Awra Amba RJ 300612 EN - Contacter un comité local d'Attac
Awra Amba RJ 300612 EN - Contacter un comité local d'Attac
Awra Amba RJ 300612 EN - Contacter un comité local d'Attac
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4. Social organisation<br />
We describe here the main aspects of the <strong>Awra</strong> <strong>Amba</strong> comm<strong>un</strong>ity: the structures of the comm<strong>un</strong>ity,<br />
its economic activities, then its social relationships, through gender equality, equality in work, what<br />
deals with family (marriage, divorce, and family household building), the specific and original<br />
position of children, the solidarity with the weakest, the f<strong>un</strong>eral, and finally the management modes<br />
of the conflicts internal within the comm<strong>un</strong>ity.<br />
This is essentially the social capital of the comm<strong>un</strong>ity: a set of values, behaviours and modes of<br />
social organisation of which that capital is composed, which play a key role in the successful<br />
development of <strong>Awra</strong> <strong>Amba</strong> (Ya08/136).<br />
4.1. Institutions<br />
<strong>Awra</strong> <strong>Amba</strong> is organised into two structures (Yi07/47; Jo10b/5):<br />
- The comm<strong>un</strong>ity, which contains especially all inhabitants of the village, who share values and a<br />
life style. It was created in 1972. This comm<strong>un</strong>ity is in fact split into those who live in <strong>Awra</strong><br />
<strong>Amba</strong> and who really follow the common rules (439 persons at the beginning of 2011), and<br />
external members living elsewhere (Bahar Dar, Addis Ababa etc) who participate to one or two<br />
meetings with <strong>local</strong> members, and who form a sort of supporting and advising network. Zumra<br />
considers all those who share the <strong>Awra</strong> <strong>Amba</strong> values can be members of the comm<strong>un</strong>ity,<br />
irrespective of where they live.<br />
- The cooperative or <strong>un</strong>ion, fo<strong>un</strong>ded in 1986 by an original core group of 19 people and which<br />
always increased to reach 143 adult members in 2010 (81 women and 62 men, i.e. with their<br />
children 325 people). It is a work and life collective, within the comm<strong>un</strong>ity. 87 comm<strong>un</strong>ity<br />
members are therefore not members of the cooperative in 2010; among them, adults work<br />
independently, usually weaving at home. We can assess the number of these adults to more than<br />
thirty according to figures of Table 1 and age distribution of Figure 3. The cooperative did not<br />
accept any new member in 2010 due to the lack of work opport<strong>un</strong>ity.<br />
According to the chief guide interviewed by Yi07/47, to be member of the comm<strong>un</strong>ity does not<br />
allow to participate in the comm<strong>un</strong>ity tasks, to share any benefit of the comm<strong>un</strong>ity or to have access<br />
to all cooperative services; only the cooperative members are really organised, as confirmed by<br />
Crespo (2012). What about the comm<strong>un</strong>ity members living in <strong>Awra</strong> <strong>Amba</strong> and who do not belong to<br />
the cooperative, in terms of participation to <strong>local</strong> tasks, which many committees described below<br />
deal with: are they excluded from any comm<strong>un</strong>ity decision? Their situation is not clear (Question 17<br />
in Annex).<br />
Like any association, the cooperative comprises a general assembly of the membership, an executive<br />
management, a secretariat and an auditing section (article 11 of the 1999 Comm<strong>un</strong>al Statute)<br />
(Me09/40).<br />
The most important decisions – the annual income distribution, the planning and expansion of<br />
economic activities, the election of committees – are debated and voted by adults over the age of 18<br />
in general assemblies (At05/60): these general strategic assemblies are held once a year (At05/60;<br />
Ya08/115; Jo10b/9), or about four times a year as necessary according to Crespo (2012), whereas it<br />
seems that less important general assemblies – also so-called development days – are held once a<br />
week (At05/60) (Question 18 in Annex). These weekly development days are held on Tuesday <strong>un</strong>der<br />
a big tree in the village centre, each participant spinning at the same time (Picture 5). This choice of<br />
Tuesday and the habit of spinning cotton started when Zumra's former wife lost her daughter: the<br />
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