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Published: April 12th 2008
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Unfortunately this entry isn't about cars but about how I became VERY if not overly proactive this past week!!! When the myriad of travelling stopped about two weeks ago, I started brainstorming........
CEP My internship at CEP has been extraordinarily slow; such is the life of an intern. I was able to accompany Virginia and Luis to a bunch of PYMES the last few weeks to discuss this years plan for capacity training. Next week I will sit in on a marketing workshop and when they start, I will attend a few of the excel workshops. The SAER suspension system project, as mentioned in a prior blog, is at an impasse. Having received all patents, we are in the process of trying to coordinate commercialization with major companies.
Comedor Consulting Project! This project has become my life! I spend night and day researching, networking and planning for this project which will start in two weeks!!!! It has become a large consulting project, where I will travel weekly to each comedor and share ideas and strategies with two new cooperatives. I will try to teach it to women, who for the most part cannot read or write, everything from marketing
to finance! This is my biggest challenge, but I am excited for the experience! Everyone is very supportive and many have offered to help but the majority, of course, falls on my shoulders! Wish me luck!!!!
Estrategia & MTD This link is a video explaining the MTD movement. For those that cannot understand the Spanish, the pictures explain a lot.
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Estrategia is one of the Comedor cooperatives I will be working with during the training project. They are a part of the MTD movement as explained in the link above. This movement is basically fighting for unemployed workers rights. They are involved in a lot of crazy pickets and demonstrations, some forcing companies (especially those that export) to give them free goods. I was able to sit in on a members meeting, which was extremely interesting. Groups of activists and workers joined to curse the government and plan community support activities and protest marches at the same time. ( I even got a ride home from their president on his little motor bike, no helmets and weaving in and out of traffic.. but I had a ton of fun and made it home safely.. sorry mom
😞)
Estrategia is a part of MTD, but it is officially its own separate community comedor. With the help of another FSD intern, this very marginalized comedor is starting a local bakery business. They received a mixed material oven from a previous grant. This oven can use anything for fuel, including old newspapers and wood scraps mixed with grass and weeds. This business is ideal because of its location in the center of a township in the outskirts of the city and the high needs and limited resources of the area. Their bread is fantastic made from a Northern Argentine recipe and has a wonderfully unique taste. Yum!
Arco Iris, Working World and Otro Mercado http://www.theworkingworld.org/?action=market&subsection=Pet%!c(MISSING)lothes
I am so excited to have the opportunity to work with this comedor. The women of the cooperative are fantastic and so so sweet! Arco Iris already has a relatively structured system in place and new infrastructure. This comedor has set up a sewing cooperative that specializes in dog clothing but can accommodate special orders. They received a micro finance loan and bought beautiful new high-tech sewing machines, on which they have all been trained! This cooperative lacks a bit of direction and structure and is struggling to stay afloat daily. They need to learn to run it themselves and rely less on NGO assistance. Hopefully my workshops will bring them a bit closer to independence.
Working world is a fair trade and micro finance organization that is helping Arco Iris become a legitimate cooperative and financed the purchase of the sewing machines as well as the technical training. We all have great hopes for this cooperative and are trying to link them with an international fair trade importer! As of now, the dog clothes are sold online through working world. The link above shows their line of dog clothing, which is actually of fairly high quality. I was impressed by their attention to detail and concern for quality control. These outfits come in both polar fleece and cotton and vary in style. They are extremely cute and well-made so if you have a small dog click on the link above and buy some!!
Obra de Padre Cajade obradelpadrecajade.org.ar
On Monday, I will finally meet the staff of comedor Padre Cajade. This comedor was started by a priest many years ago with a focus on the apprenticeship of young street children. The father recently passed away, but his movement lived on. Through this organization he left an amazing legacy and a strong system of community support. This group has 5 successful cooperatives and 5 successful social organizations under its large NGO umbrella. I am hoping that they will provide some insight and information for the project and send a representative to speak on best practices and common problems at the final workshop.
CEP’s Role Everyone at work has become very excited about my project and wants to help! Luis, Virginia and Gabby are going to help with the workshop design and have already given me a ton of ideas and resources! Next weekend I get to spend some quality time with Virginia working on the project; she even promised to cook for me!!!
Aflatoun http://www.aflatoun.org/
I was reading the Economist one morning and came upon an article about teaching personal finance in schools. The article mentioned the Aflatoun program, which originated in India and is designed to teach children social and financial responsibility through local courses and supporting entrepreneurship projects. Sparking my interest, I searched the Aflatoun website and started reading more. Luckily, I came upon a volunteer page and found a want ad for Spanish translators!! What a great opportunity!! I wrote them and immediately received a response to complete a practice test. I have completed my first translation for them to prove my abilities. Hopefully they will approve and I can start working on more translations for them!
Spanish Lessons I’m working once a week on advancing my Spanish language and writing skills. My tutor Florencia is fantastic! She is this adorable little Argentine girl, just my height and incredibly smart and focused. During all of our last sessions, she has continued to impress me with her teaching methods. I wish I had time to meet with her more than once a week…. but as you can see from my schedule, that’s pretty impossible right now! Did I mention I have homework too??
Taebo, Fit Ball, Swim Lessons and rock hard abs!! My abs, at the moment, are extremely soar. I can barely move, but no pain no gain.. now if only I could get my host parents to cook something besides bad quality hot dogs and hamburgers then I'm golden 😉
* Random note: Argentine gyms are set up in a pick and pay system. You choose how many, what kind of activity and how many days you will go. What I thought was odd is that there is no free access to lifting machines or any other area of the gym. Basically if you do multiple activities, it becomes just as expensive as a gym in the US!!! One positive is that there are no contracts and no membership fees!
Having always been a machines, free weights and treadmill person I decided to change it up a bit and take a Taebo and Fit ball class during the week with my host mom.. The first week kicked my little butt!
I’m also taking swim lessons for 1 hr twice a week. I made a full lap on my second class!!! Pretty good for an ex-doggie paddler!
Art class with the Kids Estrategia hosted a few art workshops for the kids of the comedor. They were asked to bring plastic bottles and recycle them to create the most amazing little piñatas. I was so impressed by their creativity and their attention to detail. It was a ton of fun helping out and hopefully we will have more in the future.
END NOTE
Due to lack of time and funds, working in Chile and Mendoza will be saved for another time in my life. I have no other vacation trips planned until hiking Peru and the Inca Trail. So that means I will be in DC for July 4th!!!! Phew how time flies!!
Oh and I’m turning 25 on Tuesday!!!!
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Emily
non-member comment
Great Blog Entry
wow- what a positive blog entry! I am so impressed with your project and it sounds like you're keeping fit down there. Ready for a July race when you come back :). MISS YOU!