Family of Giving
October, 2024
With your support so many lives have been enhanced forever.
We, and the coffee producers, are so thankful for your ongoing support.
Most recently the Kerry funds were approved to change lives by supporting following projects:
Granting HOPE Together – Women’s Leadership Workshop Series
A series of workshops to be presented to the women in the three regions of Lambayeque, Cajamarca and the Amazonas.
Participant Summary: 50 women leaders; 200 women workshop participants and 20 male leaders were workshop participants.
Granting Hope Together Workshop Topics will be:
* Empowerment & Leadership
* Collaborative Work
* Soil Analysis
* Organic Fertilizer Preparation
* Productive Diversification Worships (crops and breeding)
* Integrated Pest and Disease Management
* Coexistence between Agriculture and Biodiversity
* Financial Literacy
* Exchange of Experiences, as well as participation incentives.
Specific Objectives and how the objectives air to improve the lives of women and children in these coffee-producing communities:
* Women taking leadership positions in the organization
* Women gain comprehensive view of farm management
* Women knowing the Time of Use of Time in Reproductive Activities
* Women gain a comprehensive vision in the leadership of the organization
Young Adult Training Program in Cajamarca
This is an ongoing program being offered to students and community leaders to share coffee farming best practices and encourage the younger generation to remain in their communities and how to produce an excellent coffee crop that will provide a substantial income for them and their family.
Mini Water Reservoir in Lambayeque, Communities of Villarumi, Quebrada, Granadilla
These communities are ones of extreme poverty and in need assistance to improve the productivity of the crops and pastures. Water is scarce and water management is difficult. Climate change has seriously affected the cultivation of both coffee and food, rainfall has been reduced to only four months per year. They have been able to distribute the water through a system of channels to the producers by flooding, which can cause erosion of the soils and under-utilization of the water resources. These funds will build small reservoirs that benefit 10 families and allow them to store their water quotas and install a sprinkler irrigation system making it possible to have enough water at the time of the flowering of the coffee and to achieve an increase in production and quality, as well as ensure water for production of vegetables and quinoa and kiwicha. Funds will be used for materials (cement, pipes, plastic liners, sprinklers and hose) to construct the reservoirs, as well as qualified workforce, transportation of materials and some technical advice.
Kitchens – Raised Cooking Surfaces and Ventilation Pipes in Amazonas, Communities of San Antonio del Ron, La Talma, El Aliso
Most the of family kitchens in these rural communities are without windows or lighting. The walls and ceilings are low not allowing light to come in, making it difficult to see what they are cooking in their pots, “it’s like cooking in the dark”. There is a lot of soot on the walls and ceilings that is not only contaminating their food, causing respiratory illnesses in the women and children who are more often in the kitchens. This project will implement 15 kitchen improvements (new raised cooking surfaces and ventilating the smoke to the outside). The overall goal is to provide a safe and more smoke/soot free environment and reduce the incidences of respiratory disease in these 25 kitchens in these communities.
Kitchens – Raised Cooking Surfaces and Ventilation Pipes in Amazonas, Community of Vista Hermosa
The description is that same as above, however, we were available to the delivery of the cooking surfaces on our September Trip to Peru. I wish that some day you could travel with us to witness the joy and excitement of these women and families as their names are called to receive the gift of this life changing cooking surface. In Vista Hermosa the ventilation pipes were delivery a few weeks later.
PROJECT FROM THE PAST: CACAO FARM, VIRGEN DE FATIMA, PERU
In April, 2020 Kerry funds were sent to Peru for Cacao Farming, income diversification projects. Coffee produces an income once a year and providing opportunities for an additional income is key when “enhancing the lives of the women and families”. Once communities were able to reopen after the pandemic, information workshops to presented and supplies delivered to Guadelupe, La Ramada and Virgen de Fatima. The reports given were less than encouraging. We saw the small cacao trees, we were told they moved them, we were presented a small cacao until our trip to Virgen de Fatima in September. We were standing visiting with the community members when a woman steps forward and said “Thank you for supporting me and for the Cacao Farm, I currently have 200 cacao trees and it has now become our family cacao farm”. In addition to coffee, the family grows cacao and produces chocolate to be consumed and sold in their community and at local markets. That afternoon we hiked to her farm, learned a lot about growing cacao and even sampled the cacao right there on the side of the mountain in her Cacao Farm.
Together We Made A Difference.
There are many more projects I would enjoy sharing with you but I thought I would share just a few now. If you are interested in more information I’d be happy to work with you to create the report and message you’d like to share with others.
