Dili, June 16, 2026 (Media Democracia) – The Timor-Leste Disability Association ADTL held its 28th quarterly meeting with the theme “Together Strengthening the Voices of People with Disabilities”. The meeting brought together members from all municipalities to evaluate last quarter’s work, share experiences, and discuss strategies on how to strengthen participation and inclusion of people with disabilities in the national development process. This activity held on Monday this week (15/06).
According to the Executive Director of the Timor-Leste Disability Association (ADTL), Cesario da Silva, this quarterly meeting focuses mainly on ADTL’s institutional development and its important role in supporting member organizations.
“At today’s quarterly meeting we first look at ADTL’s institutional development. ADTL’s important role is to support member organizations, especially institutional development. We have made an investment and will soon launch that investment on member organizations capacity. So ADTL’s members, from the reports, show that they are starting to have sufficient capacity in terms of organizational management. There are members who now have sufficient capacity to be able to help other members.”
He also emphasized that ADTL has identified members who really need support from ADTL through the mechanisms it has.
“We also identified some members who really need support from ADTL and we created a mechanism to respond to members. So we look for members who have strong capacity to support members who are just starting out, especially in terms of institutional development.” said the Executive Director of the Timor-Leste Disability Association (ADTL) at the MTC Hall (15/06/2026).
In addition, the ADTL Executive Director stated that strong policy starts from the RDTL Constitution Article 21 which talks about the rights of people with disabilities. Policies must be introduced and the convention on the rights of people with disabilities must be ratified.
“In relation to the development of disability inclusion issues in Timor-Leste, the success we can mention, especially in implementation, is that we have a very strong policy starting from the RDTL Constitution Article 21 which introduces the rights of people with disabilities. We started introducing various policies, and on top of that we ratified the convention on the rights of people with disabilities. The success we see, for example, is that today everyone thinks that people with disabilities are important in the national development process, so many communities have started talking about the rights of people with disabilities.” affirmed the Executive Director of the Timor-Leste Disability Association ADTL.
On the other hand, the Executive Director of the Human Capital Development Fund (FDCH) Julio Aparicio said he does not agree with the word “deficient” because all people are the same.
“We think it’s their right, we have to see everyone as equal. I’m not very fond of words that say ‘deficiency’ because we all have our own deficiencies, because I don’t like talking about that. Since my mandate when I came in, I’ve thought about disability, so in 2024 we made a budget plan that included study scholarships for people with disabilities. They said I’m just a normal person, that’s why this year 2025 we added 20 more slots for people with disabilities. But we will still consider the proposals we receive, and if possible we will take care of them and going forward, just like the reality that disability organizations do.” added FDCH Executive Director Julio Aparicio.
ADTL will place the main issues that call members’ attention to come together, especially to unify forces to do joint advocacy for the rights of people with disabilities. So in this 28th meeting period, members came to discuss what priorities really need to be advocated and the continuation of advocacy, especially on disability inclusion issues in Timor-Leste.
Reporting: Trainees Novita and Leozalia
Photo: Trainee Novita