IOM will today launch Timor-Leste's first ever television soap
opera – or telenovela – designed to promote public
dialogue about community conflict issues.

Suku Hali ("Shade-Tree Neighbourhood") will broadcast every
Friday at 18.30 over the next 20 weeks on Timor-Leste's national TV
station TVTL.

The telenovela, which is the first major Tetun-language soap
opera, addresses social issues associated with the 2006 crisis when
communal violence displaced over 100,000 people from their homes,
mainly in the capital, Dili.

Suku Hali is a drama written to appeal to a broad audience and
follows the fortunes of two orphans who migrate to the city and
struggle to understand their new environment.

The story uses realism to encourage audience identification but
is built around two themes – "Everything is interconnected"
and "You must choose your Future" – to create a positive
story that promotes peace and reconciliation.

The project, which was funded by the European Commission
Stability Instrument, addresses many of the issues still affecting
Timorese society in the wake of the conflict, including land
disputes, youth disaffection and unemployment, demographic shifts,
population pressures and factionalism.

For more information, please contact:

Katharine Bryant

IOM Dili

Tel: +670 723 0254 

E-mail:  "mailto:kbryant@iom.int">kbryant@iom.int

or

Toby Gibson

Tel: +670 747 3909

E-mail: "mailto:tgibson@iom.int">tgibson@iom.int