Sri Lanka Trip Demonstrates Co-ops’ Impact

When Paul Kelly thinks of someone who has been impacted by a co-operative, he recalls a story from his trip to Sri Lanka last year.

In a village about two hours outside of the city of Colombo, fishermen would spend 12 hours a day catching fish. At the end of the day they had their fish, but the challenge was how to get it to market in the city.

An enterprising man received a loan of approximately $1,100 CDN from the local Sri Lanka credit union to start a wholesale business.

He bought the fish off the local fishermen and arranged transportation to Colombo. As the middle man, he shared profit between the fishermen and the fish sales.

Paul says when they met him, about two years into the journey, the loan had went from $1,100 to $4,000, part of which the man used to set up an operation on the beach where he hired people to clean the fish.

With 20 or so fishermen and about seven other people employed, Paul notes the multiplier impact the loan had for the people involved and their families.

Paul was in Sri Lanka as part of the Journey Out of Poverty trip sponsored by the Canadian Co-operative Association to raise awareness and support fundraising for the Co-operative Development Foundation of Canada (CDF).

As the president and CEO of First Calgary Financial, Paul says the trip gave him the benefit of seeing how the co-operative system has changed a lot of lives in other places.

This year is declared by the United Nations as the International Year of Co-operatives.

Paul says he hopes there is an increased awareness of co-operatives and credit unions coming out of 2012.

“(If) in 12 months from now we look back and say awareness has increased, people in Canada generally and hopefully in Calgary understand more of what we are, who we are, then I think that would be a successful conclusion to the year of co-operatives,” he says.

First Calgary Financial is the ninth largest credit union in Canada with assets under administration exceeding $3 billion.

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