1-Participants

Cape Verde:

• Federação das CRP de Cabo Verde: Nelson Dani Moreira (President of Central Santiago CRP and of the Federation), Luiz Baptista Gomes Andrade (President of Santo Antão CRP and Vice-President of the Federation), José Julio Gomes Correia (President of North Santiago CRP and President of the Federation General Assembly), Silvino Furtado (General Secretary).
• Casa do Meio Community: David Fonseca (president of ACD), António Santos (farmer in Portugal at the moment)
• Fundamental NGO: Fernanda Spencer

Brazil:

• Fátima Verônica Vila Nova (Professor)

Portugal:

• Manuela Pimenta (Professor),
• Isabel Guimarães (lawyer), works as a volunteer in the cooperation with Guinea-Bissau.
• Carlos Prisal, President of the NGO UNIVERDESAFIO, Association for Cooperation and Development, which has interventions in Cape Verde and Sao Tome and Principe in fishing communities.

TOGETHER Network:

• Samuel Thirion (General Secretary),
• Manuela Coutinho (SPIRAL dynamizer),
• Isabel Sousa (SPIRAL dynamizer),
• Laurine Grzelak (trainee)

Fernando Pessoa University in Porto:

• João Casqueira, (professor)
• Fernando Bandeira, (professor)

2-Objectives of the meeting

At the first meeting on July 30, it had been agreed to communicate on the wikispiral of local solidarity in several communities in Cape Verde and Brazil in order to analyze together the best way to make this communication and prepare the next phase of mobilizing global solidarity.

3-Conducting the meeting

1-Introduction.

2-Self-presentation of the participants.

3-Recalling the origin of the project of universal solidarity (Joao Casqueira)

4-Meeting objectives and program (Samuel Thirion)

5-Presentation of the local community pages and complementary information:

• The Middle House on the Island of Santo Antão, Cape Verde (David Fonseca and António Santos, supplemented by comments by Luiz Andrade).
• Águas das Caldeiras on Santo Antão Island, Cape Verde (Fernanda Spencer, supplemented by comments from Luiz Andrade);
• Communities from Santiago Island, Cape Verde: Ponta Furna among others (Silvino Furtado and Nelson Moreira).
• Community of Barra da Catuama, State of Pernambuco, Brazil (Fatima );

6-Presentation of the Manifesta and call for co-responsibility in the part that concerns the responsibility of the communities with 6 points (See Annex)

7-Proposal to use these 6 points as a reference in the analysis of community processes, their improvements, and their projects. Fernanda's proposal, approved

8-Presentation of examples of other community processes :

• Bissau and Cacheu (Guinea-Bissau) (creation of micro-skills for professionals);
• Bangladesh with micro-credit (Grameen Bank).

9-Other examples were evoked, like Mé-Zochi (São Tomé and Príncipe).

Note: It has been pointed out that the Cape Verde experience goes beyond microcredit in terms of solidarity because the funds received are not "repaid", but handed over to the association (or the CRP), which will allow others to benefit and so on. In addition there is risk sharing and help in the realization of projects, which is very different from microcredit, even from Gramen Bank that is based on social pressure for individual repayments

4-Work program until the next meeting:

1-Complete the existing pages in Portuguese (Catuama, Casa do Meio, Agua das Furnas, Ponta Furna, etc)

2-Extend to other communities either in Cape Verde, Brazil or Guinea-Bissau, or eventually other countries.

3-Make a summary of each community page in French highlighting the 6 points of the Manifesta and Appeal (work to be done by Laurine).

4-More generally, formalize the forms of solidarity that exist in communities and favor direct exchanges between communities that have similar practices with regard to specific issues such as:

• Local Democracy.
• The reuse of funds instead of reimbursement;
• Equal access to land;
• The management of common goods; etc..

5-Analyze the idea of involving schools in communitarian learning processes (learning about local solidarity and improving living conditions for the well-being of all and future generations). Several ideas were put forward in this direction:

• Identify in Cape Verde (or other countries) the schools and communities most willing to work in this direction. Work in partnership with learning communities (Manuela Coutinho's contacts);
• Start with the children instead of the teachers (see the examples given by Isabel Guimarães);
• Rely on the SPIRAL methodology (see the example Isabel Sousa is working on)

5-Next meeting:

The next meeting was scheduled for November 5th, 2:15 pm Portuguese time. Prior to this meeting, work had been done to mobilize partnerships in other countries to launch a universal solidarity fund.