Following local elections held across the country in 2005, thousands of newly elected village representatives faced the challenge of learning about their roles and the laws of their new country. In Oecusse, Fatu Sinai Foundation of Oecusse (Fundação Fatu Sinai de Oecusse, FFSO) has focused on the need to help local representatives understand Timor-Leste's legal system. Under its most recent funding from USAID's Small Grants Program, FFSO has delivered training about the new government’s justice system in four villages in Oecusse.

FFSO lawyers provided information to approximately 300 participants about formal procedures for police arrests, rules about 72-

hour detentions and investigations, rights of suspects and victims, and the differences between criminal and civil justice systems. Joao Ndun, one of the FFSO trainers, said, "After we provided legal education, people can understand the difference between civil and criminal cases. They know which cases need to be reported to police and which cases can be solved through mediation." Most of the participants are recently elected village council members, and the training sessions were delivered in Baikenu, the local language of Oecusse.

In his opening remarks at the training session, Village Chief Simão de Carvalho of Bene Ufe asked his council members to make use of the opportunity to learn about the legal procedures because, as elected community leaders, they would sometimes be engaged in solving some of the problems in their village.

FFSO was established by Oecusse residents in 1999. During the United Nations transition period in Timor-Leste, FFSO helped resolve humanitarian problems and promoted human rights and democracy in Oecusse district. After independence, the group also took over some of the activities of refugee support organizations, including repatriation assistance, distribution of food and supplies, and monitoring.

Since January 2004, FFSO has also provided advocacy and legal aid services, and it provides direct assistance to people who cannot access legal information or legal services. FFSO’s presence has helped support the formal justice system in the isolated enclave of Oecusse, which lies wholly within Indonesian West Timor. To date, FFSO's four lawyers have dealt with 83 cases, 70 of which have already been adjudicated. At least 100 clients have received legal aid services from FFSO in the past 2 years.

USAID’s Small Grants Program supports numerous local groups throughout the country to provide village level training in formal justice procedures, the difference between civil and criminal cases and their rights as citizens. Building on a series of five USAID grants since 2001, FFSO provides legal education to the people in rural areas who have no access to legal information to understand their rights and responsibilities as citizens.

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