Previous volunteers

Mariah Branch (USA)

May 2009 – Sept 2010

Mariah came to PRIVEN as a volunteer. After assisting with our presentation at the International Prout Conference in Denmark in July 2009, she became Director of Planning and Development and worked to help the Institute become financially self sufficient. She worked on numerous projects and focused on recruiting and orienting domestic and international volunteers. She also developed and led a follow-up survey of 40 cooperatives in the Barlovento region of Venezula. She now works as a consultant for a company that she co-founded, AAMB Consulting. She can be reached at: mariah.branch[at]aambconsulting.com.

Donat Szakmary (“Dharmapala”) (Hungary)

October 2006 – December 2007http://priven.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Krystal-Tanner.jpg

He was the system administrator and accountant of the institute. But did everything that came up (fixing the roof, build lockers, change money, cook, clean the house, do the shopping, etc.), like all the other volunteers. Also a spiritual aspirant, and meditator. Actually that was his main reason to come to Venezuela, to do spiritual/volunteer work. The biggest challenge indeed was to manage the same time the activist and a spiritual life. Fortunately there was time enough for his spiritual practices which helped in the mundane life a lot. After leaving the institute the habit of everyday practice of yoga and meditation stayed which is now a base of his life. In the last years he lived in Hungary where he did ecological (architectural) design and was a founder of the social/political movement The 4th Republic. This movement is now transforming into a political party and has good perspectives to make reforms on the Hungarian left. Presently he lives in Caracas with Elluz, his Venezuelan wife (whom he met in the institute) and their baby daughter, and works as a professional architect. His message is, “There is no social change without personal development of consciousness.” His personal blog or here (in Hungarian). e-mail: donca@zpok.hu

Békefi Róbert, psychologist (Hungary)

June – September 2010

I found the staff and volunteers in the Institute very helpful and friendly. I proposed to lead a mural painting workshop for the local youth in Barlovento, and my idea was accepted and supported by Dada Maheshvarananda and Didi Ananda Sadhana. This art therapy technique was quite a success, and now colorful mural paintings decorate the walls of the Casa Communales in two small villages. The local youth also learned how they can cooperate to reach a bigger goal. I also did some construction and renovation work in the Prout Institute in Caracas. It was nice to do physical work in a truly spiritual environment. The mornings started with yoga and meditation, and after the delicious breakfast with home-made yogurt, we started to work. Cooking sometimes for the community was also part of my job, but I really enjoyed doing that as the institute has a very comfortable kitchen. I traveled around the country a bit, visited great places and got to know really friendly people. I also learned you have to be alert and follow what the locals do to avoid problems. Caracas is an overpopulated city, but the countryside is really different – where people know each other, crime is much lower. I recommend this experience to all those who feel fit to work in tropical climate and want to experience a Latin American capital. Facebook: Békefi Róbert

Allison Zaitchik (USA)

August 2010 – August 2011

Allison received her B.A. in Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2006. Before moving to Caracas in August 2010, she worked as a counselor and advocate for victims of domestic violence. She also worked at her local health food cooperative, which provided inspiration for further research on the social and economic dynamics of the cooperative model. She believes PROUT theory has much to contribute to the Bolivarian Revolution and the advance of a more just and sustainable socio-economic system worldwide. She is now doing post-graduate studies and is an intern at the University of Massachussetts Medical School, doing research on interpersonal violence, risk assessment and the effectiveness of a particular treatment program.

Hans van de Werfhorst (Netherlands)

January 2007 – September 2009

Hans (“Yogeshvara”) has known Prout since 1974. He gave the first Prout lecture in Venezuela in 1977 when he was working in South America for three years as an acarya (spiritual teacher). He returned to Venezuela in January 2007 as a volunteer in the Prout Research Institute of Venezuela, which was then located at the Ananda Marga Kindergarten in Caracas. In May 2007 he left the institute and taught private English classes in Caracas with Inlingua for a year. He returned to the Institute in April 2008 for a year and a half when the institute moved into the current premises at Quinta Prout. He participated in the official inauguration of the house, in the six-week intensive training with 21 Brazilian university students, and he attended the 2009 Global Prout Conference in Denmark. He also taught yoga classes in Yare I Prison, at the Institute and in Chacaito. Hans moved back to the Netherlands in September 2009 where he presently works in a retirement home. He hopes to return to Venezuela in August 2012. He says, “I hugely benefited from the spiritual environment of the Institute. The future is very positive with Prout, but we cannot afford to lose any more time.” He can be contacted on Facebook and Skype.

Dusty Hinz (USA)

May – June 2009

Upon finishing his last semester of college while studying abroad in Merida, Venezuela, Dusty made a month and a half stop at La Quinta Prout in Caracas before heading back to Minnesota. At PRIVEN, he helped research and formulate an outline for a radio show about cooperatives. PROUT’S philosophy of localized and regionalized economies that are environmentally sustainable was particularly intriguing to Dusty, and what he observed at the Centro Madre farm stuck with him. During the growing season of 2011 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, he and five other young people started a cooperative urban farm that supplied seventeen CSA members on a weekly basis and sold at a local farmer’s market. For a year now he has co-produced a leftist journalism program on KFAI Radio, a community-based, non-profit station. Dusty has also done some organizing for Ken Pentel of the Ecology Democracy Network, that might as well be brothers with PROUT. In October 2011 he will be moving to Philadelphttp://priven.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Krystal-Tanner.jpghia to live with his girlfriend who studies sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. He believes his generation is going to change the world. You can find him on Facebook at Dusty Hinz or e-mail at dusty.hinz@alumni.augsburg.edu.

