By Yves Ephraim
As reported by Antigua News Room, longtime credit union member Yves Ephraim offers his perspective on civic participation ahead of the upcoming election, drawing parallels between the democratic principles of financial cooperatives and the act of voting.
Ephraim, who has been a proud member of a local credit union since the 1980s, begins by explaining the foundational concept of these institutions. Credit unions, he notes, are financial cooperatives — organisations where everyday people come together to pool their resources and provide loans to one another at lending rates more favourable than those typically offered by commercial banks.
The commentary, published in full by Antigua News Room, uses the cooperative model as a framework for understanding collective civic responsibility and the importance of informed participation in the democratic process ahead of the island's upcoming election.
The piece represents a grassroots perspective on electoral engagement, coming from a citizen with decades of experience participating in community-based financial structures built on mutual trust and shared interest.
