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March Newsletter - 2015
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Note Worthy Causes in The News:
(The "news" this month may seem a bit lengthy, however, it is a good read and carries an important point or two. Thank you in advance for taking the time to digest!)
The Story of Cafe Femenino Coffee
With the help of organic and fair trade premiums, much has been accomplished in the rural communities of coffee-producing countries, from improvement in the local economies, better diets, improved sanitation and new wet-processing mills for green coffee beans. However, the marginalization of women in these rural communities continues. In the urban areas of Peru, for example, the abuse rate is estimated at 40% and in the rural communities the rate is far greater.
With little money to count on, a coffee family generally prefers to invest available resources in educating the sons. The daughters stay home and devote themselves to chores around the house and watching over the farm. They usually marry between 12 and 16 years of age and until now, women have only been allowed to participate in the domestic work of the home. If they were allowed to join work groups, it was only in a passive role.
In 2003, the first conference of Women Coffee Producers was held in Northern Peru. The concept of separating these women producers' coffee from the rest of the fair trade co-op's production was a new idea, developed by the fair trade co-op, their organic coffee trading partners, and the women themselves, searching for ideas that would improve their living conditions. The women's conferences focus on building self-esteem, leadership, and sharing experiences. The women's response to these organizational activities has been amazing, as has the support offered by community leaders.
The coffee buyer for PROASSA (an organic trading company in Peru), who travels to the producing regions and works with the growers on a regular basis, is a woman named Isabel Latorre and the first agronomist sent by PROASSA to educate the farmers in organic agriculture was also a woman, Maria Chubas. They are both setting examples for these communities and their leadership has helped to pave the way for other talented women within the co-op.
There are currently well over 1000 women coffee farmers involved with the Cafe Femenino Coffee Project in Peru. The women farmers participate in all farm activities: preparing the terrain, nurseries, and the compost to fertilize the soil; preparing bio-fertilizers; as well as harvesting, de-pulping, fermenting, and drying the coffee. It is very rare for women to participate in selling coffee or in deciding how the money from coffee sales will be used - all of which they do with Cafe Femenino.
Once the coffee leaves the co-op, all sales contracts for Cafe Femenino must be signed and committed to by a woman, and a woman must participate in the sales and marketing of this coffee. An extra two cents per pound above the fair trade price for green coffee is paid by the US importer of Cafe Femenino, and these funds provide income that goes directly to the women producers - the use of this money is for them alone to decide.
Grounds for Change donates an additional 10 cents for each pound of Cafe Femenino sold directly back to this women's coffee growing project to fund annual grants requested by the members. This year, thanks to the continuing support of our customers, we funded the completion of an important culvert in Nueva York, Peru (one of the communities that produces our Cafe Femenino Peru coffee).
We hope you take this concept to heart, share the story and the coffee, and be a part of something that can change the lives and futures of many women. Cafe Femenino started in Peru and is now also available from a women's co-op in Chiapas, Mexico.
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Quechua Benefit Mission Statement
Quechua Benefit is an organization dedicated to helping the Quechua people in the highlands of Peru. We deliver medical, dental and optical care; distribute warm clothing; provide shelter, food, and sociological services with an emphasis on children.
The motivations of those who are brought to charitable work are equally as diverse. Many come through deeply held faith, some through a sense of gratitude for the people of Peru and others from a desire to connect with people from another culture and way of life.
As a non denominational faith-based non-profit, Quechua Benefit strives to unite those who feel a call and have a heart to serve the poorest of the poor in Peru. The Quechua often believe that their spirituality and their physical well being are one. We tell our mission participants: "Do not be afraid to pray with those you come in contact with including patients."
Through our common purpose, we seek to lift up those we serve from physical, environmental and spiritual suffering.
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On A Personal Note...
Coffee
O, boiling, bubbling, berry, bean!
Thou consort of the kitchen queen-
Browned and ground of every feature,
The only aromatic creature,
For which we long, for which we feel,
The breath of morn, the perfumed meal.
For what is tea? It can but mean,
Merely the mildest go-between.
Insipid sobriety of thought and mind
It "cuts no figure"-we can find-
Save peaceful essays, gentle walks,
Purring cats, old ladies' talks-
But coffee! can other tales unfold.
Its history's written round and bold-
Brave buccaneers upon the "Spanish Main",
The army's march across the lenght'ning plain,
The lone prospector wandering o'er the hill,
The hunter's camp, thy fragrance all distill.
So here's a health to coffee! Coffee hot!
A morning toast! Bring on another pot.
Coffee...ah, such a pleasure, the warmth, the aroma, the pure enjoyment it brings. The Alpaca Bean Coffee Company, LLC, Walnut Knoll Farm, LLC, and The Southern Alpaca Connection, LLC are joining together in a meager attempt to provide a means for the folks in Peru, Bolivian, and Equador to get a leg up, and a bit of the enjoyment they help folks in our country enjoy. I will attempt to tell our effort after you read this piece:
Peru: Life of the Quechua
Up in the Andes, daily existence is a struggle for young people
By Lisa Poliak | May , 2007
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Eleven thousand feet high in Peru's Andes Mountains sit the villages of Chumpe (CHOOM-pee) and Poques (POKE-es). People here live much as their ancestors did, simply and close to nature. But for young people in this remote region of South America, the future can be uncertain.
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Luis Quispe Illa, 14, is one of those young people. Until recently, Luis attended the Chumpe Poques elementary school, which sits between the two villages. Many of that school's students must walk long distances over mountain roads in freezing temperatures to get there. But Luis's trip to the nearest high school, in Lamay, is even longer. "I have to walk three hours" from the village of Chumpe, Luis told JS.
