FUCVAM of Uruguay becomes the 98th member of the Alliance in the Americas
Co-operatives of the Americas gives a warm welcome to the Federación Uruguaya de Cooperativas de Vivienda por Ayuda Mutua (FUCVAM) as new full member of the Alliance. Members of the organization in the Americas reach 98 from 21 countries, while worldwide are already 283 from 93 countries.
FUCVAM is an organization of second degree, with legal personality, which brings together more than five hundred Uruguayan housing co-operatives of mutual assistance and of collective property. This model emerged in Uruguay in 1968, from three pilot experiences carried out months earlier, that was supported with the establishment of the 13.728 law ("Housing Act") that gives the possibility of creating self-managed cooperatives, mutual-aid and collective ownership (the "FUCVAM model") and obtain public financing. Afterwards, the first co-operatives founded the Federation, FUCVAM, and in a short period the system had an important development.
Today, FUCVAM is the older organization of popular housing in the region. It also had an important infrastructure build up, comprising on its affiliates one hand, based on a group zone in Montevideo and departmental groups in the interior of the country, and also an organization by thematic areas, articulated through the Department of cooperative development. Their aim is based on two axes: defending the interests of co-operatives and cooperators, and the contribution to the social and cultural development of the movement, within which occupies a prominent place effort for improvement, deepening and innovation of self-management.
The characteristic of the FUCVAM proposal has been and is the creation of a strong social movement arising, in addition to build housing and habitat, to advocate for the social impact towards the transformation of reality that we live.
The new Alliance membership global statistics are therefore: 283 organizations from 93 countries (240 members and 43 Associate Members).
More information at http://www.fucvam.org.uy.