The Civil Society Support Office of the Office of the Prime Minister (GASC-GPM) is supporting a social and environmental project with inmates at Becora Prison which reuses newspapers and other materials to produce bags.
This initiative is associated with the Project Mais Português, funded by GASC-GPM and promoted by FONGTIL (East Timorese NGO’s platform) and Fundação Oriente, which among the various cultural and technical-professional actions envolving the inmates of this prison also facilitates Portuguese language courses.
The bags are made by the prisoners from old newspapers (of thicker sheets) and packages donated by the Ministries and public administration structures, with the support of Elda Oliveira, responsible for the NGO HADADIN and trainer in Becora prison since 2002. All bodies and State institutions are invited to participate in this ecological initiative. The project is part of the policies of the Eighth Government, that – recognizing the need to preserve and enhance national resources – has promoted from the beginning of its mandate several actions for environmental protection and to safeguard the sustainable development of the economy.
The bags will have a sale price of 25 cents and are intended to be distributed through supermarkets and other commercial centres in Timor-Leste, reaffirming the commitment made by the Government in its program to implement a “plastic zero policy” by raising awareness of merchants and consumers to the need to choose alternatives to the use of plastic products, most of which are disposable and eventually become deposited in the oceans, seas, lakes and rivers.
A portion of the value of the sale of the bags made at the Becora Prison will revert to the acquisition of more raw materials allowing more national handicraft products to be inserted into the fair-trade network.
In addition to the commercial establishments, these bags will accompany the products made by national NGOs, sold at handicraft fairs in Timor-Leste and Portugal at the Fair Trade stores of CIDAC (Centro de Intervenção para o Desenvolvimento Amílcar Cabral) and Fundação Oriente, through an initiative of GASC-GPM, together with CIDAC and FONGTIL, framed with the international trade movement known as Fair Trade, a social movement that aims at economic and ecological sustainability and that promotes trade relations with the minimum possible intermediation, total transparency and a fair price. Under this project, the Timorese groups, Boneca de Ataúro, Alola Foundation, Kor Timor, Projeto Montanha and HADADIN have their products on sale in these Portuguese stores and have already received about US $ 6,000 for the sale of these products. In addition to export support for these products, training actions will be promoted for national handicraft groups on sustainable productive activity.
Institutions that wish to participate in the donation of newspapers (with thicker sheets) may do so at FONGTIL’s facilities in Caicoli, Díli, or through the following e-mails: timordiak@gmail.com and bnauzilove@gmail.com.
To purchase these ecological bags, please contact Elda Oliveira, on 773 272 85.
