03 March, 2012
BATEY CINCO CASAS, Monte Plata province, D.R.- During a General Assembly held on February 25, 2012, hundreds of members from the BRAteyana Agricultural Cooperative gathered to vote on a new managing board and hear the cooperative’s operating plan for the calendar year 2012-13.
The BRAteyana—the first major agricultural cooperative of its kind inside the Dominican’s vast sugarcane rural “batey” communities, was created in 2009 by the Batey Relief Alliance (BRA) in the province of Monte Plata, as part of the organization’s long-term objective to organize and empower the vulnerable and impoverished populations to become economically self-sufficient and have a voice in the system. The initiative is supported by the Dominican government and was funded by the US Department of Agricultural (USDA) with a two-year grant of more than $2 million to develop the 7,000-member cooperative with the tasks of overseeing the development of agriculture and infrastructures within seven batey communities – and providing adequate food supplies and health services for 36,000 people.
The cooperative’s new governing structure consists of a Managing board (seven members), Credit committee (four members) and a Supervisory council (five members). Its new plan includes increasing membership, providing more credits to local farmers to improve their agricultural activities, and increasing crop and animal production to competitively meet local as well as export demands.
The cooperative’s membership welcomes everyone, regardless of race, gender, creed, national origin, economic status or political affiliations. While born in the batey—a traditionally overlooked and abandoned territory of the DR, the cooperative, however, attracts a wide range of members from different socio-economic backgrounds.
For more information on how you can support the empowerment of the impoverished people of the Dominican Republic and their cooperative, please donate online at https://www.justgive.org/nonprofits/donate.jsp?ein=11-3403494. Follow/like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/Batey.Relief.Alliance.
