Bring hope to forgotten conflicts
HART has made us feel like we are not alone... We are empowering women to change the lives of their families.
Timor-Leste achieved independence in 2002 but emerged with little infrastructure, widespread unemployment and extreme poverty.
The country faces a malnutrition crisis. Almost half of children under age five are stunted and a quarter of women of reproductive age are anemic.
Our livelihoods partnership with HIAM Health helped to restore people’s independence, reducing their reliance on external support.
HIAM Health 2012-18
With support from the Isle of Man, we achieved enormous success in tackling malnutrition, including via cultivation of the Moringa plant, sometimes called a ‘miracle tree’ because of its nutritional properties.
No other organisation in Timor-Leste had developed such a deep understanding of the value of Moringa and how to maximise its many micronutrients in its varied forms – fresh, dried and powdered.
In partnership with HIAM Health, we empowered local families by providing support for nutrition-sensitive gardens and healthy-sanitation training for parents of malnourished children.
HIAM Health's name derives from the mantra: 'Hamutuk Ita Ajuda Malu' or 'Together We Help Each Other'.
- We developed 15 pictorial recipe cards on ways to use moringa in daily meals.
- We assisted over 130 households to establish moringa gardens.
- We published a 53 page manual in the local language, Tetun, on how to grow and process moringa.
- We reduced local malnutrition with sound horticulture practice.