Donations Sought for Timor Leste Tobacco Use Prevention Project:

Tobacco use is a significant and preventable cause of health problems. It is rapidly increasing in Timor-Leste which now has one of the world’s highest rates of male smoking.  As yet there have been few tobacco prevention efforts in Timor-Leste. Many Hands International (MHI), a not for profit community organization in Timor, in collaboration with the Faculty of Health at Deakin University has supported  Mr Thomas Lopes as the first Health Promotion Officer to work on preventing tobacco use in Timor-Leste. In 2015 Mr Lopes played a leading role setting up the Timor-Leste National Alliance for Tobacco Prevention (in partnership with the World Health Organisation and the Timor-Leste Ministry of Health) that has now successfully encouraged the first Tobacco Control Laws to be implemented in Timor Leste.

The Ministry of Health Timor Leste requested assistance from Thomas in 2016 to complete public opinion and consultation research to contribute to the launch of their first QUIT campaigns. Thomas also initiated a training course in health promotion relevant to tobacco use prevention, completed negotiations to settle the constitution and annual plan for the Timor-Leste National Alliance for Tobacco Prevention and helped develop strategically planned tobacco use prevention projects and evaluation strategies.

2017 Program support for Quit Tobacco Groups in East Timor

Deakin and Many Hands International are seeking funding support from individuals and community groups to continue the vital work of developing and implementing tobacco prevention strategies across Timor Leste by supporting Thomas’ to pilot tobacco quit groups in Dili and Lospalos. The proposed quit groups will use evidence-based motivational interviewing strategies to recruit smokers,

proven behaviour change and social influence methods to increase quit smoking motivation, financial planning support and bank accounts to save money gained by quitting and Deakin support to evaluate project methods. If successful the Timor Leste Tobacco Quit Group Model will be suitable to disseminate across Asia. 

To contact Thomas on the Tobacco Use Prevention Project: refer Facebook icon

View Many Hands International other projects:

http://www.aliansanasionaltl.com

http://manyhands.org.au/