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• Children in Africa

Coffee Kids

Message from Coffee Kids Charity Founder, Bill Fishbein

"Natural disasters throughout the world always, and rightly so, receive a lot of media attention. However, they do not replace the disaster where coffee is grown. Under the circumstances I cannot help but think of the familiar philosophical question, "If a tree falls in a forest and there is no one there to hear it fall does it make a noise?" So, if the media doesn't report a disaster 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, is it still a disaster? There is a disaster every day where coffee is grown. It's just not reported. 25 million coffee farmers live in deep poverty. They live on some of the world's richest land yet cannot feed their families. Children suffer from debilitating diseases because the water is contaminated. And, children don't go to school. Instead, they go to work in the coffee fields, destined to repeat the same impoverished lifestyle of their parents and their parents before them. This disaster repeats itself over and over again.The reason for the disaster is rather simple, yet seems to elude most of the commercial coffee sector. Most of the world's coffee farmers are totally dependent upon coffee as their only source of income. It's that simple"

Coffee communities deserve to enjoy a better life in return for the coffee that we have enjoyed so much

It wasn't so long ago that coffee farmers faced a bleak future - if indeed they had one at all. We knew that by supporting the Fairtrade and organic movements we would begin to see improvements in these communities - but we wanted to do more.

When we discovered Grounds for Hope, Coffee Kids Charity founded in 1988 by Bill Fishbein, the owner of Coffee Exchange, we felt that it offered a real chance for these impoverished communities. Bill created Coffee Kids as a way for coffee businesses and coffee consumers to give something back to the families who grow coffee.

We set up the UK arm of the charity in 1998 because we wanted to be able to give help when it was most needed - at the times when the coffee farmers had no coffee to sell and whole communities suffered immense hardship - especially the children.

Through the Coffee Kids Charity, we can help small-scale coffee farmers address their own communities' problems with health and education. The charity's enterprise projects can also provide farmers with alternative sources of income so they are no longer totally dependent upon selling coffee to support their families.

Helping improve the quality of their lives also brings improvements to the quality of coffee they grow.

Coffee Kids has 8 partners in Latin America yet within these partnerships are 30 - 40 different projects. Percol contributions are split amongst the various programmes.

We are committed to ensuring a sustainable future for coffee communities and therefore award-winning single origin coffee for years to come.

The compelling case for Coffee Kids

Sales of all Percol coffees support Coffee Kids - whether Fairtrade or not. Since the partnership began Percol has donated almost the equivalent of $350,000 to the charity, which has supported a variety of projects.

Percol has been awarded the "Big Tick" by Business in the Community for 6 consecutive years for its ongoing support of the charity.

Case Studies

There are two case studies that illustrate how Coffee Kids is really benefiting Latin American coffee communities, and some of Percol's donations have contributed to both these projects.

Education project in Costa Rica: Fundación Hijos del Campo - the Rural Children's Education Foundation

Start date: 1996
Current participants: 410 scholarships and 16 schools

Coffee Kids' partnership with FHC, in the Guanacaste region of Costa Rica, provides educational opportunities to children in coffee-growing communities who do well in school but can't otherwise afford to continue their studies. The Foundation offers grants to elementary schools to repair school buildings and classrooms (such as to fix leaky roofs, purchase desks, and improve lighting), and to buy educational materials such as textbooks and workbooks, improving the quality of education in these rural communities.

The Foundation also awards scholarships to high school and college students, providing necessities like uniforms, school supplies, and transportation. This project offers opportunities for kids to build a better future for themselves. No longer limited to the life of a coffee labourer like their parents or grandparents, some graduates have returned as teachers in the same schools they attended as children. University scholarships are also given to students who sometimes return to their communities as teachers in the same schools they attended as children, some return to the cooperative as accountants, agronomists and managers. Some become computer programmers and some take on other roles working in their local coffee cooperatives. However, they are no longer totally dependent upon harvesting coffee and therefore free from a cycle of poverty that has trapped their parents and parents' parents for generations.

Community Micro-credit programme in Mexico: GMAS, Grupos de mujeres en ahorro solidario - Women Saving in Solidarity

Start date: 1995
Current participants: over 3,400 in 134 micro-credit groups

The Groups of Women Saving in Solidarity (GMAS) micro credit project based in Huatusco and Coatepec, Mexico, serves more than 3,400 participants and their families. What makes this project unique is its emphasis on savings in addition to providing small, low-interest loans.

Women in these rural communities use the loans to start or expand their own small businesses, ranging from selling tortillas and vegetables to opening a general store. Women generate added income, increase their personal savings, and build their sense of self-esteem. In addition to fostering solidarity, the project gives women the opportunity to take part in other AUGE activities such as gender and healthcare trainings, sanitation projects, and small-scale cut-flower production.

Based on 11 years of experience and with the support of Coffee Kids donors, AUGE has built and is now operating an Education and Training Center in Teocelo, Veracruz. The centre will serve local participants and groups from Latin America and beyond. Workshops will be offered in organizational development, micro credit and community bank management, gender, health care and other issues facing rural coffee-farming communities.

For a more detailed view, visit the Coffee Kids Website