Friends,
Here's some news about our projects in Guatemala.
After the community of Chacalté successfully completed the perimeter wall around their primary school to support the safety of their students, we assisted in the building of a second perimeter wall around the secondary school, pictured here. This wall is close to completion, and Bill, our Founder and Executive Director, is planning to visit the community in March to see the completed project and discuss other development opportunities with the leadership in Chacalté.
Chajulense de Mujeres, the very successful women’s microcredit project, issues loans to individual women and trains them in financial literacy, household budgeting, and business skills.
Paula and Pepe, our team in Guatemala, are serving in advisor roles for Chajulense de Mujeres. They are supporting the project's leaders and advisors in establishing systems to track loans, business activities, repayment rates, and other data—ensuring the project can effectively monitor its impact.
You may remember Roderico, a Coffee Trust scholarship recipient who studied agricultural engineering. We are excited to share that Roderico, who was also a technician in our Roya Recovery Project, is now overseeing the coordination of Asociación Chajulense's technical unit. He coordinates promoters and technicians who are out in the field providing technical assistance to the coffee cooperative's farmers. Roderico is a coffee and cardamom farmer himself, and we're thrilled to see him taking on a leadership role in the cooperative.
Vision Guatemala, a new nonprofit organization supporting communities around Lake Atitlan in Guatemala, is forming a women's microcredit program. The Coffee Trust will assist in its development, and staff from Vision Guatemala will visit Chajulense de Mujeres in March with Bill and Paula.
We're exhibiting at the NCA Virtual Convention, March 8-10. Will we see you there? Visit our virtual booth and say "hello!"
Learn more about the convention and register here.