Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Meet l@s Compañer@s del Intercambio!

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Sneida Hernandez lives in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, in a neighborhood called Carucieña, with her two sons Jose y Junior, and her daughter Stefany; her mother lives in a house very nearby. She currently works in an area of Ceocsesola called "Mutual Support," where she attends meetings of Cecosesola's affiliated producers, coops, and community organizations, and helps to administer and do accounting for loans for the needs of those groups. Her favorite parts of this work are the relationships she develops with a wide variety of people and the travel she does to attend meetings in many different parts of the country. She is excited to share her experience with collective decision-making and capacity building here at Cecosesola with OFC, and she is especially interested in learning how the Olympia Food Co-op is integrated within our community, and how area students participate in the life of the Co-op. Sneida has worked at Cecosesola for seven years.




Ricardo Jose Gimenez also lives on the westside of Barquisimeto, in an neighborhood called Pueblo Nuevo, with his wife Michel, daughter Wlanchel, and within a week, a brand new baby daughter! At Cecosesola, he does a little bit of everything: whatever is needed at the time. In the current mix for Ricardo is organization-wide accounting, radiology at el C.I.S.C., and work with receiving and stocking viveres in the feria.He is looking forward to sharing the unique way the Cecosesola is organized with workers at the Olympia Food Co-op, and he is especially interested in fair trade and product selection at OFC, as well as decision-making structures. He would like to learn more about the variety of ways people organize in the U.S. He is very much looking forward to exchanging ideas with those within the cooperative movement in our area as well. Ricardo has worked at Cecosesola for 13 years.





Jesus Rafael Sanchez  lives most of the week with his wife and 3 children in Barquisimeto, while spending two nights a week at Cecosesola's granja, as part of the team that cares for the fish, cows, goats, sheep, and composting operation run at this farm 45 minutes outside of town. Jesus has been a member of Cecosesola for 19 years. He has traveled on Cecosesola's behalf before, both times with fellow exchangee Ricardo, once on an exchange with members of the cooperative movement in Chiapas, Mexico, and another time as part of a U.N. delegation to help build a new cooperative in Cairo, Egypt. For Jesus, talking about Cecosesola is the same as talking about his life: Cecosesola has been such an integral part of his development as a person and a member of the cooperative movement. He is looking forward to sharing ideas and working alongside his fellow cooperators in Olympia.



Javier Jose Rojas lives in Barquisimeto with his wife, Marisol, and five children. His current rotation for work at Cecosesola is at the Centro Integral de Salud during the week and at the Feria Ruiz Pineda on the weekends. Javier has worked for Cecosesola for 21 years. One thing he loves about Cecosesola is the rotational nature of the work, how it allows for daily learning, a sense of becoming family with his co-workers, and a democratic workplace. He is interested to learn more about how and why the Olympia Food Co-op started and what our relationship is like with our community, as well as our plans for the future. He is looking forward to the mutual exchange of information he and his compañer@s  will have with workers and members at OFC, to building trust and knowledge between our organizations, and together supporting the cooperative movement at a global level.









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