Mother's Day in East Timor

East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. Colonized by Portugal in the 16th century, East Timor was known as Portuguese Timor for centuries. It was invaded by Indonesia in 1975, which occupied it until 1999.

East Timorese women usually have between 6 to 7 children on average, and based on a UN study, it was found that among those women that were between ages 20 to 24 almost more than half of them had at least one child, and of those, 60 percent had their first child before they were 19. A lot of the East Timorese women were teen mothers and dropped out of high school due to the responsibilities and pressure from having a child. In 2010 the government finally made a new policy that will focus on getting and keeping young mothers in school.