Aventure Equitable, what is it ?

Aventure Équitable (meaning Fair Adventure) is a French association from EDHEC Business School created to promote Social and Solidarity Economy (Economie Sociale et Solidaire, or ESS in French). For 15 years now, a team of several students leaves every year for 8 months to South America.

Social and solidarity economy aims at creating a feasible activity to answer social and environmental needs for the good of all. Side by side with the local communities, Aventure Équitable has been acting in Latin America in various areas: microcredit, social entrepreneurship, sustainable development, sustainable tourism…

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And Aventure Équitable 2017, who are they?

Aventure Équitable 2017, it’s us : Camille, Benjamin, Anne Claire and Adrien (from your left to your right on the picture), 4 students from EDHEC (French Business School) motivated by the fact of seeing something else and to put their skills at the service of those in need. For almost a year, we have been preparing this project. Today, we are about to leave ! From the research of the missions to partnerships, through the communication around the project, we do not want this experience to only be useful for us but also for the entrepreneurs that we will support for those 8 months and also to all who will follow our adventure, from the youngest to the oldest, who just like us, are convinced that alternative economic business models can bring further added value. But also to all the people who still need to be convinced.

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What are we actually going to do to make it happen?

We are today enrolled in 3 missions from 2 to 4 months in 3 different branches concerning the Social and Solidarity Economy and this, in 3 different countries.

First mission :

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For our first mission, departure January, 12th from Paris to Lima, Peru’s capital city. We will work for Visit.org as ambassadors and business developers. Visit.org is an internet plateform gathering several hundreds NGOs around the globe. This website is now supported by UN. This way, it is helping local communities to share their know-how, their culture, in order to raise tourists awareness on key topics : Education, economic growth, health, culture, Human Rights, environment… Moreover, the funds raised are entirelly reinvested in the community concerned.

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4000 KM, 3 countries, 12 towns, 18 tours, here is that is waiting for us for the first mission of 2 months long. During this mission, we will try the most recent tours, write reports on those organisations and we will do our best to improve the content if necessary, and we will study the quality of the investments realised thanks to Visit.org. We will then develop the communication via story telling and video presentations in order to make people try this way of doing tourism still largely unknown. Last but not least, we will recruit new NGOs which could be elegible for the website to densify the list of tours.

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We will arrive in Juanjui in the region of Alto Huayabamba, in the Amazonian forest to start our second mission which will last a bit more than 2 months. We will work for Choba Choba, an organisation pretty active in this region. It’s been several years that our association work for Choba Choba and it is always with the same desire that we go back every year on the advice of former students.

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Choba Choba is a social oriented startup which produce fair trade Cocoa. In the region of Alto Huayabamba, the cocoa producers of Choba choba define themselves the price of their cocoa. As stockholders, they benefit from the performance of their company. Today, the price of Cocoa is ruled by the fluctuations of the stock market leaving the producers with almost nothing left. So just like Choba Choba, we want to be part of the chocolate revolution by giving back to local producers the place where they belong. For this, we will help choba choba to develop their activity, in terms of quality and quantity. Indeed, we will develop a branch in eco tourism in order to broaden the scope of the business. This activity not being started yet and from the experience of our former mission, we will then define this project by writting a business plan.

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Our third mission will last almost 4 months and will bring us to another south american country that we will reveal to you later on on the media. So join us on Facebook, on our website so you can follow us, know more about us, our missions and see our daily adventure. Indeed, we will have a blog on our website (with an english version very soon) on which we will post as much as we can ! So feel free to follow us!

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But it does not stop here ! It is not just an adventure at the other side of the globe, we want to have a real impact for 8 months but also afterwards ! So please, share our experience around you so yourself but also other people, young and old, can benefit from:

- A daily follow-up (when we have internet) on our website

- One day focused on Social and Solidarity Economy organised within EDHEC Business School in Lille and thanks to the collaboration with other associations which support this sector too. This day will be an opportunity to inform students about the Social and Solidarity Economy, on the actions that everyone can do to make a change and to show that « social » and « business » are not so incompatible.

- Pictures and videos feedbacks with entrepreneurs interviews that we will meet during our missions. We will try to have as many people as possible.

- Courses / presentations in middle schools and also maybe in high-schools and in preparatory classes.

To contact us If you want to know more about the project or even if you are just curious, join us on Facebook, and on our website or contact us on aventure.equitable2017@gmail.com

Aventure Equitable 2017

The publications