Timor Aid is a Timorese national non-governmental organization (NGO) founded in 1998. In January 1999, prior to the August 1999 Referendum, Timor Aid opened its office in Dili, to work as humanitarian agency with the mission to safeguard Identity, Justice, and Prosperity for the Timorese. In the post-Referendum period, 1999-2002, Timor Aid was the leading organisation in Emergency delivery, implementing 60% of the Shelter Program, funded by UNHCR in four Districts of Timor-Leste (Ainaro, Covalima, Manufahi and Viqueque) which 80% of its infrastructure destroyed by the Indonesian military withdrawal across the land borders with Timor-Leste.

Timor Aid has worked in partnership with the Secretary of State for Arts and Culture (SEAC) since 2013 to safeguard the tradition of tais making and its documentation within the scope of Cultural Preservation Heritage. As a result, we produced documentation about Tais in the form of Catalogues from eight Municipalities: Covalima, Lautém, Baucau, Bobonaro, Oé-cusse, Ainaro, Viqueque and Ermera. The Catalogues for the municipalities of Manatuto and Manufahi are in the production phase. TA held several Tais exhibitions nationally and internationally. The main achievements in this sector were the collaboration with Jakarta Textile Museum on the exhibition and tais catalogue “the Art of Futus/ Ikat (2013), with Fowler Museum in Switzerland (2016), to identify cultural objects from Timor-Leste, specifically from the region of Baguia, Baucau municipality, with UCLA (US ) in cooperation with the tais catalogue “The Land In The Woven Sea” by Roy Hamilton and Joanna Barrkman, and in 2014 collaboration with Charles Darwin University Gallery, the exhibition “The sculptures of Ataúro Island” in Darwin, Australia. A major Tais exhibition is planned for 2027, during the 11th Asia Pacific Triennial (APT11) at Queensland Art Gallery / Modern Art Gallery, Australia.

Timor Aid has the biggest collection of tais samples from the entire country, including accumulation of its meta data. We are the key organization in Timor-Leste which can provide study based information regarding tais from Timor–Leste. The process of its dissemination has taken place trough exhibitions and tais publications.

In 2015, Timor Aid presented a concept paper to UN Women Timor-Leste about the creation of the Weavers Network for the empowerment of rural women. Starting in 2019, UNW, Timor Aid and the Alola Foundation formed a partnership to establish Weavers’ Network in Oé-cusse RAEOA, Covalima, Bobonaro and Lautém. In 2023, two more weavers network were created in the municipalities of Baucau and Viqueque.  There are currently around 600 members of the Weavers Network in the six Municipalities. They received training in capacity building, leadership, ownership, economic empowerment, gender advocacy, and preservation of the weaving heritage. The partnership continues to provide mentoring to groups of weavers on standard tais quality and control to meet market demand.

Timor Aid is a member of the National Committee for Intangible Cultural Heritage of Timor-Leste, supporting the registration of the traditional textile weaving (Tais) with UNESCO. (Other committee members include TL’s Secretary of State for Arts and Culture (SEAC), Ministry of Tourism, Commerce and Industry (MTCI), Secretary of State for Equality and Inclusion (SEII), USAID Tourism for All, UN Women and The Alola Foundation. The Committee and Timor-Leste weavers jointly developed a national safeguarding plan for the preservation of traditional Tais production, certification, access to market through the Tourism chain, and support for TL weavers. Timor Aid’s specific responsibilities in the UNESCO funded Tais Safeguarding Plan project are research on tais, documentation, exhibitions, and the implementation of the Tais Certification System International Workshop, which was held on 24-25 October 2023.

The overall objective of Timor Aid Cultural Program is to establish a Uma Tais Museum complete with the tais ecosystem, by the end of 2030.