Coffee for Clean Water
Safe, clean drinking water is a human right but currently, not all people have access to potable water. Your purchases of our Colombian Sucafina Originals – Bochica, Huitaca and Tumbaga – will contribute to building water filtration systems in coffee farming communities in Colombia through The Farmgate Initiative.
Through Farmgate Initiative, roasters can contribute to socially focused projects in their direct supply chains. By purchasing these coffees, you are making a specific and positive impact on the people who produced your coffee.
In Los Medios community in Caldas, 70 coffee-growing families didn’t have access to clean water. Without clean water, diseases spread quickly and everyone, especially children, was at risk. Sucafina’s on-the-ground partner in Colombia, Local Partners is a Colombia-based non-profit organization that develops sustainable initiatives for the coffee sector. Working with Cooperativa de Caficultores de Manizales, a cooperative from whom Sucafina sources coffee, Local Partners worked to build a water filtration plant in Los Medios that serves local families and 25 school children whose schools will be connected to the plant. With safe drinking water, the percentage of people who would contract gastrointestinal diseases from drinking water went from 15% to 0% almost immediately.
Hear from community members in Los Medios, the first community where Sucafina in Colombia helped build a water processing plant.
Los Medios is the first rural coffee community in our supply chain to receive a potable water plant from Sucafina. This fills a need among some rural communities that do not have access to clean water. Up until recently, ongoing conflict in many areas has made it difficult to implement social development projects like building clean water plants. These communities are among the 1.6 million people in Colombia who don’t have access to clean, safe water. Now, expanding peace is making it possible to invest in these rural, coffee-growing communities and build essential infrastructure to improve lives. And that’s exactly what Sucafina and Local Partners are focused on.
Los Medios was selected for the first plant because of the community’s dedication to building and maintaining a water purification system. Los Medios community members held meetings, allocated space to build the plant and contributed labor to help build the plant.
These are the selection criteria that were used to pick Los Medios as the first community where Sucafina and Local Partners would help build a water treatment system:
The community recognizes how important this development is and advocated to have the first plant in their area. “We needed this. We fought for it to move forward because it truly is a project worth bringing to our region,” says Luz Nancy Ortiz, a farmer in the community.
The total cost of the project is about $19,000 of which, about $11,000 is financed by Farmgate Initiative.
At Los Medios, the daily management, maintenance and cleaning of the plant will be the role of the community. Local Partners will handle follow up, monitoring of use and identifying new needs in the community related to the project.
Given the success of the first plant with Los Medios, Sucafina and Local Partners will continue identifying new regions and communities that are the best fit for future water plants and Sucafina will continue working with roasters to contribute funds towards the construction of new plants. Interested in getting involved? In addition to purchasing coffees that contribute to this Farmgate Initiative project, roasters can earmark larger contributions to this project. Get in touch with your trader to start making a difference in your supply chain today.
*Not available in Asia Pacific. Contact your trader to express your interest.
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