Cotfee Traders
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find out and tell us. This group has met several times, and agreed . amongst themselves to deliver their best coffee as a group to ABK. This coffee is separately received and treated - -- - - - - - - - - ~ throughout the washing station system at Rushashi. We are fortunate in having a very good storekeeper at ABK, Joselyne, (I sent you her photo yesterday) and . she follows what's going on with this coffee from cherry to store, where she becomes responsible for it. The only coffee we are offering from this group is their A1 (most dense grade of parchment) above screen 16 (largest green beans). So at least 50% and probably more of the women's coffee is not being offered as part of the special lot, but is being bulked with the rest of the ABK coffee, according to its grade and screen size. From my perspective as a development person, the most interesting thing ~C -t - -N-_-a_m_p_o_re_ d_,.r-ec_t_o _ r o_f~ . . , . T . . ons ance iy , about this womens 1rn 1at1ve 1s when it Duhingekawa starts to influence the more general L__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ ~ culture going on around it in the coffee farming community. Obviously, the women want to get a better price for their coffee if they can, by differentiating it in this way. They do take great pains with it, it is only their best coffee, so it might well end up being better in the cup than the average, although how much better remains to be seen . What the president says is that if they do get a better price, it will encourage men from other househ'olds (coffee is a male-owned crop in Rwanda, except in the case of women heads of households} to share their coffee farm with their wives, because it will benefit the family in general if the women's coffee can be sold for more than the average price for coffee of similar grade and size . Now this may seem obvious, but in fact it is truly revolutionary stuff. If the men can be motivated to share their coffee trees with their wives, things start to change in society. The women now have their own financial resources, they can choose what to do with at least some of that money. It empowers them economically, it increases their status in the community, it makes them more independent, it helps to even out the balance of economic power between women and men. It sets an example to others, and spreads the benefits of coffee wider and more sustainably. This is true even within a.single family, as the woman has responsibility for the children. but to some extent the man can spend his money how he likes. •
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