UNICEF East Timor: Natalina's story

Natalina’s story LIFE SKILLS TRAINING

Schools for Asia

Timor-Leste

Seventeen year old Natalina Soares dropped out of school in the fourth grade and never went back. She is not alone. Many young people in Asia’s newest country, Timor-Leste, are out of school, unemployed and bored—such that the situation for youth in the country is considered critical. In this context, UNICEF’s Life Skills training programmes are working to provide young people like Natalina with the knowledge and skills they need to create a brighter future for themselves and this new nation.

Dili

2 UNICEF Timor-Leste

07:32 The ďŹ rst thing I do when I get up is get water for my bath.

Schools for Timor-Leste Natalina’s story 3

07:36 I comb through my hair and put it up for the day.

4 UNICEF Timor-Leste

I was in the fourth grade when I dropped out of school. I was a real tomboy—always playing with the boys and fighting and throwing stones.

My teacher didn’t like it. He would get really angry at us. I was scared of him. I was also scared that if I told my parents they would go in and talk with him and then things would be worse. So I didn’t tell them anything.

Every morning I left for school as usual, but then I waited on the street until school was over and walked home with everybody else at noon. My parents had no idea. Finally I had to tell them. It was the end of the year and they were called in to sign my report book. I knew they’d be really angry if they learned from the teacher that I had not been going, so I had to tell them myself. But I never told them why. Of course they were really angry and punished me.

How does UNICEF help?

Fear of the teacher is cited as one of the top reasons children drop out of school.

Those who quit often have a difficult time returning and are more likely to engage in risky behaviour. UNICEF’s child friendly approach to schooling trains teachers and empowers communities in creating child-centred learning environments where students feel safe, thereby greatly decreasing the number who repeat or drop out.

The next year my parents managed to talk me into going back to school in the middle of the year. That was 2006 and there was a lot of political trouble in the country. I had only been there a couple of weeks when some of the students started to bully me. They told me my family was from the wrong part of the island and I should go back where I came from. So I quit again.

My parents kept trying to get me to go back. They told me that my future would be nothing without an education. But I refused. “If you force me to go back and there is a problem who will protect me?” I asked. They kept trying to convince me, but whatever they said I had already made up my mind: I was never going back to school.

—Natalina Schools for Timor-Leste Natalina’s story 5

08:44 Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings our neighbourhood badminton team gets together to practice. Our coach, Andy, is really good. He used to be a national champion on the handicapped team.

6 UNICEF Timor-Leste

How does UNICEF help?

‘Born’ in 2002, Timor-Leste is Asia’s youngest nation and it has one of the youngest populations in the world: 48 per cent of its population is under the age of 18. With almost 15 per cent of young people (aged 15-24) unable to read and write and over 18 per cent unemployed nationally—and a staggering 35 per cent unemployment rate in urban areas— youth are critical to the peace and security of this post-conflict country. UNICEF is working with the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the Secretary of State for Youth and Sports (SSYS) to provide vulnerable young people with opportunities to participate in their communities.

In addition to providing literacy, language and equivalency classes, the country’s youth centres offer sporting and cultural activities, encouraging young people to be involved in nation building, not violence. And yet, despite being critical to the future of the country, youth programmes in Timor-Leste are chronically under-funded.

Schools for Timor-Leste Natalina’s story 7

09:36 I live with 15 members of my family, including my older sister’s three children. All of us take turns doing the chores.

Today it is my turn to cook our lunch. My niece, Sandra Rita, is 11. We walk to the market to buy tomatoes, chilies and tofu.

8 UNICEF Timor-Leste

Today I am more protective of her than usual. Last night there was political trouble in Dili. Cars were attacked and houses

vandalized. They say a man died. Nobody knows when or where it might are up again, so we have to be quick and careful.

Schools for Timor-Leste Natalina’s story 9

10:16 On the way home we stop at an open air shop near home to take a quick look at some of the clothes for sale.

