Rwanda: Women and Education in Coffee Cultivation

In collaboration with the Fondazione Ernesto Illy, the Kahawatu Foundation (Rwanda) has developed a project to start a coffee field that will serve as a Farmer Field School for members of the Hindiro sector community in the Ngororero district.

The implementation of the project began in June 2019 with the identification of 40 women beneficiaries of the project and the land acquisition process.

Since September 2019 the women, helped by the Kahawatu Foundation, have begun the procedures to become a real women’s cooperative “Abahuzamugambi Ba” coffee growers.

In February 2020 the inaugural Ceremony was organized in which  a meeting with the 40 women beneficiaries of the project that counted almost one hectare perched on one of the Thousands Rwandan Hills took place

The Cooperative uses a particular variety of coffee, RAB C15, recently developed by the Rwandan NAEB that best resists fungi and pests. The Cooperative will verify the new variety performance compared to the BM139, the other cultivated variety.

The first coffee harvest produced in the women’s Cooperative is expected in 2022.