Benitez Marcela
Organization: Social and Economic Recovery of National Rural Villages at Risk of Disappearing (RESPONDE)
Year Founded: 1999
Country: Argentina
Website: www.responde.org.ar
Geographic Area of Impact: Argentina.
Model: Hybrid Non-Profit
Focus: Education,Rural Development.
Social Entrepreneur of the Year, Argentina, 2006 Video The Innovation Marcela Benitez, a geographer and sociologist by training, spent seven years traveling throughout Argentina as part of her work at the National Research Council for Science and Technology (CONICET) as an academic researcher. Benitez established RESPONDE, which promotes the recovery of small rural villages at risk of disappearing by motivating rural villagers to work for their future. The villages are empowered by RESPONDE through their social and economic projects. Working with interested companies, universities, private citizens and local government, RESPONDE builds the capacity of townspeople to engage successfully in new avenues for generating livelihoods and economic and social projects. Background Rural to urban migration is rapidly becoming a global pattern, and Argentina is no exception. Approximately 90% of the country’s population lives in large cities; many of these people had to migrate from rural areas in search of better living conditions, only to find they were worse off than before. According to Argentina’s National Institute of Statistics and Census (INDEC), over half of the country’s rural villages are at risk of extinction – approximately 600, home to half a million people. Many of these towns suffered economically with the massive growth of agribusiness and the closing of railways that connected these towns to markets and each other. Roads also have deteriorated and basic infrastructure provided by the State has collapsed, including health services and education, which is only offered up though primary school. Moreover, the government does not offer opportunities for growth and development to these towns, only charity. Meanwhile, violence and crime increase exponentially in big cities, and public services are diminishing with the constant demand from the arriving population. Strategy RESPONDE promotes local development so that people can maintain their cultural ties and remain in their towns. To date, it has reached approximately 1.4 million people. RESPONDE pursues three major programs: 1) Production and Micro business: The initiative "Tourism in Rural Villages" promotes local economic development, favoring the participation of the town inhabitants as service providers of bed and breakfast inns, local restaurants, tourism and sale of local artisan products. "Self-sustaining Villages" proposes the self-provision and appropriate food-supply of small rural communities, based on the natural resources that they already have. Responde has started an international volunteering scheme called “revivial”. Advanced students of administration, accounting, economics and other related areas or volunteers from companies offer help on business planning and technical support in order to generate micro-businesses. 2) Education & Technology "Educational Responde" It offers the possibility to enroll more than 500.000 adults who live in rural villages and who have not receive that education in High School degree programs through via Internet. "WINGS" proposes to brake ignorance and isolation with the creation of Centers for Socio-Economic- Cultural Extension that will allow communication via Internet and the development of social, cultural, and recreational activities. 3) Territorial development & Environment “Golden Villages”: They attract new families to small rural towns offering them a new lifestyle in a natural setting that respect the environment. They consolidate the roots of the rural population when offers a basic infrastructure of services and the creation of new social opportunities and economically sustainable. They encourage the decentralization of big cities and, as a result, lead to the reduction of the emission of greenhouse gases. The Entrepreneur For seven years, Marcela Benitez studied geography at a university in the north of Argentina, where she observed first hand the economic and social problems that were arising in the small rural villages outside of Buenos Aires. Throughout her studies, she encountered more and more isolated and forgotten rural villages driving her interest to investigate if the problem was local or one occurring throughout Argentina. After completing her degree, she began academic research about how these rural villages were slowly dying. She developed different ideas on how to revert the situation of these rural villages, hoping that the government would implement policies and solutions. After two years, she realized that she must put her own research into action if she wanted to see a change. With the creation of RESPONDE based on her previous research, Marcela was able to galvanize the rest of society to become involved in generating new opportunities for these villages. She has involved thousands of people to help many rural villages, including people from all over the country, from universities, companies, and businesses, to help make new opportunities possible for these villages.
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