Most days I make a few dollars selling fruit salad at a kiosk down the road....

10 UNICEF Timor-Leste

Young people in Timor-Leste face a lot of challenges. First, many lack access to education. Second, people earn very little so they can’t support their children in school or their families and so their children also have to work; third, because so many young people did not go to school, it is easy to politicize them and involve them in violence; and fourth, many consume drugs and alcohol.

Every day at the youth centre and on the streets we see boys in grades 7 and up that are drunk. These are the cases that I worry about. They lack information about HIV and only know how to do what they want to do—and if that means having sex with a lot of girls they’ll do it. Many know HIV is out there they seem to think of it in the same way they think of malaria or diarrhoea—something that’s not too serious and won’t affect them.

I live in Natalina’s neighborhood. I used to always see her hanging around on the street with her friend Johnny and others who were out of school.

They would drink a lot and I heard from some people in the community that Natalina was also drinking and smoking and engaging in some risky behaviour so I invited her to come to the Comoro Youth Centre where she could play sports and take classes and do her primary school equivalency.

She and Johnny came together for a year. They did their equivalency and took computer classes. We also offered a life skills class and the two of them enrolled.

After that I saw a change in her—not a complete change, but a big one.

If I put a number on it might be as high as 75 or 85 or even 90 per cent.

—Jacinta dos Santos, Director, Comoro Youth Centre Schools for Timor-Leste Natalina’s story 11

I decided to take the life skills class because I wanted to learn the things they were teaching. I wanted to stop fighting and learn better ways to communicate and solve problems. But I was most interested in learning about health—especially HIV. I don’t know anyone personally who has it, but I have heard stories about people who do. That part of the course has stuck in my mind more than the rest. What do I remember? Ummmm... that it’s a very dangerous disease and it’s easy to get contaminated with it if you have free sex. Preventing it? Well, you have to take care of yourself, stay calm and don’t be naughty. Oh, and using a condom helps.

—Natalina

How does UNICEF help?

Developed by the Government of Timor-Leste, the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health and the Secretary of State for Youth and Sports in collaboration with UNICEF, Life Skills Basic Education (LSBE) constitutes a series of practical learning modules designed to strengthen the knowledge and psychosocial skills of young people age 14 and up. By learning to make positive healthy choices, make informed decisions, develop supportive relationships with trusted care-givers, practice healthy behaviours and recognize and avoid risky health situations and behaviours, young people learn to reduce the occurrence of or to effectively cope with the risky situations they may encounter in their day to day lives. One module of the course deals specifically with preventing sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV by encouraging young people to use protection and avoid risk. HIV prevalence in the country is still low but the risk factors are high: most young people drink and the number of people infected is likely to increase as the country opens its doors to the outside world.

12 UNICEF Timor-Leste

10:20 walking home...

Schools for Timor-Leste Natalina’s story 13

In life skills we learned that if there is a problem you need to sit down with the others who are involved and find a solution without using violence.

I stopped school in 2007 during fifth grade. For two years some of my classmates beat me up every day on the way to school. I did my equivalency with Natalina at Comoro Youth Centre and then this year I returned to school. I am now in the ninth grade. And guess what? The same boys who bullied me now attend my new school. In life skills I learned that to build good relationships you need to focus on how you can make things better.

‘What’s past is past,’ I told them. ‘I’m not out for revenge.’ Now we’re friends.

It was not a lesson that I remembered a few months ago when my youngest brother was stabbed. I went looking for the person who did it and beat him up. A few days later I was arrested by the police and put in jail for

24 hours. I think that if I had just recently finished life skills I probably would have responded differently.

—Joao (Johnny) Paulo, 18, Natalina’s friend

How does UNICEF help?

