A Word on Cooperatives

Sometimes I reflect on the people I have met and the things I have seen here in South Africa and Swaziland, and it simply overwhelms me.  From the top of the socio-economic ladder, to the bottom.  I feel so privileged to get exposure to the world in this manner, and these past 6 months have included the most tangible educational experiences of my life. On March 5th & 6th I was given yet another fascinating opportunity.  Steve de Vos (mentioned in my October 8th blog entry), a retired chemistry professor and current graduate student in Management Sciences, invited me to join him in visiting a number of micro-enterprises spread throughout the Gauteng and Free State provinces.  Escorted by Anna, Puleng and Sam, we visited 14 different small businesses operating as cooperatives, which included textiles, art/crafts, recycling, gardens/farms, catering, taxi-operation, laundry, etc.  The slide-show gives you an idea of some of the products and people in these cooperatives.
 These are the people that give you hope.  They have virtually nothing, but they risk it anyway to start something…something that they hope can provide for their basic needs and maybe even more for their families. 
 The entity called the “cooperative” is not a term we hear in the states that often.  Even though they exist (credit unions are a form of cooperatives), the terminology will be different because of the hesitation we have of being associated with anything socialistic.  As my friend, Steve, has helped me understand, here in South Africa they can be a very useful instrument to play a role in uplifting the lowest on the socio-economic ladder here in South Africa.  Internationally (some of the most successful are in Spain, Italy, & Holland), a cooperative is defined “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.”  Basically, it is an entity (no less than 5 members here in South Africa) that is democratically controlled (each member has one vote) that exists to provide employment and serve the community.  The lifestyle of the township is very social and communal, and the cooperative ends up matching better with the culture than a top down controlled corporation that often takes profits outside of the community.  In the end, it seems the cooperative can also build a bridge between the third-world and the first-world by providing employment, training, education, etc to a point where they can then seek employment in larger companies if so desired.