Andy Malinalco (Hungary)

November 2006 – October 2007

He has a Masters degree in communication, literature and lingusitics. During his university studies, he got interested in the philosophy of the 20th Century, so he spent much of the next three years reading philosophy, but decided not to take courses in this subject, because his interest in literature was lost as a result of his official studies. After graduation, he worked first in a multinational corporation’s public relations department, and then as a linguist. He became involved in the Hungarian anti-capitalist movement, including a squatter group and an anarchist collective. When he was introduced to PROUT, he found it a meaningful way to unify spiritual and social development. He wrote: “Is Venezuela Heading Towards Prout?” After returning to Budapest, with another former PRIVEN volunteer, Donat Szakmary he founded in 2007 the social/political movement The 4th Republic, a popular youth movement. Currently it has 50 activists organizing events, and many hundreds of regular participants. Besides Budapest it has local groups in three other Hungarian cities: Székesfehérvár, Győr, Tatabánya. The movement’s aim is to be the cutting edge of the social and mental changes in Hungarian society towards a more cooperative, more solidary and more conscious one. It choose its name to advocate the need for a new constitution and a new compromise inside the society to the present Third Hungarian Republic which began with the fall of communism. It offers the people a powerful feeling of participation and the strong experience of the force when people move together. The tool that this initiative found is jaunty games in public places and light irony. The 4K! organized public mass games in the streets of downtown Budapest that are very popular with young people. In the first two years, they have organized 30 events, the biggest of which drew 450-500 participants. Giant mobilizations for Capture the flag, Pillow Fights, Water fights, Subway Party, Poster-hacking, etc. Watch the action on a Hungarian news program.

Aga Gral (Poland)

June – August 2011

AIESEC, the world’s largest student-run organization volunteer, helped with social media and public relations during the First Global Prout Convention in Venezuela in July 2011.

Paula Busto (Argentina)

March – May 2011

AIESEC volunteer.

Carla Ferreira (Portugal)

July – November 2010

A professional journalist, she wrote: “Cooperatives with no positions”.

Dave Heighway (Canada)

March – June 2007

“I came to Venezuela to complete an internship for school – I wanted to study the explosion of cooperatives and also the 21st Century Socialism of the Chavez government – that’s when I found the Prout Research Institute in Caracas. On a practical level, it’s exciting to be working with the cooperatives – to be building a real alternative to capitalism.” Dave lives in Pemberton, British Columbia. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Queen’s University in Canada and a Masters of Social Science – Development and International Relations at Aalborg University in Denmark.

Leonardo Rafael Facioni Marques (Brasil)

April – November 2010

“After graduating in psychology, I decided to move to the institute as a volunteer. The almost 8 months I stayed there were full of learning. Venezuela is a very peculiar country in the political aspect and the cultural exchange between volunteers from different countries, as well as sharing the same house with all were, undoubtedly, learning experiences that will keep with me forever. I suggest that new volunteers should visit the cooperative CECOSESOLA in Barquisimeto.”

Brian Landever (USA)

March – October 2007

After having left his high school teaching position with Accelerated Schools in Denver, Colorado, Brian Landever found his way home to the Prout Research Institute of Venezuela after traveling thousands of miles throughout Latin America. He joined Prout specifically to explore how working for the creation of economic democracy and localized economic decentralization can contribute to his Buddhist desires of being of benefit to all beings. He participated in the Peace Conference in the Ministry of Defense in 2007, and he was the one who found the house that eventually became Quinta Prout. Afterwards he did a Masters Degree in Economics and Community Currencies at New School in New York.

Demian Enrique zur Strassen (Peru-Germany)

November 2007 – January 2008

Psychologist, author of “Los Cuatro Hechos de la Comunicación Consciente“.

Ron M. Baseman (USA)

(Worked from home)

A computer scientist specializing in security and the introduction of new technologies. He lives with his wife Diana, an educator, near New York City where they have raised and home schooled 10 children. He has published articles on a number of topics, including “What makes co-ops successful?” and has started and participated in several consumer cooperatives over the last 40 years. He can be reached at: nynarayan@yahoo.com. See his website, dedicated to freedom, spirituality and education.

Krystal Tanner (USA)

June – August 2007

Krystal studied Neoliberalism and Democracy in Latin America at University of Michigan–Flint and was therefore interested in Venezuela, PROUT and the work they were doing with Cooperatives. She took part in the production of the documentary about Barlovento during her stay. She now lives in San Francisco, California with her beautiful child, where she assists the reunification of children who have been placed in foster care with their families.

Thales José Carneiro “Taraka” (Brazil)

Feb – May 2007

Tarak was born in Minas Gerais, Brasil. He is a professional in telecomunications and was introduced to Prout in 2004. As a Brazilian activist, he feels inspired to search for ways to implement the ideas of Prout. “I am ready to fight for this cause through the vision of Prout, and help develop a world in which my children and grand children will be comfortable and proud to live.”