ETWA - East Timor Women Australia
Hawthorn, VIC
Arts & Culture
Ph: +61 3 9819 3239
Fax: +61 3 9819 3439
www.etwa.org.au
About ETWA - East Timor Women Australia
ETWA is a small, Australian not-for-profit with a big heart for rural women in Timor-Leste. From supporting development projects, training and product development in Timor-Leste to fundraising campaigns, events and community stalls in Australia, our committed volunteers work to implement innovative projects to make practical, positive change in women’s lives in Timor-Leste.
Our current focus is working with the LO’UD Cooperative in Timor-Leste on:
Fair Futures for women & girls in Timor-Leste (Solutions Initiative)
Fo-Ba-Malu (Textile brand featuring: fair trade, plant dyed, hand-woven textiles)
ETWA supports the LO’UD Cooperative whose members live in isolated communities on the eastern tip of the island. ETWA and LO’UD have complementary capacities that when combined are a powerful counter-action to poverty. We aim to work collaboratively, seeking solutions that respond to the needs that LO’UD identifies. This is how the Fo-Ba-Malu range of textiles and products developed; it emerged from cross-cultural collaboration between ETWA members and LO’UD in 2012.
We attempt to develop relationships based on reciprocity, so the things we learn from our friends in Timor-Leste are equally as important as the gift of support we bring. From Timorese women, we have opportunities to learn the values of kinship, patience, resourcefulness and living in unanimity with the environment. From us, Timorese women are given opportunities to improve their skills, extend their market reach to improve their access to things they can’t afford, maintain traditional practices and share the riches of their culture.
www.etwa.org.au