Coffee Cooperative Fundraiser
Project Title: Coffee Cooperative Fundraiser
Project Manager: Sara Schaefer, Ph.D., President of Health Initiative
Location: San Miguelito, Department of Intibucá, Honduras
Executing Organization: W.A.S.H., United States Peace Corps, COCASMIL
Amount Solicited: $4,200.00 busineses
San Miguel Guancalpa (San Miguelito) is a rural municipality located in the department of Intibucá in western Honduras. It consists of a small town center and surrounding rural villages and is home to approximately 7,500 people. The municipality is poverty-stricken; human development index is 0.314, average education years obtained is 1.6, and malnutrition prevalence is 80.9%.
The region is highly productive in coffee and inhabitants of the municipality are supported mainly through coffee agriculture. However, the world coffee crisis is evident here as the farmers are struggling to earn adequate income to support their business and families. These small coffee farmers grow and harvest coffee trees on personal plots of land. Lacking the proper equipment necessary to process the beans, they instead sell the beans for low prices to intermediaries who have access to cash to buy the beans and then market it for further processing. As a result, the farmers see just a small percentage of the profits, if any at all. As a result of this crisis, San Miguelito coffee farmers have come together to form a cooperative. La Cooperativa Cafetalera San Miguelito Limitada (COCASMIL) is in the second of three development stages. With the help of various institutions this cooperative has initiated a project to construct a central production center including adequate structures for drying, storage, and sustainable compost production. The construction of these facilities will allow farmers to produce a quality product in order to improve the quality of coffee produced by farmers in the municipality, obtain Fair Trade Certification, and sell directly on the market. Reducing the amount of intermediaries in the marketing process will generate higher incomes in this region’s most widespread income yielding sector and contribute significantly to poverty reduction in the municipality.
This current project is soliciting funds in order to construct COCASMIL´s most immediate and crucial construction need, a roof that will allow proper storage of the coffee beans, starting with those produced in this year´s season. Construction of this roof will put in motion activities required to obtain Fair Trade Certification and subsequent marketing of the coffee product. Current amount solicited in $4,200.00.
To donate to this project, click on the Donate tab and include a note stating, "This donation is for the Coffee Cooperative of San Miguelito".
