From 1st to 14th february, as part of the agreement signed with the Poser Program – Programa para a Promoção das Oportunidades Sócio-económicas Rurais, the COOPERMONDO’ second mission took place in Cape Verde, on the island of Santiago.
Following a peer education based approach the mission was organized starting from the anthropological report realized by Dr. Rosa Tolla, who has visited the rural area of the Municipality of Santa Cruz in November 2018. The presence of the anthropologist in this phase was crucial for both the mediation in the field and the development of a training strategy appropriate to the social structure of the community of Ribeira dos Saltos.
Seven training were performed by Dr. Noemi Spagnoletti using the manual Think.Coop promoted by the International Labor Organization (ILO). Through this method, each participant analyzed cooperative principles and how to choose if a cooperative enterprise can be advantageous to improve its/her work, income and livelihood. The manual has been translated into Portuguese in order to train 15 local technicians, some of whom had the opportunity to apply the training on the field in Creole language, for a total of 40 beneficiaries (among women, men and young farmers).
At the same time, the ethnographic data collection expanded the network within the rural communities of the Municipality of Santa Cruz. During this mission, priority was given to the deepening of activity and working conditions of some local associations and cooperatives. The productors face an enormous difficulty: the lack of water due to the severe drought that has affected the country for about five years, making working conditions very difficult. Addressing the problem in groups is a valid moral support for rural communities.
“Cooperativa è uma oportunidade de transformar uma pequena coisa em uma grande coisa. Unidos somos mais forte! “- Farmer of the COOPARP cooperative.