UNICEF’s eight basic Life Skills modules focus on self awareness, communication and relationships, decision-making, problem-solving, coping with emotions, young people’s changing bodies, substance use and abuse, STIs and HIV. UNICEF has also developed two modules specifically for Timor-Leste: pre-parenting and skills for peace. The former deals with parental responsibilities and is designed to help break the all too common cycle of aggression in families and the latter aims to bring young people together to resolve interpersonal conflict and teach them how to effectively participate in public life.

14 UNICEF Timor-Leste

10:22 Down the road we pass my friend Johnny (in the green shirt) hanging out with some of our friends before school (his shift starts at noon). He and I used to hang out with them all the time because we were all out of school. Now he’s gone back. He is one of the only guys in that group who goes to school.

Schools for Timor-Leste Natalina’s story 15

10:41 When I get home I clean the rice and put it on to cook. My mother looks on while Sandra Rita and I chop up the

tofu, tomatoes, chilies and onions. With so many of us at home she doesn’t have to cook often, but she supervises our work.

16 UNICEF Timor-Leste

10:58 I light the fire and fry the tofu little by little. After that I cook the other ingredients and then mix it all together.

My brother Paulo’s wife, Terezinha, is 23. She is a university student. When she’s not at school she often helps me cook lunch.

Schools for Timor-Leste Natalina’s story 17

11:26 I feed Sandra Rita before she leaves for school.

I remember once when I was hanging around with some of the boys from our group. They were asking these girls to have sex and I told the boys this isn’t good—if you do this you could get HIV and destroy your life. ‘This is my business, my life, not yours,’ they said. ‘Look,’ I told them, ‘I am just telling you this because I consider you my friend. What you do with it is up to you.’ In the end some of them listened and some didn’t. It’s the same with drinking. Some of them drink a lot and I tell them they need to limit it because they can’t control themselves. What if they do something like rape a girl? They don’t like to hear it, and some of them try to hit me for saying it, but others listen to me. I see this sort of thing happening now and then—and because I was in Life Skills, when I do, I say something.

—Natalina

How does UNICEF help?

To date 13,753 young people from 13 districts have received Life Skills training. Those who complete the training become peer educators and are charged with disseminating key Life Skills messages among their peers in the course of their normal lives. It is hard to measure the impact of such a programme, but even if each of the 1700 peer educators trained in 2012 reaches just four peers with life skills messages this year, 6800 people will have been impacted in some way.

18 UNICEF Timor-Leste

11:40 Sometimes when we’re together I talk with my nieces about the things I learned in Life Skills.

Schools for Timor-Leste Natalina’s story 19

12:18 When my father gets home everyone who is home eats lunch together.

20 UNICEF Timor-Leste

12:31 My father is a construction worker. He loves cock fighting. Every Sunday he takes his best roosters to fight. After we eat lunch he checks that they are okay.

I didn’t tell my parents when I first quit going to school, but now if I have a big problem and I need advice, the first person I will talk to is my mother.

Life skills taught us to tell others about our problems so that they can help us find ways to solve them. The communication skills I learned there are something I use every day. They have helped me communicate with her in a better way. Now when my friends come to me for advice about any big problems, the first thing I tell them is that they need to find a way to tell their parents.

—Natalina Schools for Timor-Leste Natalina’s story 21

13:12 I watch TV with my nephew Alexandre (8) after lunch.

22 UNICEF Timor-Leste

13:20 All day people stop in to buy things like cigarettes from my mother’s kiosk.

How does UNICEF help?

Parents, many of whom are illiterate or uninformed, may not know how to advise their children in a rapidly changing world. What’s more, young people in Timor-Leste—like young people everywhere—may not care to listen. When Life Skills messages come from a peer they are far more likely to

I grew up in a village. We did what was expected of us and were respectful of our parents. But it is totally different now. It’s modern life. Young people get their information from the TV and imitate what they see there.

