¡GUATE IS IN OUR HANDS! #WECARE BRACELETS

#WECARE PROJECT PRESS CONFERENCE

After more than a decade working in coffee producing communities of Guatemala – where we have built schools, clinics and computer labs – we have come to the conclusion that families will remain extremely poor, if they don’t generate an additional income during the rest of year other than picking coffee. As you probably know by now, families travel to large coffee plantations during the harvest season, seeking for job opportunities, but they take their children along, as leaving them home unattended is definitely not an option. Then, once on the coffee fields, they experience the exact same problem: they cannot leave their children alone at their temporary homes either, and that leads to having children on the fields; sometimes just running around, but other times, helping their parents. And as you might have guessed, that is also considered a form of child labor.

Therefore, in order to reverse this cycle, we needed to start creating alternatives during the harvest season for parents not to take their children with them. Hence our Kita project, which turned a great success.

For more information please visit:

http://coffeecare.com.gt/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/2018-Anual-report-Coffee-Care.pdf

But something else needed to be done, once the harvest is over.

And that is how our #WECARE model started. In 2016, we selected 600 families from Santa Barbara Huehuetenango, who not only picked coffee but that also produced a little, and started a training program with them. The goal was (and still is) to double their production within 3 years, and by the end of 2020, we hope to scale the impact to 1,000 families, more.

But the best part is that we have formed 2 women groups, most of them wives and daughters of these coffee producers, and taught them how to make very cool and fashionable bracelets. And even if this is only our first product, these women are already starting to feel the benefits of generating their own income, and are on their way to fulfil their dreams.

The bracelets made by women coffee pickers will always be identified by a green segment – in order to differentiate those from others in the market. They are currently being sold at all & coffee shops in Guatemala, or through a direct order to Coffee Care.

Please watch this video and help us to spread the word. Thanks.