etwa

The Weaving Development Project (WDP) was undertaken to coincide with the Weaving Tour (July 1^st – 13^th).  All up, the project lasted for approx eight weeks and work was undertaken by Deb Salvagno and Sharon David with support from Community Development student, Ella Hamilton.

The project aimed to:

1. Determine how our support is benefiting weavers in 3 groups through participatory discussions and surveys
2. Discuss the weaving centres
3. Plan for the weaving tour
4. Conduct an audit of admin and financial systems, identify required changes and deliver training

Visit to Weaving Groups: 7^th – 13^th June:

Project Elements and Outcomes

Element 1: Original Objectives	Achieved
a. Determine how our support is benefiting weavers in 3 groups	Partially
b. Discuss weaving centres with the three rural weaving groups.	Yes

We stayed two nights in Los Palos with the Feto Kiak weaving group and then headed up to Iliomar for three nights. Discussions were held about the weaving tour, the questionnaire was explored with group leaders and approx 10 – 20 members were present in each village (see Appendix 1 Questionnaire Results). The need for a central weaving space for each group emerged as important projects in need of ETWA’s support. The groups’ financial ledgers were also taken back to Los Palos for analysis.

Life in the villages seemed more difficult than last year and there wasn’t the same level of optimism within the communities. Rains had been heavy, it was cold, the air was incredibly damp and the mud was ankle deep. Many people complained about inflation and the high price of rice, fuel and transport in particular, the lack of services and medical care and many feel the new government isn’t doing enough to help. All the women complained of headaches and backache and the health of the villagers seems to have declined in the past year.

The Fuat group has grown from 26 – 34 members. Leadership is strong; they meet regularly even if there is no work and direction is given by the Chief of the group, Marcelina. They try to minimise the length of meetings as the women have so many other responsibilities. Men and women are involved group discussions and there are plans to extend the groups’ membership to include men and to begin other development activities. In Cainliu the leadership is not as strong as Fuat and there seems to be internal problems particularly around money. The group Chief seems to feel the pressure members place on her, however in a meeting setting, members seemed to accept her decisions. The Los Palos group appears to have dissipated somewhat (not as many women attended the discussions or weaving workshops) although according to the group Chief, membership has increased. It is unclear as to how often either the Cainliu or Los Palos group meet. All groups are very open to ideas and suggestions and are willing to discuss new and different approaches to their work. Given that the focus for these groups is Tais only and the level of work received is minimal it is understandable that the Cainliu and Los Palos groups are not as strong.

The concept of Fulidai-dai (working together/ reciprocity) was discussed at length with each of the groups and it was proposed that the buildings be constructed within this notion. A suggestion was made that the women in each group weave scarves for ETWA without receiving payment and once the scarves are sold, we put the money together to help fund the buildings. All groups responded well and the notion was explored more broadly with the leaders from each group at a meeting in Los Palos in the following weeks. Orders were placed for 20 scarves from each group and some of these have already been collected.

Joanico (Nico) Jeronimo is from Iliomar and is the representative of the German NGO GTZ in Lautem. Nico lives and has an office in Los Palos and is responsible for income generation projects particularly agricultural projects (Tais falls within the Ministry of Agriculture probably due to cotton). We met Nico in 2005, caught up with him again in 2007 and this year we met with him on numerous occasions and discussed the possibility of working together in the future to support integrated cropping in Iliomar (e.g.: cotton and corn etc). Nico kindly set-up a meeting with the DA (District Administrator – the equivalent of a State Premier) and Deb, Ella and Marcelina from the Los Palos group met with the DA, introduced ETWA’s work and discussed the film, which he was very keen to see. He was extremely happy that women in Iliomar have outside support and appeared interested in supporting their work. He will be an invaluable contact in the future.

