Opportunity Cargo
September 15, 2009
By: Martin Kabaki and Purity Gikunku
Kenyan coffee growers are a humble people, making a living by growing the best gourmet coffee available on the market today. Due to government corruption and greed, growers were not allowed to sell their own harvest on the international market until 2005. The government opened an avenue for growers to sell their own crop to anyone they pleased, a piece of legislation referred to as the "Second Window."
With direct grower-to-buyer marketing and distribution now a possibility, Growers Alliance Coffee Company was born. Owned and operated by children of the Mt. Kenya region, Martin Kabaki and Purity Gikunku headquarter the company in Jacksonville, Florida, USA.
Due to the unfavorable economic realities that plagued the coffee farms for so many years, the quality of life is relatively low. The growers do not have sufficient housing, clean water, health clinics or decent clothing.
With a determination of changing these issues one at a time, Growers Alliance Fund was born. Growers Alliance Fund partnered with Mission Harvest America, a non-profit organization also based in Jacksonville, Florida, to provide valuable supplies to coffee-growing communities in the Mt. Kenya region (the Gikumbo, Kathunguri, Gachuriri cooperative societies). Mission Harvest America has donated two 20 ft containers, full of water filtration systems, 20 computers, a motor scooter and warm clothes, to the Growers Alliance Fund.
The water filtration systems will greatly improve the quality of water, making it more suitable for day to day tasks and safer to drink. The computers will be installed in Kathunguri primary school, which Growers Alliance Fund has been building to serve over 100 students. The motor scooter will aid in moving the harvest from the farms to the collection points of Gikumbo Coffee Cooperative Society, which is comprised of over 350 members. The roads extremely worn and eroded by rain water; too much for animal-pulled carts to pass through. However, the motor scooter will easily pass and be able to carry more crop than a normal cart could. The warm clothes are a big bonus to the people who live around the Mt. Kenya region, because the area is quite cold.
ROSA LOVES has partnered with the Growers Alliance Coffee Company with the goal of raising the money required to ship these containers to Kenya.
Kenyan coffee growers are a humble people, making a living by growing the best gourmet coffee available on the market today. Due to government corruption and greed, growers were not allowed to sell their own harvest on the international market until 2005. The government opened an avenue for growers to sell their own crop to anyone they pleased, a piece of legislation referred to as the "Second Window."
With direct grower-to-buyer marketing and distribution now a possibility, Growers Alliance Coffee Company was born. Owned and operated by children of the Mt. Kenya region, Martin Kabaki and Purity Gikunku headquarter the company in Jacksonville, Florida, USA.
Due to the unfavorable economic realities that plagued the coffee farms for so many years, the quality of life is relatively low. The growers do not have sufficient housing, clean water, health clinics or decent clothing.
With a determination of changing these issues one at a time, Growers Alliance Fund was born. Growers Alliance Fund partnered with Mission Harvest America, a non-profit organization also based in Jacksonville, Florida, to provide valuable supplies to coffee-growing communities in the Mt. Kenya region (the Gikumbo, Kathunguri, Gachuriri cooperative societies). Mission Harvest America has donated two 20 ft containers, full of water filtration systems, 20 computers, a motor scooter and warm clothes, to the Growers Alliance Fund.
The water filtration systems will greatly improve the quality of water, making it more suitable for day to day tasks and safer to drink. The computers will be installed in Kathunguri primary school, which Growers Alliance Fund has been building to serve over 100 students. The motor scooter will aid in moving the harvest from the farms to the collection points of Gikumbo Coffee Cooperative Society, which is comprised of over 350 members. The roads extremely worn and eroded by rain water; too much for animal-pulled carts to pass through. However, the motor scooter will easily pass and be able to carry more crop than a normal cart could. The warm clothes are a big bonus to the people who live around the Mt. Kenya region, because the area is quite cold.
ROSA LOVES has partnered with the Growers Alliance Coffee Company with the goal of raising the money required to ship these containers to Kenya.
