Asia, has been largely eliminated from Timor-Leste. The disease has caused the disfigurement of millions of people mainly in the developing world…
Microfinance matters - Meeting the clients in Maliana
Maliana, 21 February 2011 - Delfina Fatima has been running her bakery in Maliana for a year. But she says the $500 loan she received a few months ago from one of Timor-Leste's microfinance institutions, Tuba Rai Metin, has…
TIMOR-LESTE: Chronic malnutrition among world's highest
Tibar, 25 February 2011 (IRIN) - For the past eight years, the same three have topped a UN ranking of the countries with the highest percentage of chronically malnourished children: Afghanistan (59 percent), Yemen (58 percent…
TIMOR-LESTE: Sexual assault survivors face long legal delays
Dili, 15 December 2010 (IRIN) - As the number of reported sexual crimes in Timor Leste increases, survivors - mostly women and girls - must wait up to one year as their cases wind through a struggling court system. In a…
UNITED NATIONS: The Secretary-General, Message on human rights day 10 December 2010
UNITED NATIONS, 10 December 2010 - Human rights are the foundation of freedom, peace, development and justice — and the heart of the work of the United Nations around the world. Laws to protect and promote human rights are…
TIMOR-LESTE: Road repairs a boon to villages
Dili, 22 November 2010 (IRIN) - Timor-Leste's government is engaging rural communities to improve the country's road network, which is almost 60 percent unpaved, to create jobs and develop vital infrastructure. The TIM-Works…
TIMOR-LESTE: Preparing for the worst
Dili, 11 November 2010 (IRIN) - Hardly a tremor was felt in Timor-Leste after the undersea 6.1 magnitude earthquake 85km north of the capital, Dili, on 16 October. The country, sited in one of the world's most volatile…
TIMOR-LESTE: HIV prevalence rate "under-reported"
Dili, 14 October 2010 (IRIN) - HIV prevalence is low in Timor-Leste - 0.2 percent based on results from the latest surveillance by the government and World Health Organization (WHO). But this rate is rapidly increasing and…
Identifying vulnerable people in Timor- Leste
Dili, 11 October 2010 - "My wife and I have 6 children under the age of 9. We survive on what little I can farm from public land. We own 2 hens and 2 pigs". Blasius Abi's life is just one example of the hand-to-mouth…
The graduation of Timor- Leste’s first legal drafters of the national parliament
Dili, 30 September 2010 - "I wanted the chance to serve my nation. The Timorese Parliament needs legal drafters for the long term future of the country." So says Mr. Aires Francisco Cabral, one of the 10 legal drafters…
TIMOR-LESTE: La Niña blow to crops
Dili/ Suai, 29 September 2010 (IRIN) - An unrelenting rainy season linked to La Niña has dragged on for months in Timor-Leste and left farmers without a June harvest and unsure when to plant for the next one. Farmers in the…
TIMOR-LESTE: The slow death of domestic violence
Dili/ Suai, 21 September 2010 (IRIN) - The government of Timor-Leste is struggling to implement a recently adopted law criminalizing domestic violence, amid scepticism that it is too much, too soon. "We are a teenager of a…