Major Findings:

• § The price of cotton has increased by 150% in the last few months
• § The price of rice has increased by around 50%

• § Each group needs a central space to weave together and are excited about solar panels
• § In Cainliu the women suggested that the Village Chief be involved in developing specifications and regulations for use of the weaving space/ building
• § In Fuat, the group needs time to discuss and plan a central weaving space
• § The Fuat group is incredibly process driven and understand the importance of healthy internal and external relationships and the need to plan
• § The notion of Fulidai-dai is naturally well understood by the groups and they appear to be interested in working within this notion to build sustainability
• § There is a massive amount of product ready for purchase from the three groups.

Questionnaire Results

Cainliu: 12 – 15 women present at any moment (Chief of the group present)

Fuat: 18 women and 3 men present (although some women came in and out)

Los Palos: Numbers not counted

Please note: Conversation often flowed from one question into another rather than chronologically so due to time constraints there was often insufficient time to return to an unasked question.

1. How much money have you earned from Centru since Sept (8 months)

Cainliu:	Fuat:	Los Palos:
$518.85 recorded in cash book	$341.45 recorded in cash book	$326.20 recorded in cash book

1. How have you used this money?

Cainliu:	Fuat:	Los Palos:
Soap, food, school fees and group contributions	School fees, cotton, soap & food.	Buy cotton to make tais, soap, detergent to wash clothes, school fess, buy clothes. The most important thing for this group is to buy cotton & soap then food then school fess. If they don’t have money the kids don’t go to school.

1. Has the money improved your quality of life? If so, how?

Cainliu:	Fuat:	Los Palos:
Money is not enough. Women want orders every month.	Money is not enough. The problems are worse for larger families. Generally though the money is insufficient to sustain a decent quality of life. Cotton has gone up 150%, rice has doubled. The women feel they are not making enough money but rather wasting time and energy.	Definitely not enough money so life is not improving.

1. Do you feel you are fairly paid? Why?

Cainliu:	Fuat:	Los Palos:
No. Price of cotton has increased so prices needs to increase. They can’t grow cotton so have to buy cotton elsewhere.	N/A	Before the prices were too low but it’s worse since the price of cotton has increased

1. What would be an ideal amount of money for you to earn per month? Why?

Cainliu:	Fuat:	Los Palos:
Around $50/ month per family: $3/ child for school per month, $40/ bag of rice and $2/ month for soap. Women need money for transport to go to the hospital in Los Palos if kids are sick as the medicine in the clinic in Iliomar is limited. If they have no money they use traditional medicine.	N/A	$5.50 per day to eat well and $165/ month

1. What are the issues for you?

Cainliu:	Fuat:	Los Palos:
N/A	N/A	When women are pregnant they can’t work but the main problem is no money

1. What are the issues for your group?

Cainliu:	Fuat:	Los Palos:
N/A	None	None

1. Are there any issues with ETWA?

Cainliu:	Fuat:	Los Palos:
N/A	The only problem is waiting for orders and money. In terms of internal relationships there are no problems.	None

1. Does weaving impact on your capacity to grow food and vice versa?

Cainliu:	Fuat:	Los Palos:
If women are weaving the men work in the garden but if there is no work they help the men. However for the widows, they have no men to help so they have to buy their food. Widow’s sons have to watch their own families.	Not really. If there are orders they will weave and if mot they join the men in the garden.	The work is divided; the women work in the garden in the morning and weave in the afternoon

1. How often do you weave?

Cainliu:	Fuat:	Los Palos:
Some women can make more tais than others because their older children can look after the younger children.	We weave for money and for adat. If there are orders they can weave for up to three weeks at a time.	If there is no work in the garden they like to weave. One woman can weave 5 – 6 selendang per month.

1. How often can you weave and when is the best time for you to weave?

Cainliu:	Fuat:	Los Palos:
The best time to weave is July- November as it’s the dry season however women have to weave all year round for adapt (tais for ceremonial use- deaths, births and marriages).	The best time to weave is August – November. There is too much rain and too much work in the garden at other times of the year.	June is not good as there is too much rain. From August on is best

1. Would you like more weaving work? How much?

Cainliu:	Fuat:	Los Palos:
Yes definitely	Yes	Yes

1. Have you been ill in the last eight months? If so what illnesses have you had?

Cainliu:	Fuat:	Los Palos:
Everyone has been ill in the last eight months. It’s a vicious cycle- if they weave they get sick but they have to keep weaving to buy medicine for their illnesses. Even if they don’t weave they still feel sick and perceive their health to be bad.	Everyone has been sick- back pain, stomach pain	Yes, malaria, sore backs and headaches.

