Post by account_disabled on Feb 20, 2024 3:04:13 GMT -5
Accompanied Sergi García from Oxfam Intermón on his trip to visit a Fair Trade coffee cooperative in Uganda. He tells us the importance of listening and how, thanks to dialogue, relationships are born and strengthened between the people who make up the Fair Trade chain. "Are meetings useful? Well, sometimes they are. And you can have useful meetings in the most unexpected places. And, also, rediscovering the importance of some things, such as the importance of listening . Too many things for a single meeting? Maybe Yes, but it can happen. This was our case, a meeting in Kashekuro, Uganda, with four women members of the local coffee cooperative : Agnes, Betty, Mbabazi and Byamhanga. Why were we in Uganda? In Uganda there is ACPCU, the Ankole Coffee Production Cooperative Union , a union of Fair Trade coffee producing cooperatives. We have been buying coffee from them for years, but this time we wanted to offer them something different. Buy them more coffee, yes, but coffee grown by women. fair-trade-coffee-uganda A farmer collecting coffee beans on a farm in Katenga that is part of the Ankole Cooperative.
This brings together associations of small and small farmers in the region promoting coffee production for subsequent commercialization through Fair Trade. © Pablo Tosco / Oxfam Intermón 14439scr_386a639a1e16e4f The accounting managers of the Kashekuro Coffee Cooperative (part of Ankole) carrying out administrative tasks. © Pablo Tosco / Oxfam Intermón The idea arose after launching Tierra Madre coffee , a 100% Arabica coffee whose sales are financing a legal support program for the Europe Mobile Number List women of the Aldea Global cooperative in Nicaragua, thanks to which they can prove ownership of their land, the farms in those from which they have produced coffee. The coffee we usually buy and drink is not exclusively made up of Arabica. Another variety is needed, robusta coffee, which is what they grow in southern Uganda. Since Tierra Madre was born, there was the idea of completing the range with a coffee that mixed both varieties and could satisfy the tastes of more people. The objective of Tierra Madre is to support women producers. A few months before and with the help of the people from ACPCU, we had conducted a survey of 172 women from the cooperatives. From there we got an idea that could give meaning to the entire project, related to the lack of access to secondary education for the daughters of the producers .
Debate, comment and give our opinions, and then we write the document. It was then that we decided to go to Uganda, with that proposal under our arms, ready to discuss it with the people of ACPCU. We sat in their offices in Kabwohe and explained the project to them, while we drank real coffee, black and without sugar, instead of the instant coffee that, inexplicably, they had decided to give us at the hotel. The first conversations went well. We discussed the results with them, we agreed that the proposal looked good. The only thing missing was to be able to contrast her with the women producers of the cooperatives. Thursday morning, cloudy day. The meeting took place in a small room with bare walls, with glassless windows and two doors permanently open. We sat on plastic chairs, the beach bar terrace type. When Byamhanga, the last one to arrive, sat down, we started the meeting. Yorkonia, ACPCU's gender technician, acted as translator. The women listened to us attentively, nodding their heads. As involved as they were in our idea, when the moment of doubt arrived, some of their questions were already detailed, as if the proposal was already becoming a reality. The proposal seemed to be liked, all doubts had been resolved. All that was left was to ask them for an honest opinion of how they saw it . And, suddenly, casually, simply discussing possible ideas among themselves, they ended up turning the project inside out as if it were a sock. His idea was much better.