As part of its efforts to encourage youth participation in co-operatives, the Puerto Rico movement organised a six-day youth exchange programme with a group of young co-operators from the Dominican Republic.
Ten young co-operators from the country took part in a series of workshops and seminars and visited local co-operatives throughout March. The exchange programme, promoted through the Youth Regional Committee of ICA Americas, was organised jointly by Iván Otero, President of the Co-operative League of Puerto Rico; Eider Sánchez, president of the Youth National Committee of the Dominican Republic; and Carlos Medrano, president of the Youth Regional Committee of ICA Americas.
The six-day event also featured a presentation from Dhalia Torres Valentin from the Co-operative League of Puerto Rico, concerning the Law 220 on Youth Co-operatives. The law has played a crucial role in the development of youth co-operatives. As required by the Law 220, the Department for Co-operative Development is responsible for organising and supervising workshops on social enterprises in both public and private schools and within local communities. The law also mentions young people who want to create their own youth co-operatives should be provided with a space where they can base the premises of their enterprise.
Participants said the event was a very useful experience that helped them to find out more about youth co-operatives and co-operatives in schools, while sharing experiences and best practices.
Carlos Medrano, President of the Youth Regional Committee of ICA Americas, said the visitors gained a wealth of knowledge from this project: “We have learned a lot, from how to create them, to how to get young people involved in them. It was a very useful of experience as in the Dominican Republic we have many young people that are leaders within and outside of their co-operatives.”
Mr Medrano, who is also a member of Coopnama, a co-operative that offers various services to those working in education, said that although youth co-operatives have been created in the Dominican Republic for a very long time, these efforts have only recently started to be co-ordinated through a complex co-operative educational programme.
“Co-operatives in schools were mainly created by teachers that know a lot about co-operatives or by students that were already engaging with the co-op movement or were members of a co-operative.” Mr Medrano added that although co-operation is not currently taught in schools in the Dominican Republic, he believes this will happen soon, as more and more young people are becoming interested in co-operatives.
The young Dominican co-operators taking part in the event also said they will work together with the Department of Youth Co-operatives of the Ministry of Education with the aim of creating more co-operative enterprises in schools across the Dominican Republic, following the examples set up by Puerto Rico.
Eider Sánchez, President of the Youth National Committee of the Dominican Republic, said the Youth National Council of the Dominican Republic is also engaging with co-operative movements from Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Curacao, Cuba or Nicaragua. He commented: “Each year we elaborate an agenda in which we develop activities of various types, from workshops, seminars, congresses and entertaining activities for amusement, scholarships and exchange programmes at both national and international level.”
Photo: The ten young co-operators from the Dominican Republic at the six-day apprenticeship.
