Coffee Cooperative

For as long as I can remember, I have been passionate about helping others. Between my junior and senior years of high school, I spent over 100 hours tutoring undereducated adults at the Houston READ Commission. From 2010 until the present day, I have put in over 110 hours at the Christian Community Service Center (CCSC), interviewing clients to determine their needs for food, clothing and hygiene products. I spent summer 2011 in the Dominican Republic, laying down cement floors, building latrines and teaching kids English.

Now God has presented me with the amazing opportunity to help the people of Antigua, Guatemala. As you may already know, coffee makes up roughly one third of Guatemala’s exports, bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars to the country every year. Yet thanks to middlemen, very little of this money actually winds up in the farmers’ pockets, and most of these farmers continue to earn a meager wage of $2 per day. Such low wages have led to shockingly high malnutrition, disease and mortality rates across the country.

Over the past several years, many farmers have joined cooperatives as a means of fighting for higher wages, and I wish to help them do so. As part of the Global Volunteer Network (GVN), I will assist a local coffee cooperative with coffee processing, packing and production, as well as school construction and general reforestation efforts. While the GVN offers shorter trips, I have chosen to dedicate four weeks of my time in the hopes that I will be able to make an even greater impact upon the local community. After all, it is difficult to reverse income inequality in only a couple of weeks.

My goal is to raise $650 to cover the cost of my flight. Every little bit helps, so I am asking for small donations, anywhere between $10-20 per donor. If I surpass my goal of $650, I will direct the additional funds toward my program fee ($1800). I should also mention that I will be leaving October 5, so unfortunately you don't have much time to donate. But thank you in advance for your generosity. I will keep you all posted on my trip.

For more information on the organization I'm working with and the program fee breakdown, go here: http://www.globalvolunteernetwork.org/guatemala/projects/coffee-project.

God bless,

Courtney