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Rambagira Kawa Women
Rwanda
White Chocolate / Strawberry / Lime
story
This coffee comes from the Mbilima washing station, located at 2,020 masl. in the hills of Mbilima.
Musasa Dukunde Kawa operates four washing stations across north-western Rwanda. Most producers own less than a quarter of a hectare, tending around 250–300 coffee trees alongside other crops such as maize and beans. Smallholders combine their harvests to colelctively process the cherries centrally at the washing station, this way farmers are able to access the specialty market and achieve significantly higher returns.
The cooperative’s success is closely linked to its participation in the PEARL programme and its successor, SPREAD programme, which helped transform Rwanda’s coffee sector from a focus on quantity to quality. Today, producers working with Musasa Dukunde Kawa have seen their incomes at least double, and the cooperative consistently produces exceptional specialty lots.
At Mbilima, small but skillfully managed farms thrive due to diverse shade trees such as Maesopsis eminii, Calliandra, Leucaena, Polycias, and Grevillea. As climate change brings rising temperatures and increasingly irregular rainfall, the cooperative continues to support producers through training in climate adaptation, soil conservation, and access to new coffee varieties better suited to these changing conditions.
rambagira kawa womens group
processed exclusively by women
This particular lot is produced exclusively by 130 women members of the Rambagira Kawa Women’s Group. The premiums earned from this coffee are directly reinvested into initiatives that support these women, many of whom are widows, genocide survivors, and heads of their households.
rambagira kawa womens group
making an impact on their community
The women in this group take full ownership of their supply chain, collectively exporting more than two containers of coffee each year. They maintain financial independence through their own bank account, cultivate a shared coffee plot, and operate a community lending scheme that provides members with interest-free loans.
These initiatives have a direct and meaningful impact on each member’s livelihood, improving access to healthcare and childcare, supporting education, and empowering them to pass on knowledge to the next generation of coffee producers.
rambagira kawa womens group
Gender Equality Champions
Due to the dedication and hard work of these women, the Dukunde Kawa Musasa cooperative was named the Overall African Winner of the 2022 Fairtrade Africa Gender Equality Champion, beating every other Fairtrade producer across the continent.
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