The Gitesi Project is a charitable initiative started in 2015 to provide dairy cows to smallholder coffee farms in the Gitesi sector of Rwanda. This year, they are teaming up with a handful of roasters, green coffee buyers, and designers across Australia to bring coffee from the Gitesi washing station to the world with all proceeds going toward the initiative.
From the Gitesi Project website:
Each year, our supporters donate their time and skills to roast, pack, and sell coffee from the Gitesi washing station. 100% of the sale price funds our grassroots program that places dairy cows directly with smallholder coffee farmers in the Gitesi community.
The gifting of cows to under-resourced households is a practice known as a Girinka program, and in the case of these smallholder farmers can be an invaluable resource—providing their families milk for nourishment and sale, as well as organic fertiliser for their crops.
This year’s participant’s include Silo green coffee importers, Market Lane Coffee, Coffee Supreme, Bureaux Collective, and designer Max Blackmore. Beginning in December, all roasting partners will be provided with the Rwandan coffee that they will then roast and sell online and in stores with a Gitesi Project logo sticker adorning the bags of all associated coffees. All sales will go toward providing cows to the smallholder coffee farmers in the Karongi district of Rwanda where the Gitesi washing station is located.
There are multiple ways to get involved. If you are a roaster in Australia, you can donate your time and skills—like Coffee Supreme and Market Lane have—to roasting the coffee that will be sold. If you own a cafe, the Gitesi Project will connect you with one of their roasting partners who will directly supply you with the coffee. If you are a consumer, you can buy coffee. Just look for that sticker. Or you can donate directly to the Gitesi Project.
More information on the Gitesi Project and its partners can be found here.
Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network.
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