Prout Research Institute of Venezuela

The Prout Research Institute of Venezuela in Caracas is an independent, not-for-profit foundation founded by Dada Maheshvarananda and José Albarrán in 2007. According to its website, its mission is "to empower all people to improve their quality of life within a more just society by fostering and promoting worker cooperatives, self-reliant communities, environmental protection, universal ethics, and spiritual values".
The Institute researches and teaches the dynamic principles of the Progressive Utilization Theory (PROUT), a post-capitalist model to empower people and communities to create a better world. All resources published are freely available on their website. The Institute accepts visitors and international volunteers in the Quinta Prout, a large house in El Marques, Caracas, nearby to Petare, that the Institute has been given usufruct.
In 2007 the Institute produced a documentary, Another Life is Possible: Cooperatives in Barlovento, Venezuela. In 2011 the Institute organized a public conference, Building a Solidarity Economy based on Ethics and Ecology.
The Prout Research Institute of Venezuela supports Centro Madre, a sister project in San José de Barlovento, a two-hour drive east of Caracas. This community project was founded in 2000 by Didi Ananda Sadhana to encourage self-sufficiency through education, sustainable agriculture, integrated development and ethical leadership. Centro Madre is located on three and a half hectares of land. Three times they received an evaluation of excellence from the CIARA government institute of agriculture, as a national model for small-scale sustainable agriculture. Their reading program lends books each week to families in the community to read together, and creates programs in schools.

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