(English) R stands for RImPRESA (project) and for Reciprocity

[:en]

What is Reciprocity in AMU Projects?

For some time now, international cooperation has set as its guiding principle the sustainability of projects extended over the specific period of intervention.
In this perspective, to highlight its founding principles of generosity, mutual aid and attention to interpersonal relationships, AMU adds in its interventions that of “reciprocity” between the beneficiaries themselves or between them and other people in vulnerable situations, between beneficiaries and supporters, or between communities.
Practically?
Who receives the benefits of AMU projects is also committed to give something of themselves to others who need it. In particular, those who participate in productive programs creating employment opportunities, agree to contribute to a Project Mutual Fund through which they support other productive activities or projects with a social impact, in accordance with the principles of the Economy of Communion.
This support can be made through a monetary contribution, as soon as the company’s conditions allow it, or in non-monetary form: the supply of goods and/or services, professional services, consultancies, donation of their time or other. Each person is free to decide what he/she can and wants to donate, to generate this reciprocity, transferring this choice into a concrete commitment.
In the case of the RImPRESA project, this also meant, in some situations, the purchase of supplies and services necessary to start a business directly from another area that had suffered damage from the earthquake, thus creating a network of collaborative relationships between people who have benefited from it.
The RImPRESA project has also accompanied some entrepreneurs in creating an association between themselves aimed at sharing – even from a legal point of view – the means of transport and the equipment donated by the project, so that it was not only an individual to benefit from it, but that the donated goods were a way to promote the cooperation between businesses and between people.[:]