Life Stories-2

Introduction
We are an international cooperative composed of
34 cooperatives or associations of organic and
fairtrade producers from eight different countries
in Central and South America as well as Southern
Europe. Since 2007 we have been working to
strengthen our organizations and improve their
positioning within the food market value chain,
managing new channels of commercialization
and searching to stimulate the market with high
quality products.
photo: natalia lópez
Governed by the democratic principles
of the cooperative movement and Agro
ecology our associates commercialize
agricultural products such as cocoa,
coffee, sugar, tropical fruits and honey,
in markets of Europe, Japan, USA and
Canada, in alliance with commercial
companies and/or cooperatives of
consumers.
This way, we have shortened the
distance between producers and end
users, created spaces for the exchange
of technical knowledge between our
associates and forged connections for
the establishment of fair and direct
trade between distributors and
producers.
Our associates in Argentina, Peru, Brazil,
Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua,
Guatemala and Italy, use clean and
sustainable agriculture systems and
promote the democratic participation
of their members, where women
remain a key element in the
development, sustainability and
strengthening of their organizational
structures and production systems.
This publication is a recognizes the
women of Cooperatives Without
Borders, that with courage, vision and
leadership contribute with the growth
of their organizations and
communities, and the transformation
of a more fair and inclusive society.
Women that with their example have
ploughed their way into positions
where a persistent male presence
exists, as most cooperatives and
organizations in Latin America are. This
publication is directed to all of them,
and the thousands of women without
borders around the world, which every
day plant the seeds of environmental
consciousness, push an ethical
economy and promote biodiversity,
security and the food sovereignty of
their villages.
The statistical data of our women
Without Borders will be for now an
outstanding debt, however, we have
been up to the task of gathering some
life stories of women which in a
symbolic way illustrate what they have
been building from their leadership
positions in favor of agro-ecology and
the production of clean and nutritious
food for the fair trade and organic
markets of the world.
In Cooperatives Without Borders
International we will keep working in
the construction of a different and
more fair economic model, in which
agricultural families, organized in
collective and associative structures,
assume a leading role and are key
actors in the management of a truly
inclusive and sustainable development
for them, their communities and the
rest of Latin America.
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