1. What do you do when you are ill and do other members of your group support you when you are ill?

Cainliu:	Fuat:	Los Palos:
N/A	N/A	As Los Palos isn’t in a village setting it’s difficult for the women to support each other as they live far away. Your family cares for you if you are sick.

1. Does weaving make you back sore and what do you do when it is?

Cainliu:	Fuat:	Los Palos:
They rest for 20 minutes or so but constantly think about finishing the work. They weave at night by candle light but only simple designs.	They go to the public hospital in Iliomar but there is not enough medicine.	Yes, very sore. They don’t have access to traditional medicine.

1. Do you enjoy making Tais? If yes, what part do you like best?

Cainliu:	Fuat:	Los Palos:
Yes. They don’t like to focus on one thing but rather learn and do the whole process.	N/A	N/A

1. Can you read and write?

N/A

1. How many children do you have?

N/A

1. Is your husband supportive of your work and your group?

Cainliu:	Fuat:	Los Palos:
Yes	Their husbands are happy because the family has money to look after the children.	Yes. One woman said that if she is weaving her husband will fetch firewood, water etc.

1. Would you like the men in your community to be involved in your work? If so how?

Cainliu:	Fuat:	Los Palos:
Have to talk to their husbands.	Yes but not now, in the future. They group hasn’t really thought about this since Claire raised it last year.	Out of 19 women in the group there are only 5 husbands so it will be difficult to involve the men. There are 2 widows, 5 married women and the rest are single.

1. Are any of the weavers owed money? If so, how much and for how long has this money been owed to you?

Cainliu:	Fuat:	Los Palos:
N/A	N/A	ETWA always pay upfront for products. We often don’t recieve payment for 3months to 1 year from some other groups.

COMMENTS

Cainliu: One suggestion was that cotton could be grown in Iliomar near the ocean as the land is productive and the groups will be able to buy the cotton for less than they pay for the imported cotton.

Fuat: Before the group had 26 members now there are 34. It’s very important for the women to have a space to weave together but they need to discuss.

Element 2: Original Objectives	Achieved
a. Examine CTCD’s documentation, reporting and financial processes to determine if they are in accordance with previously established frameworks	YES
b. Assess to what extent the processes are/are not working in line with standard business practices and ETWA requirements	YES
c. Analyse ratio of payments to CTCD /weavers/sewers and amend if necessary	YES
d. Identify required changes to documentation/reporting/ financial processes	YES
e. Implement and train In-country administrator in documentation processes, Single Entry Bookkeeping system and preferred reporting formats	Partially

Summary of training:

Day 1

All groups including ETWA will be using the same system which is based on worldwide accepted bookkeeping practices.

As long as everything is written down there will be no confusion

The main objective is to enable each group to actively report all income and expenses, balance out books at the end of the month which will enable accurate reports to be provided.  This is the only way that ETWA will continue to support each group.

Overview of Income discussion

Income is money or in kind exchanges received by the group in any form.  Income can come in various forms for example: sales of tais and tais products to ETWA, other customers or tourists; donations; the sale of cotton to members of the group (even if no profit is made).

Overview of Expenses

Business Expenses is money spent to enable the group to conduct their business.  Expenses such as cotton purchases, transport to do group business, sewing materials and food for group meetings along with many others.

As we have put the price of the Tais up the amount paid to the KAS should also go up this will strengthen the groups for the future.

Day 2

Everyone is a little confused but that is normal.  By the end of the training it will make sense.  Today we will go through the actual process of entering the information into the ledgers.  After that there will be a small test so I can be secure that you know what you need to.