Caisse d'économie Desjardins

Carole Verreault, coordinator of the Services to Collective Enterprises of Québec, was the first employee of the Caisse d'économie Desjardins to benefit from a Leave for Change.

Each year, the Caisse offers two employees to transfer up to two weeks of their annual holidays into an international cooperation internship, and contributes $ 5,000 per participating employee. When Carole arrived in Mali, she was ready for a cultural shock, but even more prepared to experience significant exchanges. She participated in a mission with Uniterra and the Réseau national d'appui à la promotion de l'économie sociale et solidaire - RENAPESS-Mali.

The objective: Strengthen the capacities of social solidarity economy networks so that they can provide services to their members. The project also gives more visibility and credibility to the movement of solidarity economy amongst populations and political leaders. More to the fact, the Caisse d'économie solidaire Desjardins, Réseau québécois du crédit communautaire, Fonds d'emprunt économique et communautaire and Cercles d'emprunt de Charlevoix delivered together a workshop on solidarity financing addressed to five social economy networks. In Mali, cooperative credit enables the realisation of life projects.

During her two week-stay, Carole, a financial analyst, shared her knowledge and know-how, and learned as much from the Malian women working in the development of collective enterprises and social finances.