In the small low-income community of Toisapu, in the Maluku islands, nutmeg used to be seen as a waste fruit. Local villagers would use the nutmeg seed and its mesh, and would throw away the outer cover or the fruit itself. That all changed in 2010, when the “Sejuk Women Cooperative” came up with the […]

Common Thread is a group of sewing co-operatives that give participants the chance to build confidence, earn a decent income and participate more strongly in their communities – one stitch at a time. The not-for-profit group’s goal is to provide a flexible workplace for people with barriers to employment, like Fatemah Hasani, a new immigrant […]

The slidshow presents the Forage Tracking project, a cooperative project between the MIT senseable city lab, MIT co-lab, the University of São Paulo, and Coopamare. The Forage Tracking project is mapping the tacit knowledge and spatial organization of informal recyclers in São Paulo, Brazil, using location-detecting hardware and software to investigate how Catadores, informal recyclers […]

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is arguably one of the most vibrant cities in the world. The picturesque landscape and vivid culture is pulsating through the metropolis; a melting pot of European, African and indigenous backgrounds. However, due to rapid urbanization and sluggish market development in the early 80s, Rio de Janeiro is ridden with high […]

Savings, loans and coaching Kitunda Savings and Credit Cooperative (SACCO) began in 2002 with the aim of providing financial access for people in the area of Kitunda, Tanzania. Located approximately 20 km outside the capital Dar es Salaam, residents of Kitunda have no bank and so depend on Kitunda SACCO for their banking. The SACCO […]