From December 21, 2011 to February 26, 2012 is held the 6th edition of the pan-Canadian DoingMyPart.Coop contest.

Young people between the age of 18 and 30 can enter by undertaking a virtual rally involving 10 multiple-choice questions and one essay-type question on the subject of cooperation.

Enter at www.DoingMyPart.Coop

The DoingMyPart.Coop contest is organized in collaboration with the following partners: Canadian
International Development Agency (CIDA) and the Fédération québécoise des coopératives en milieu scolaires (under the COOPSCO banner).

To be won : Two (2) individuals will also win an educational tour in international development lasting 7 to 10 days in Senegal, a French-speaking country in West Africa.

Due to the tremendous contribution that cooperatives have made to economic and social development around the world, the United Nations declared 2012 the International Year of Cooperatives. This provides an opportunity to emphasize the fact that the cooperative model is more relevant than ever and that it fosters the security, self-sufficiency and empowerment of individuals.

DID just launched a video Inter-cooperation : Going Beyond Reconstruction in Haiti featuring employees of the Desjardins Group who discuss their experience in Haiti.

And to mark the year, Desjardins Group is organizing, in collaboration with the International Co-operative Alliance and Saint Mary’s University, an International Summit of Cooperatives to be held in Québec 

City October 8 to 11, 2012. Cooperatives from around the world, including DID partner financial cooperatives, will be attending the event.

DID is proud to be associated with these initiatives and extends its best wishes for all involved in the International Year of Cooperatives!

“Without access to credit, my life would have been very different and that of my children also.” These are the words of Assan Diarra, a member of the KAFO JIGINEW network of financial cooperatives, one of DID's partner institutions. The mother of six children and grandmother of eleven is known as the fish vendor in her village of Fana, in central Mali. “Over the years, access to group, then individual loans enabled me to invest and in my business and develop it. It also gave me the financial resources to build our family home, buy a cart, and purchase cattle and sheep to raise. For our family, credit has been indispensable!”