1.
Introduction
on the one hand, can be a
potential asset to the country’s development but on the other hand, can become
an impediment to its very development. Due to this fact, investments for the
development of the youth sector should be treated as a matter of priority and
considered highly strategic for the State of the Democratic Republic of
Timor-Leste. Many Hands One Nation (MAHON) Foundation is a non-profit youth-led
organization that established to engage fellow young Timorese people to help
each other through different creative ways. It is a powerhouse when it comes to
one important word, “MAHON” which is SHADE in English; it has helped thousands
of Timorese young people using minimal resources in Dili within
In 2015, MAHON was formally
initiated by young committed person “Jose de Jesus, 33 years old, Master Degree
on Education Management and more than 13 years working with Civil Society
Movements, Youth Development, Community Development, Climate Change, Tourism
and Peace from local to global levels and advocacy for education policy changes
around SDG4 education 2030 and other SDGs.
The main constituency of
MAHON Foundation is the Youth especially those who living in the rural areas
and marginalized conditions (early marriage, unemployed, disability, gender
base violence victims and LGBTI).
2. Timor-Leste Youth Context
Timor-Leste is a country
that has established its own vision to become an upper middle-income country by
2030. It is a country where the majority of the population is youth which, on
the one hand, can be a potential asset to the country’s development but on the
other hand, can become an impediment to its very development. Due to this fact,
investments for the development of the youth sector should be treated as a
matter of priority and considered highly strategic for the State of the
Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste.
The Timor-Leste National
Youth Policy defines Youth as young people aged 15 to 24 years. It also decides
to use this age bracket of 15 to 24 to refer to all young women and men, married
and unmarried. This age group is further disaggregated into adolescents (15-19)
and young adults (20- 24). The definition was chosen to reflect that the State
also recognizes that adolescence is an important stage in youth development and
is different from other age groups. Adolescents experience life differently
from young adults; similarly young adults have different needs in life compared
with adolescents.
MAHON
recognizes that investing on youth and women are the key for development, peace
for social change. Therefore, MAHON’s works are mostly from youth, by youth,
for youth.
3.
Organizational
Affiliations
1.
Full member of South East
Asia Regional Youth Advocacy Network (SYAN) 2021
2.
Full member of Asia South
Pacific Association for Basic and Adult Education (ASPBAE) 2019
3.
Involved in the SDG working
group in Timor-Leste 2019
4.
Full member of Asia Pacific
Network for Environmental Defenders (APNED) 2019
5.
Fully registered at the
Ministry of Justice Timor-Leste as a legal national foundation – 2017
6.
Registered at Forum ONG
Timor Leste (FONGTIL) – 2016
7.
Founding member, Lead
Organization and full Member of Civil Society Education Partnership (CSEP) –
2017-2018
8.
Member of Agriculture
Network (HASATIL) in Timor-Leste 2017
4. Our Management policies and Systems
MAHON is just started in
2015, but it has very good operational systems that regulated all the
management controls at MAHON such as;
1.
Finance Policy that regulate all the financial transaction control
2.
Child Protection
Policy
3.
Human Resource Policy
4.
Gender Equality and
Social Inclusions (GESI) policy
5.
Database
6.
Procurement
Systems
