[Ivete D'Oliveira began working with CIIR's Women's Advocacy Programme in August 2001. She talked to Catherine Scott about her work and about the experiences of East Timorese women in the transition to independence.]

With high male unemployment – especially among former employees of the Indonesian civil service – many men now depend on their wife's income. They do not necessarily respond well to this. "Take the Salvador family of one of the Dili suburbs for example," says D'Oliveira. "He lost his job in the administration. They are not at all well-off – in fact the family of five live in one room, and have only a double bed between them. Mrs Salvador has been supporting the family since 1999 by working as a house-keeper. But it does them no good because when she brings home her wages, Mr Salvador takes the money and spends it on drinking and cock-fighting. There is often terrible violence and the children are really suffering."

It is not that women find it easier to get jobs, says D'Oliveira, but "they will try harder. Many women were employed as domestics by the Indonesian families that lived here. When they left, those jobs disappeared. The UNTAET [UN transitional] administration prefers to employ younger people, actually, women as well as men. So the older women are resorting to the informal sector – baking food to sell, going to market, etc." Men would not do this because they see those activities as women"s work: 'They would feel demeaned to be associated with it – in fact they would rather do nothing at all!"

So what do the men do with themselves? "That is the trouble. Their idleness feeds bitterness, and then some of them take it out on their wives. That's why the domestic violence rate has gone up so much in the last two years.

"And often the work is not easy on the women. Many are employed in the informal restaurants which have grown up around the UN presence. They are paid low wages, and are often abused by their bosses. Some have been lured into prostitution to make up the low wages, and this gives all the women the same reputation, regardless.

"Women who work with Chinese or Malay immigrants have a raw deal. They are often abused, but mostly keep silent about it, as working for these immigrants is also disapproved of by the Timorese community. They have no real job descriptions, so they are made to do all sorts of irregular tasks."

No profit

Women selling goods in the market get very low prices for their wares because only poor people shop there. "In Indonesian times, the cassava and banana sellers used to do quite well from the Indonesian clientele. Now they have gone, and the foreigners in the employ of UNTAET prefer to buy their food from the small grocery stores because they are more likely to be wrapped, and the environment is more familiar to them."

Some market vendors make no profit at all. "We sat down with one community and did some basic calculations with them on the price of inputs and the price recouped and they were only breaking even! They had not realised this at all. But they did not mind – they said that at least it gave them something to do. So we worked with them and identified some ways in which they could make at least a tiny bit of profit."

International efforts

International agencies are trying to help women make a living. For example, the World Bank Community Empowerment Programme has started micro-finance projects to help them start small businesses. "Some of these have taken off," says D'Oliveira. "But other funders don't always succeed with our women because they lack basic skills, and are ill-equipped to write proposals and so on." She adds that some women started restaurants, but failed because they were unable to offer the variety and superior physical conditions provided by their competitors – Australian business people. Many of them went bankrupt.

D'Oliveira too is working with women to help than earn an income. 'In Baucau, we have been giving small grants to women's organisations. One of them is repairing and rebuilding a hostel with the money so that they can open it for paying visitors. Another woman is starting a bakery. Another group has started a chicken farm. One group produces handicrafts, but needs some help in marketing their products, especially in Dili.

Many women have husbands in the West Timorese refugee camps, and are trying to help them by growing food for direct consumption or to sell. "The whole process has turned some of them into quite enterprising business women, because they bring back goods from West Timor and sell them in Dili sometimes for quite reasonable profits. Some of the husbands are militia leaders and are scared to come home. Their wives do not attract so much suspicion, and can in this particular activity, move around more easily."

Women's courage

"But that is typical of women's courage. In 1999, I was there when the militias ran amok. So many of the men fled to the mountains to save their own skins. It was the women who stayed to defend their children. Then [the men] came back and took it for granted that they were the ones who should stand for political office."

Despite the hard times for women, D'Oliveira believes there are grounds for hope: "The women's resolve is impressive. On the domestic violence front, there has been a lot of publicity about it, which is good. Even [Foreign Minister] Ramos Horta admitted it in his address to the UN Security Council. Both the church and the government have been taking positive steps to deal with the issue. [...] And Prime Minster Alkatiri made a speech during the anti-violence against women campaign [25 November-10 December 2001], promising to create a safe environment for women and children in the future.

"Now I know that these are promises, and that the situation is not good, but there is a commitment to work for change. That gives me a lot of encouragement to go on with CIIR"s work here.'

[This article first appeared in issue 55 of Timor Link, CIIR's quarterly bulletin of news, analysis and action in support of East Timor.]