A merger between two foundations with related initiatives regarding the legislative defense of workers (Adec) and their continued education (ATC), Adec-ATC was born in 1986.
Adec-ATC works on issues regarding employment, notably in the most vulnerable sectors (eg. small artisan business units), by conducting studies and offering training on workers’ and union rights, and offering aid in the professional reinsertion of laid off employees (for example due to the privatization of mineries) and welfare recipients, as well as upholding the missions of collective actors (professional groups, cooperatives) capable of defending their interests in front of public powers.
Birth of a partnership
Frères des Hommes and Adec-ATC crossed paths in the mid 1980s. At this time Adec-ATC was particularly engaged with miners, who faced unbearable working conditions. The association was an aid in defending their rights. This mission is what drew us to Adec-ATC, since Frères des Hommes is convinced that the defense and promotion of workers’ rights is capital in the struggle for constructive change, both on the economic as well as the political level.
Beginning in1990 Peru begins privatizing mines and metal shops and sells them to foreign groups, whose first action is to reduce what they consider to be excessive staffing levels. In just a few years 100 000 jobs are eliminated and workers’ indemnities are too little to live long. For some the only way to continue to feed their families is to develop their own economic activity.
For this reason in 1995 Frères des Hommes unites forces with its Peruvian partner, still in close relationship with workers, on a project of professional reinsertion of miners. Information, training, access to credit, support for small businesses, Adec-ATC ensures that workers who are rejected in the unofficialised sector collectively find solutions to their ensuing precariousness. They are many at the heart of Frères des Hommes (donors, volunteers and sympathizers) to offer their aid, especially in the East of France which has been locally touched by the closing of mines. Together they develop economic strategies that generate social connections and involve vulnerable populations in discussions with public powers.
Frères des Hommes and Adec-ATC have the same belief: once populaces organized on-site include local authorities in their projects of economic development, local development in its entirety benefits. With the various political, social and economic changes which have occurred in Peru over the last 20 years, this partnership’s approach has shown itself to be especially pertinent and has been extended these last few years to rural spheres, still considered very insignificant in economic, social and political life.
On the high Andean plains, actions undertaken starting in 2004, in the frame of Consorcio Junin, unite Peruvian partners, under the banner of Adec-ATC, with Frères des Hommes, and have produced lasting results. This due to related initiatives undertaken around agricultural development, local economic development, and development to link social structures to local authorities.
