Kahawatu Foundation

Between now and 26th Sep 2019 every dollar donated to this cause will be generously matched by the MACQUARIE GROUP FOUNDATION under the terms of their grant matching policy Coffee grown by women - it's a thing, and it has a transformative effect on the position of women in coffee growing communities. In 2014 the Kahawatu Foundation persuaded the Governor of Ngozi Province in Burundi to donate an acre of land to a small women's cooperative with 131 members. The group called themselves Rama Dufatanemunda, or RAMA for short, translating as "let's be united" in their local language. Although most of the women belonged to coffee growing households that were already receiving training from Kahawatu Foundation, they weren't earning enough income to care for their children or themselves. The women of RAMA needed land to attain their goal of supporting some of their household and family needs on their own. Working together under the guidance of Kahawatu's lead agronomist in the area, the women cleared the land, fertilised the soil and planted 1000 coffee seedlings. It takes three years for coffee to produce a first crop so in the intervening period Kahawatu helped the women plant high yielding varieties of beans which allowed them to earn some income and set up a savings and loans scheme. In 2018 the women harvested their first coffee crop and sold it as a single lot of "coffee grown by women" to a specialty buyer in Europe - and again in 2019. Some of the money has now been re-invested in new land which generates additional income from the sale of potatoes. But by far the biggest transformation is the way this project has empowered the women of RAMA and given them new pride in their ability to look after their needs and those of their families. Such has been the impact of the project on the members and their immediate community that Kahawatu has since launched four other women's cooperatives in Burundi using the same model. The cost of buying, clearing and planting one acre of land is USD 15,000. Our goal is to launch 5 new projects every year between Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda.

Between now and 26th Sep 2019 every dollar donated to this cause will be generously matched by the MACQUARIE GROUP FOUNDATION under the terms of their grant matching policy Coffee is grown by an estimated 9 million farmers in East Africa - most of them smallholders for whom coffee might be the only reliable source of income. In Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda, the average farmer has less than 300 coffee trees - earning $100-300 for an entire household in a year. Most farmers have never been taught that a coffee tree requires careful management in order to produce an optimal yield. At Kahawatu Foundation we teach farmers how to apply Good Agricultural Practices using nothing more than the labor and resources on their farms. Our experience shows that the poorest farmers can double their yield within one year - and the best farmers can ultimately increase their production 3-5 times. Kahawatu has developed methods for training large numbers of small farmers in Farmer Field Schools. Our agronomists encourage farmers to form groups of 30 and help them elect a Lead Farmer to represent the group. Every lead farmer is taken through a full coffee training program which teaches them the good agricultural practices of pruning, mulching, soil management, pest control and harvesting. The leader farmer's farm becomes a demo plot for his or her group. Crucially, it's a place where each lead farmer can now transmit the same learnings to other members, creating a virtuous cycle of improved practices over time. One agronomist can train 100 Lead Farmers in a year. That's an outreach of 3000 coffee farmers - or as many as 15,000 people who's lives can be improved through better coffee yields, better quality and better payments. Help us hire more agronomists through this campaign. Every USD4,000 raised, allows us to hire an agronomist for a year.