**Dr. Haydar Abdul Shafi Center for Culture and Development Celebrates International Cooperative Day**

The Dr. Haydar Abdul Shafi Center for Culture and Development celebrated International Cooperative Day. This took place at its headquarters in Gaza City, with the participation of a group of youth who are friends of the center.

The director of the center, Mr. Mohsen Abu Ramadan, delivered a speech emphasizing the importance of cooperatives, which play a vital role in achieving sustainable development. He pointed out the significance of the United Nations commemorating this day, which falls on the first of July every year.

He affirmed that cooperatives serve as a solidarity and participatory mechanism aimed at protecting their members and providing financial resources for them through collective action. Mr. Abu Ramadan also highlighted that cooperatives have both economic and social objectives, as they contribute to maintaining social peace, combating poverty and unemployment, alleviating societal tensions, and ensuring decent living standards for their members.

He further elaborated that cooperatives constitute one of the three pillars of development, along with the state and the private sector, as they are part of the components of civil society organizations.

Abu Ramadan called for the promotion of the cooperative concept among society as a contractual and solidarity-based mechanism within the community.