Since 2000, the non-profit community center Centro Madre has been serving five impoverished rural villages near San Jose, Barlovento with education, health, agriculture and economic development projects. In addition, every year Centro Madre has celebrated Christmas and Children's Day by organizing dramas, theater, music, games, dance, and handicraft activities in the villages. These programs are designed to help people realize that, in spite of adverse and sometimes traumatic circumstances in their lives caused by poverty, violence and discrimination, they have the power to transform themselves and learn to use their full potential.
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“The Importance of Cultural Identity to Empower People: The Example of Barlovento” by Didi Ananda Sadhana, (Netherlands-Venezuela) Director, Centro Madre, Barlovento, Venezuela. Listen to the English audio file or audio file in Spanish. – Read the original Spanish presentation.by Dada Maheshvarananda
Solidarity, cooperation, and community empowerment are positive values promoted in Venezuela in contrast to the individualism and selfishness promoted by the corporate-owned mass media. Cooperatives are quietly transforming people's values in Venezuela, and the rest of the world, though they have been mostly ignored by the mass media and by many political leaders, too.
Solidarity, cooperation, and community empowerment are positive values promoted in Venezuela in contrast to the individualism and selfishness promoted by the corporate-owned mass media. Cooperatives are quietly transforming people's values in Venezuela, and the rest of the world, though they have been mostly ignored by the mass media and by many political leaders, too.The International Cooperative Alliance defines a cooperative as "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise.” Worker cooperatives develop trust, solidarity, and teamwork.
Because cooperatives promote socialist values, it is natural that the Bolivarian government once promoted cooperatives in Venezuela; what is surprising is that now it does not.
Panel 5: “The Creative Force of Community: Women, Identity, Health and Consciousness.” Translation of questions and answers. Facilitator: Lelia Delgado, anthropologist, author. July 9, 2011. Listen to the audio file in Spanish. - Read the Spanish text.
“The Solidarity Economy and Self-Management: Principle of Communal Power” by Claudio Nascimento, (Brazil) Historian, activist, popular educator, author of several essays on self-management and the Solidarity Economy. Cabinet member of President Lula da Silva, member of the National Secretariat for Solidarity Economy of President Dilma Rousseff. Listen to the audio file in English or audio file in Portuguese and Spanish. - Read the Spanish translation.
Letter from the Director:
Centro Madre's agriculture project has developed wonderfully during the last six months. With the help of a loan from the Ministry of Agriculture (FONDAS) of Bs.F. 75,000 (about US$9,000), we built a large, new house for the chickens that is 72 square meters, plus we fenced in an additional 450 square meters where they can freely roam. We have 100 young chickens which will start laying eggs in three months.
"Prout and the creation of a socioeconomic system that reconciles justice with freedom, and which is very different from both capitalism and Stalinist type of communism" by Carlos Molina Camacho, a former National Superintendent of Cooperatives, Professor of Cooperative Law in Post Graduate courses at the Central University of Venezuela (UCV). Member of the Bolivarian Society of Venezuela. Author of several books on cooperatives and Bolivarian Values for Young People of the 21st Century. Listen to the English audio file.
by Dada Maheshvarananda
President Hugo Chávez dedicated his life to the poor people of Venezuela. He transformed their lives and transformed their country.
On March 6, the day after his death, I spent 11 hours waiting with friends to pay my respects as his body was slowly transported through the city. It took much longer than expected, as hundreds of thousands of people filled the streets and the giant stadium where the procession ended to get a glimpse of the passing casket. The crowds sang and clapped along with popular songs about “El Comandante”, shouting: "Chávez lives, the struggle continues!" "The people united will never be defeated!" “I am Chávez!” When the body finally arrived at night in the National Military Academy for viewing, the line of people waiting was more than two kilometers (one mile) long!
Why did so many people go? Why were they willing to wait so long? And instead of being a somber occasion with everyone dressed in black, why did so many wear bright red T-shirts, or headbands with the national colors, and why were they singing and shouting slogans?