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.