Change has come quickly—especially here in the city. The old norms don’t apply anymore. Young people do what they want. Parents still have the power to influence them, but many of them don’t know what their children are doing so they don’t even know there is a problem. Do young people drink? Yes. A lot of them do. But I haven’t heard anything about them doing drugs or having sex. HIV? No, I’ve never heard of that. What is it?

be accepted and to impact behaviour.

—Esmerelda de Deus, Natalina’s mother Schools for Timor-Leste Natalina’s story 23

13:38 One of our neighbours has a garden. We buy some kangko (water cabbage) and belimbi that we will prepare for dinner.

24 UNICEF Timor-Leste

13:55 We sit on Imel’s porch to work and talk.

Schools for Timor-Leste Natalina’s story 25

14:32 I rest on the front porch. I am tired of hanging around with doing nothing all day. But what else is there to do? I can’t get a job because I don’t have any skills. But even if I did, there aren’t many jobs around for young people.

26 UNICEF Timor-Leste

15:45 My friend Berta comes over after I get up. Most days, if she’s free, we sit around and tell each other funny stories.

Not today. Everybody is talking about the trouble last night and wondering what will happen tonight.

Schools for Timor-Leste Natalina’s story 27

28 UNICEF Timor-Leste

16:22 Usually I would be going out to play basketball with my friends about now, but not this week.

Almost everybody I know is too busy studying for their end of the year exams so there is no one to play with.

We usually have a lot of fun with my neighbor’s baby, Camel.

Schools for Timor-Leste Natalina’s story 29

17:35 Johnny stops by after school. We’ve been friends and neighbours for our whole lives.

30 UNICEF Timor-Leste

I keep thinking about going back to school next year. I want to be a soldier in the national army, so I have to complete grade 12 by the time I am 25.

That means I can’t wait much longer to go back. But I’m really afraid. What if the other students tease me for being older than everybody else or ask me where I studied last year. And when they learn I did an equivalency, they’ll say I skipped. All year—ever since Johnny has gone back to school—I’ve been asking him if he’s had any trouble or if anybody has made fun of him.

He says it’s been fine. If he finishes the year without any problems I will feel much more confident about going back next year.

—Natalina Schools for Timor-Leste Natalina’s story 31

Young people like Natalina need the skills, knowledge attitudes and behaviour to cope with the challenges of a rapidly changing world—including the growing threat of HIV/AIDS. UNICEF Timor-Leste is working with Government, local education and youth authorities and NGOs to provide young people with basic life skills training and messages with the aim of engaging youth in the building—not the destabilisation—of this young nation.

ABOUT UNICEF UNICEF’s goal is to make a difference for all children, everywhere, all the time.

All children have rights that guarantee them what they need to survive, grow, participate and fulfill their potential. Yet every day these rights are denied. Millions of children die from preventable diseases. Millions more don’t go to school, or don’t have food, shelter and clean water. Children suffer from violence, abuse and discrimination. This is wrong.

UNICEF works globally to transform children’s lives by protecting and promoting their rights. Their fight for child survival and development takes place every day in remote villages and in bustling cities, in peaceful areas and in regions destroyed by war, in places reachable by train or car and in terrain passable only by camel or donkey.

Their achievements are won school by school, child by child, vaccine by vaccine, mosquito net by mosquito net. It is a struggle in which success is measured by what doesn't happen—by what is prevented.

UNICEF will continue this fight—to make the difference for all children, everywhere, all the time.

To fund all of its work UNICEF relies entirely on voluntary donations from individuals, governments, institutions and corporations. We receive no money from the UN budget.

34 UNICEF Timor-Leste

Photos this page courtesy of Natalina Soares

UNICEF Timor-Leste UN House PO Box 212 Rua de Caicoli Dili Timor-Leste Tel/Fax: +(670) 331 3532 Email: dili@unicef.org www.unicef.org/timorleste

Photography, writing and design: Kelley Lynch

Following the success of Schools for Africa, in January 2012 UNICEF launched the Schools for Asia initiative: www.supportunicef.org/schoolsforasia