Timor women, always people picturing as someone that is weak.
But when I run and I post the photo
with that joy in my face, but also physically I'm capable,
a lot of my colleagues
say that they're inspired by that and they wanted to do the same thing.
My name is Sidalia.
I am an activist of human rights and I am a social worker in Timor-Leste.
So when I work at one of the community clinics, where women came to the clinic
because they seek for help, say that they have sick at the back
or they have sick in their head, or they have sick in their tummy,
mostly because of the physical aggression from their partner.
What I did provide is someone who's there to listen to them with no judgment.
And if a house is not a safe place, they can go to a different place
for safety. And I am there fully committed to support that individual.
The situation of violence against women in Timor is really serious.
So when the Equality Institute did a study, what we found was that
59% of women had experienced
intimate partner violence during their lifetime.
To put that into context, globally,
the average is around 30%.
I think the impact of the pandemic on
women is quite enormous because they have to stay at home.
So the case of domestic violence, the case of abuse in a house has increased.
This is a trend that we've
seen around the world due to COVID lockdown restrictions
women are stuck at home with their perpetrators
and this makes it a much more dangerous situation for women.
My knowledge is not only for women and children, which is important too,
but also for LGBTI community that is being excluded in so many levels .
The understanding of gender here in this country is that people
should be in one box, the box of women and the box of men, and that's all.
There's no other boxes.
So when people come with certain norms
and all sorts of gender role, it makes it so difficult for LGBTI community.
The work that we are doing is very hard because now
we cannot just go to any places we want because of tha restrictions,
but also the risk of the COVID.
There is a lot of
activity that we adapt due to the COVID, but certainly is very challenging.
There is always some time in my day
where I think I'm emotionally and physically drained and I also need
someone that I can rely on in order to share what I am facing in a day.
So many of our colleagues and ourselves included, working on
these issues were getting burnt out,
exhausted, overworked, lacking resources.
We need to ensure that there are future feminist leaders to continue this work.
And so that was the original idea, and we actually managed
to secure Australian government funding to pilot this idea in Timor.
We've got a group of 16 feminist activists,
women and trans activists here. The name of the group is "Bin-Alin,.
Hakbi'it Malu" the Sisterhood Empowering Each Other,
and this group is full of
women who work in the organization who are
already exposed to dealing with domestic violence,
dealing with women, children, people with disability, LGBTI community.
We talk about how to look after each others
because as a Bin-Alin, as a sisterhood,
sometimes we are so focused in that fight for justice.
It's probably forgot with just an ordinary woman.
So there we look after each other
in the mat and talk about our self-care
and how do we process our trauma and how do we inspire each other.
The international
evidence that we have shows us that the key factor
in helping to end violence against women is strong local feminist activism.
And so that is one of the main reasons why for me personally
and for the Equality Institute, it is so important for us to support
feminist leaders in Timor-Leste.
In that space, as you see, many women
who are actually want some change in this country
are now talking about this, and we're rally on the street.
If we had a chance to do a march, we march
and if there is a 16 days campaign, then there is a 16 days
that we advocate for a human rights or we advocate for women and children.
We will do anything a workshop or discussion. As my mother always say, that
"every change that it is start from you, is already a change".
So I'm taking that as a victory for one person and I'm going
to inspire others and the are people who inspire others to do the same thing.