The International Day of Cooperatives is celebrated on July 4. This year, the cooperative movement highlights the capacity of cooperatives to build more peaceful, fair and cohesive societies.
At Ametxe, this idea is lived in a very concrete way: at home, in everyday life, in connection with the land and through building community.
For us, cooperativism is not just a legal form or a way of organising ourselves. It is a practice of life: a way of caring, deciding, learning and supporting one another. Through cooperative housing, the home is no longer a private asset, but becomes a space for sharing life, nurturing relationships and creating new connections with the territory.
At Ametxe, cooperation is cultivated in every sense: by caring for the house, working the vegetable garden, sharing tools, making decisions, listening to conflicts, practising empathy, distributing tasks and sustaining everyday life in community.
Building a collective life project in a rural setting opens up many possibilities, but it also brings challenges. That is why, for us, cooperativism is not a closed point of arrival, but a path that is renewed every day: with patience, trust and the willingness to care for one another.
Today, on the International Day of Cooperatives, we want to affirm that other housing models are possible. And also necessary.
Caring together for the home, the land and the community is also a way of building a more peaceful world.
Cooperation is cultivated at home.
Photo of Ametxe from Laboral Kutxa’s “Colaborar” campaign.
