“Viva Feto Enginhera” our group leader shouted.
“Viva!” We all shouted back with a smile.
Walking along Beach Road in Dili, Timor Leste, the small group of ‘Women in Engineering’ (Feto Enginhira) were part of hundreds of people marching for gender equality on International Women’s day. The day celebrates the achievements of women, past, present and future. It reminds us that we have come a long way, and have a long way to go.
The ‘Women in Engineering’ (Feto Enginhera) group consists of a number of passionate Timorese women that are engineers or work in technical fields. They meet once a month to discuss empowering female engineers and raise awareness of gender equality in Timor Leste. Engineers without Borders is a proud supporter of Feto Enginhera Timor Leste.
The walk for women in Dili included men, such the Prime Minister of Timor-Leste, Dr Rui Maria de Araújo, the Australian Ambassador to Timor-Leste, Peter Doyle and several of our Engineers without Borders volunteers. The “he for she” movement is an important part of achieving gender equality.