Lake Atitlán lies in the remote Guatemalan highlands. The extraordinary beauty of the lake and the three volcanoes which almost appear to stand guard is in contrast to the poverty in which many of its indigenous people live. Luisa Rosario Xicay Tacaxoy is head of the Artesanas Atitlán Cooperative in one of the indigenous villages […]
Tenants unite to become owners
On the 27th of January 2000, after only weeks of rash preparation and planning, 51 tenants from the more than 100 year old buildings that make up the Bremer Höhe in Berlin, Prenzlauer Berg, founded the Bremer Höhe Housing Cooperative. The concept behind this new cooperative was to prevent the sale of the historically protected […]
A co-op haven for restoration and conservation
For a team of art lovers, the restoration work at hand becomes a source of major satisfaction. One starts off with a filthy wall with dirt and surface damage which as it is being documented, studied and conserved finds its way back to its strengthened and uncovered original splendor, explains Agatha Grima, director of the […]
Health Is More Than a Prescription
The streets surrounding the Coomsocial basic-care health clinics bustle with activity: buses and taxies pull up to curbs, trucks deliver supplies, merchants sell to throngs of customers. The clinics are a hub of all this activity. Taxi drivers, bus companies, food vendors, medical suppliers, and many other small businesses depend on the traffic of patients […]
COOP Jednota sets the pace in Slovakia
There is an old Slovak saying, gold without wisdom is but clay. The same saying could be said to apply to the COOP Jednota, Slovakias largest domestic retail chain. Through the control and oversight of its member base it has been able to expand through a growth strategy implemented in 1990 and followed through with […]
The Amazon’s Unexpected Chocolatiers
The indigenous Kichwa live deep in Ecuadors Amazonian rainforest, a region whose particular climate and geology conditions are ideal for growing cacao, especially the rare Cacao Nacional variety, prized for its floral, fruity, black peppery flavor. But for years, the beans fetched meager prices about 20 cents a pound as the Kichwa sold their harvest […]
Saving the Potatoes of the Andes
The potato was originally domesticated around the shores of Lake Titicaca, and the Andes are still home to thousands of potato varieties. Potatoes here come in a rainbow of colours: red, pink, purple, yellow, orange, black, blue. This invaluable wealth of genetic diversity is at risk from increasing agricultural standardization and climate change, but a […]
The Sweet Scent of Community Empowerment
Get close to a tourist in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and you might catch the light fragrance of lavender. Ask them about it and they will describe the finely packaged bars of soap in their hotel room and the delicate aroma that lingers with them throughout the day. Drive a short distance up the […]
Saving the Village Pub
Early in 2011 a group of about 100 residents of the Cumbrian village of Crosby Ravensworth, in the Lakes Districts Lyvennet Valley, gathered in the village hall. At issue was the impending closure of the parish’s only remaining pub, the Butcher’s Arms. In the hall that night a vote was taken to save the pub. […]
Growing from nothing to the fastest growing medical clinic in the province
December 2001, Argentina. The Argentine economy is in ruins, the peso-denominated bank accounts of its middles classes have been frozen in the corralito as it is colloquially referred to, while the foreign-denominated bank accounts of its wealthy elite are protected. Downtown in Argentinas second largest city, Córdoba, a private medical clinic is on its last […]