Project "Be the change"

Week 2

In this week (Saturday, june 13), my friends and I visit the cooperative Detodas in order to start our advise. We decided to start with: Customer Service, as a topic for the training. For this week, we prepared some material in order to teach the topic like: slides related to Customer Service, some activities in order to make the socias apply and relate the theory of the advice with the practice and also to make them be active during the advice. Also, we bring some snacks to give them at the end of the advice.

When we arrived the cooperative, I have to say that I didn’t expect a great number of participants (socias). But I was wrong. There where 15 socias waiting for our advice!! I was really nervous because there was the first time that I give an advice. Fortunately, the socias made me feel comfortable from the start. First, I introduced myself and I explained again our purpose of the advice: Help the socias to develop themselves, by giving them advice about different topics or subjects, in order to contribute to their business. Then, my friends started to introduced themselves, and so did the socias. Our first activity of the Customer Service advice, was a dynamic called: The puzzle. It consist that each participant received a piece with a mathematical operation in one side, and a part of a phrase in the other side. They had to resolve the operation, and the answer of it was the number of the envelope each one had to open. Inside the envelopes where many questions related to Customer Service that each socia had to answer in front of the other participants. After answering the question, the social had to paste their piece on the board. At the end of the socia’s interventions, there was the following sentence: “La clave del éxito depende solo de lo que podamos dar de la mejor manera posible”. This activity made the socias be more comfortable and active, and also made them express their ideas and points of view about the topic. Also, this activity helped us to know about how much the socias knew about Customer Service, in order to focus the advice in the things that weren’t clear or known by the participants.

Then, we showed the socias some slides of the advice, and explained them some concepts about internal and external customer and the differences between them. Later, we made other activity with the socias, where they had to create a play, representing a problem related with Customer Service and a solution for that, using the concepts from the slides about internal and external customer. I have to say that all the socias participated on this activity and enjoyed it as my friends and me. They integrated the concepts so well that showed us that they really understand what we explained on the slides.


Finally, we showed them in the slides, some tips that the socias could apply to improve the way they relate and serve the internal and external customers in their own business. The tips were very simply but with huge results.

For me, the social action that we done on this week was related to come concepts from the Society and role of the individual class. In my opinion, our advice about Customer Service meant a transformation on the cognitive maps and knowledge of the socias, because when we start the advice, we notice that they didn´t know the difference between internal and external customer and how to treat each one, but at the end of the advice, we prove that the socias change their perceptions about the types of customer, which implies a transformation and development of their knowledge.Also I have to say that this social action (our advice) is related to Investigation of truth, because it implies a thrist that individuals have for knowledge, which shapes moral purpose. I was very surprised because I could see the thrist for knowledge from the socias and their will to learn. The advice looks for learn more things, and to learn more allows the socias make better decisions and act according to what they know and believe and of course, it will contribute to their own development and also their business

Project "Be the change"

Week 1

My first week, doing social action was very interesting. It was Saturday in the morning when I visit with other friends the Cooperativa Detodas in order to start our social project. I have to say that I was very nervous but at the same time, very excited because I was going to meet some socias and explain them what I want to do during my project.

We arrived at nine o’clock. Little by little the socias were getting to the Cooperativa and we started to talk with them about many stuffs: First, we explain them why we were there and our goals : bring support and advice to their business and give them training about some interesting topics in order to contribute to their development. Also we ask them about their experiences as socias, what changes in their lifes they have to face since they became socias and also we talk about their business. There were five socias ( Susana Valenzuela, Mirella Tigrero, Mariana Alcocer, Mavia Zamora and Teresa Garcia) telling us their stories that for me, are a clear and excellent example of perseverance and overcoming. One of the stories that really shock me was Susana’s. She told that their husband never wanted to support to her education and development. She got married very young so she couldn’t finish high school. But when her children became teenagers she decided that was a great time to go back to high school. Unfortunately, her husband wasn’t agree with her idea and started to tell her things that made her lose self-esteem . However, these problems were not an obstacle to have education, so she decided to study without telling anything to her husband and because of that she could reach one of her goals: to graduate. Also she told that the Cooperativa made her realize that she was competent and she could achieve any goal that she has proposed .

After listen their amazing experiences and stories we asked them what kind of subjects or topics they wanted to learn in order to improve their lifes and business, so with these information we could start the training and advice the next week. They told us that they wanted to learn about marketing and customer service, also about English, science computer and etiquette.
The purpose in this meeting was to know about the socias and also to detect their needs in order to direct in a better way our training and advice and give them a real and important support for their business.

For me, this first experience in my social project was related with some things from the Society and the role of the individual class. After we meet the socias, my friends and me started to create a discourse. Seeing the necessities and problems of the socias we started to communicate each other and we studied the problems in order to make decisions about what is the best to teach and what we can do to improve and help the socias´s business. Also I think this experience and project is a good example of discourse on social action because it implies commitment, rigor and discipline from myself. This social action requires an examination and study of the social space, it means where I am going to train the socias; this project can´t be superficial, it has to be important not only for the socias also for me, it has to create significant changes for the women I will advise and in my role as a socially responsible person.

Finally, I have to say that this first experience with the socias of the Cooperativa Detodas, impels, promote and requires two kinds of knowledge: generating knowledge, because I want to resolve the problems and necessities that the socias have in their business and also in their lifes, and application knowledge, which means that I have to apply my knowledge about many issues or subjects in order to teach and contribute to the socias´s business.