Alistair Ruiters | 19 November 2024
After two years of participating in numerous workshops, update meetings, hearing unfamiliar voices, blurred and broken online images that flashed across my computer screen as yet another online meeting was interrupted with “can you hear me”or “put your mic on mute” this past Saturday I
finally had the privilege of attending an in person meeting of the We Care project. I was anxious to place faces to the voices and wondered how the members of the project would receive me.
My anxieties were misplaced. I was warmly received and managed to consume some lovely snacks and coffee before the session started. The members sitting around the room were dressed in their finest clothes, a mixture of church, formal dresses, and traditional wear. I was glad that I had put on a collared shirt. Proceedings kicked off with introductions that focused mainly on why the project was started and the progress that had been made to date. Much of this we had heard before. The best was yet to come as the new executive/ management team was introduced and each member of the team spoke of their growing confidence and reliance on the rest of the members for support.
Personally I felt the moment seemed lost on all. At least from the comments that were made. This moment in the life of any co-op, I believe needs to be recognised and celebrated. what I witnessed was the passing of the baton. the team from UWC had over the past two years worked with the coop members and successfully empowered them to now take control, decide, manage and forge their own destiny as a collective. Some coops are stuck in a dependency cycle. A dependency on the support organisation to manage the co-op. Here today the dependency cycle was broken and members were taking ownership and control – this is one of the cornerstones of the co-op principles.
I was moved as I saw the various executive members walk up and introduce themselves. This is the moment to build upon. The project now needs to reinforce ownership and control by members at all levels. The role of the support organisation needs to be clearly delineated with roles and responsibilities clearly defined.
The next part of the proceedings was dedicated to handing out certificates. This was indeed the most celebrated part of the afternoon. A combination of music song and dance accompanied each walk up to the podium to receive a certificate confirming that the member had the competency to
use several apps, to engage the new world of social media, internet commerce but most importantly engage in the project that seeks to build an e commerce online platform.
I was amused at some of the empowering stories of how the new knowledge of smart phones had been deployed and it reminded that as South Africans no matter how old or young we are, we are always willing to step up to the challenge and find something new. I felt sad thinking of lost opportunities to empower people, noting that such a small gesture by UWC and its partners and changed the lives of 50 women. But the day confirmed that we have so much more to do, so much to celebrate and in each and every small way we can change the world into a better place for all its citizens.