[Youthsurvival-network] Fwd: Self-Sufficiency and Building Collectives

[youthsurvival-network@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

 

 

Charity begins at home for African women and women of African descent.

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• Subject: Fwd: Self-Sufficiency and Building Collectives
• From: ForAfricanWomen@xxxxxxx
• Date: Thu, 23 Nov 2006 09:53:08 EST
• Full-name: ForAfricanWomen

 

 

Charity begins at home for African women and women of African descent.

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• Subject: Fwd: Self-Sufficiency and Building Collectives
• From: AAPRUP2@xxxxxxx
• Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2006 11:09:49 EST
• Full-name: AAPRUP2

 

African Women's Charity Organization

P.O. Box 23074  Oakland, CA  94623-0074 U.S.A.
Phone: (415) 789-7360
Email:  ForAfricanWomen@xxxxxxx
Website:  http://hometown.aol.com/forafricanwomen/myhomepage/index.html

Building African Women's & Youth Movements and Forming International Sisterhood:

Self-Sufficiency and Building Collectives

In our self-reliance campaign we are encouraging people (in particular the youth) to begin to start living collectively. We say that the youth in particular because we have a very large quantity of youth who are living with their parents and are at an age that they desire a certain amount of independence (their parents also desire it for them) but they do not have an income that allows them to live alone.

We are encouraging this group of people to dispel the idea that it is only acceptable if you can "make it on your own". The reality of the situation is that housing is so expensive that even adults who have had jobs for many years are having a hard time "making it on their own".

In Western societies individualism is taught as the superior method of living. People are educated to think that the only way that you are successful is when you are living on your own from your individual effort. In Africa we believe that collectivism is superior to individualism. We believe that the family is more important than the individual, the community is more important than the family, the nation is more important than the community, and all of humanity is more important than a nation.

 

In order to build a movement from the ground up the principal of collectivism has to dominate over individualism. In collective housing everyone must work (produce). There cannot be any idlers who are reaping the benefits from the people who are producing. Everyone should be required to be in an organization that is working for the people. If people only come to live in collective housing solely out of personal gain, this allows individualism to dominate and it becomes a magnet for exploiters. It is also important to have a political education component as an integral part of the process. This ensures growth of the collective and everyone involved.

 

We are also encouraging collective kitchens, with collective kitchens we can:

1. Make sure everyone in the community is eating healthy
2. Take responsibility for feeding the people
3. Release women from the burden of having to cook every day for their particular family
4. Make the organization of feeding the people much more efficient than the present situation
5. Start getting into the habit of collectively financing and organizing for our basic needs and breaking the cycle of dependence
6. Create an atmosphere that is conducive to building people's movements for the purpose of liberating the people
7. Be able to create our own employment…

 
We should have collective childcare so that women are able to get good and safe care for their children 24 hours a day. This is important if we truly want the village to raise our children. It can create jobs for our youth, especially our female youth. It will give the children more of a sense of what it means to serve the people. It would be a compliment to collective housing and collective kitchens.

We must become creative and we must look at what we have already organized within our communities. We can organize these collectives so that they can be a permanent part of our communities. For instance we already have churches that for one or two days a week feed the homeless. We can organize 7 churches in a community who are already in the habit of feeding people, open it up to all of the people and not just the homeless and we can have a collective kitchen that is feeding the people every day. The only things that are necessary are confidence and organization. Once we start the organizing then the collective genius of the people will make it permanent. We then must figure out every aspect that is needed to exist and develop in order for us to move forward in this manner.

 
Charity begins at home for African women and women of African descent.

 

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• Subject: Self-Sufficiency and Building Collectives
• From: Peter Urban <irsp@xxxxxxxxxx>
• Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2006 04:00:18 -0800

African Women's Charity Organization

P.O. Box 23074  Oakland, CA  94623-0074 U.S.A.
Phone: (415) 789-7360
Email:  ForAfricanWomen@xxxxxxx
Website:  http://hometown.aol.com/forafricanwomen/myhomepage/index.html

Building African Women's & Youth Movements and Forming International Sisterhood:

Self-Sufficiency and Building Collectives

In our self-reliance campaign we are encouraging people (in particular the youth) to begin to start living collectively. We say that the youth in particular because we have a very large quantity of youth who are living with their parents and are at an age that they desire a certain amount of independence (their parents also desire it for them) but they do not have an income that allows them to live alone.

We are encouraging this group of people to dispel the idea that it is only acceptable if you can "make it on your own". The reality of the situation is that housing is so expensive that even adults who have had jobs for many years are having a hard time "making it on their own".

In Western societies individualism is taught as the superior method of living. People are educated to think that the only way that you are successful is when you are living on your own from your individual effort. In Africa we believe that collectivism is superior to individualism. We believe that the family is more important than the individual, the community is more important than the family, the nation is more important than the community, and all of humanity is more important than a nation.

 

In order to build a movement from the ground up the principal of collectivism has to dominate over individualism. In collective housing everyone must work (produce). There cannot be any idlers who are reaping the benefits from the people who are producing. Everyone should be required to be in an organization that is working for the people. If people only come to live in collective housing solely out of personal gain, this allows individualism to dominate and it becomes a magnet for exploiters. It is also important to have a political education component as an integral part of the process. This ensures growth of the collective and everyone involved.

 

We are also encouraging collective kitchens, with collective kitchens we can:

1. Make sure everyone in the community is eating healthy
2. Take responsibility for feeding the people
3. Release women from the burden of having to cook every day for their particular family
4. Make the organization of feeding the people much more efficient than the present situation
5. Start getting into the habit of collectively financing and organizing for our basic needs and breaking the cycle of dependence
6. Create an atmosphere that is conducive to building people's movements for the purpose of liberating the people
7. Be able to create our own employment?

 
We should have collective childcare so that women are able to get good and safe care for their children 24 hours a day. This is important if we truly want the village to raise our children. It can create jobs for our youth, especially our female youth. It will give the children more of a sense of what it means to serve the people. It would be a compliment to collective housing and collective kitchens.

We must become creative and we must look at what we have already organized within our communities. We can organize these collectives so that they can be a permanent part of our communities. For instance we already have churches that for one or two days a week feed the homeless. We can organize 7 churches in a community who are already in the habit of feeding people, open it up to all of the people and not just the homeless and we can have a collective kitchen that is feeding the people every day. The only things that are necessary are confidence and organization. Once we start the organizing then the collective genius of the people will make it permanent. We then must figure out every aspect that is needed to exist and develop in order for us to move forward in this manner.

 
Charity begins at home for African women and women of African descent.



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