Problem

Ethiopia is overwhelmingly poor. Ethiopia is ranked 170th (out of 177) in the UNDP Human Development Index, life expectancy is just 45 years, and only 38% of the population has clean running water. Yet in this challenging environment grow some of the world’s most celebrated coffees. Ethiopian coffee farmers have the potential to keep themselves out of poverty while also maintaining sustainable farming practices…but only if they have the financial tools they need.

The Gift

Your gift will help support the Sidama Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union, which represents more than 86,000 coffee growers in the verdant, humid forests of south-central Ethiopia. Here, the most extensive indigenous forest ecosystem in all of East Africa supports farmers growing arabica coffee on tiny plots of land in a traditional agroforestry system. This system includes indigenous trees intercropped with enset, or "false banana," a staple food crop.

Sidama's shade-managed and organic farms play an important role in increasing incomes in this impoverished region. Equally important, these farming practices help conserve the diversity and health of these delicate forest ecosystems.

Your support of this cooperative, through financing from Root Capital (a social investment fund), helps thousands of farmers grow this high quality coffee that allows them to access premium prices on the world market.