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Like everyone in his village, Luis comes from a campesino (peasant farmer) family. In addition to his studies and the six-hour round-trip trek each day, Luis works hard to help his family survive. "I help my dad on the [farm]. I put the sheep and cows to pasture," Luis said.
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"In my community, it is very cold," he added. "It hails, and it's foggy. I wear a poncho in the cold."
Inescapable Poverty
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Luis and his family are Quechua (KECH-wuh), an indigenous (native) people of the Andes. The Quechua occupy an area that stretches from Ecuador to Bolivia. They were an important part of Andean civilization long before the Inca conquered them in the 15th century. The Quechua language even survived conquest by the Spanish, about 500 years ago.
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But in these mountains, poverty is inescapable. To find work, young Quechua must leave home. Cusco (KOOS-koh), the nearest major city, is about four hours away by car in good weather. More often, the roads are washed out, making the trip slow and hazardous. When they finally get to Cusco, the Quechua face discrimination by the majority mestizo (mixed Spanish and indigenous) population.
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Brian Bauer is a professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. According to Bauer, the -Spanish-speaking mestizos look down on the Quechua because of their darker skin, Indian features, language, and traditional clothing.
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"There's tremendous unemployment in Cusco already," Bauer told JS. "[Young Quechua] go to the city seeking a better life, but it's hard to get."
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Wanted: A High School
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Zulma Quispe, 13, lives in Poques. Since graduating from the Chumpe Poques School, she spends her days cooking and washing clothes for her father and brother. Zulma wants to go to the high school in Lamay, but can't just now. She would need room and board in Lamay, but "there is no money," Zulma told JS.
- "The Peruvian government is desperately poor," Bauer said. "They do not have the resources to cover the tremendous demand for education." Even in existing schools, basic necessities such as textbooks and desks are in short supply. At the Chumpe Poques School, bathrooms are just now being constructed, after 86 years.
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The people of the mountain communities want their own high school. However, "there is no money to build a high school, no money to pay a high-school teacher," said Jessica Florez. Florez is a teacher and the principal of the Chumpe Poques School.
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Florez often goes months without being paid. Her mother, Matilde (mah-TEEL-day), was also a dedicated teacher, Florez said. Matilde often lived apart from her family so she could teach children in remote mountain communities. Florez now does the same, seeing her own daughter only on weekends and holidays.
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The need for education among the Quechua is crucial, Florez told JS. "Many students don't go past grade school. They forget how to read and write."
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An Ancient Culture
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The people of Andean mountain communities depend on the strength of an ancient culture. The concept of ayni (EYE-nee) is central to the traditional Quechua way of life. It can be defined as "Today I help you, tomorrow you help me."
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"People couldn't farm and survive in this harsh climate without ayni," said Carol Cumes. Cumes is the founder of the Willka T'ika Children's Fund, which assists children in remote Andean communities.
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The Quechua and other Andean people practice a traditional spirituality that worships the Pachamama (Mother Earth) and the Apukuna (mountain and nature spirits). Many Quechua have also incorporated Christian beliefs into their traditions, and identify themselves as Catholic. Shamans (priests and healers) freely mix Biblical figures with the nature spirits.
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A Way Out of Poverty?
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Are strong traditions enough to hold young people in their native villages? Like other indigenous people all over the world, the Quechua are struggling with that question.
"It's almost impossible to work your way out of poverty," Bauer said of the Andean communities. "These people want exactly what we want out of life. They want good jobs, education, health care." For now, it is hard to say whether Zulma and Luis will be able to find those things in their homes-or far away.
The Quechua Benefit wraps around a variety of assistance efforts and is a focal point that alpaca breeders in the United States have to focus our efforts in Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador...three countries where the precious alpaca originates. You see, the Quechua people predated the Incan nation, and were, in fact, conquered by th Incans. Since that time they have been placed in rather bad economic and social situations before and after the time of the Spanish invasion.
The Café Femenino Foundation, somewhat like the Quechua Benefit, wraps around a variety of assistance efforts and it is a focal point for coffee producers in the United States, to provide woman run coffee farms in Peru, Bolivia and other countries with a way of enabling a traditionally abused and neglected part of the population of these countries to have a means to improve themselves and their communities.
The Alpaca Bean recently made the decision to purchase our Peruvian coffee from Café Femenino because it will provide you with an excellent coffee choice and will in turn provide income and assistance to the women of Peru and Bolivia. We will also begin to investigate the potential for purchasing Bolivian coffee in the future. Because of our commitment, we will be returning part of our income from the sale of roasted coffee in addition to the cost we incur from purchasing the green coffee from this Co-Op.
Our farm will continue to support The Quechua Benefit from direct contributions and from the purchase of products produced by the Quechua people.
Why are we telling you about these things? Well, we want you to know about these worthwhile programs, so that you might also feel led to contribute to a couple of known projects that are indeed making a difference in the lives of the people that are providing all of us with the pleasure of alpaca garments and the pleasing tastes of our beverage of choice.
Yes, we are also wanting you to know that we are trying to "walk the walk" as well as "talking the talk!" Are we looking to benefit from our walk? Well, all I can say is we hope not to be harmed by it! We feel you will understand the reasons we are sharing this with you, and hope that we can do our part to roast a delicious cup from these exceptional green coffee beans that we have now obtained from some very professional coffee farmers in Peru.
Take care, enjoy your next mug of The Alpaca Bean Coffee and we will see you again soon!
Peace,
The Coffeeman
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