This project offers an innovative link to the people with whom LWR works. We can reach out to our neighbors overseas with the things we purchase as well as the offerings we give. In addition, for each pound of coffee, tea and cocoa purchased through the project, Equal Exchange makes a contribution to LWR projects with coffee farmers and their families. Listen to the difference fair trade makes:

“We used to live in houses made of corn husks,” says Don Miguel Sifontes, president of a coffee cooperative in El Salvador that sells to Equal Exchange. “Now we have better work, better schools, homes of adobe, and a greater brotherhood of decision-makers.”

In Nicaragua, the project gave special assistance to PRODECOOP, a cooperative federation, as they worked to rebuild in the wake of Hurricane Mitch. By serving coffee grown by these farmers, parishioners also help the co-op invest in farm improvements, reduce bank debt, improve nutrition, and provide administrative training for members.

In Tanzania, Equal Exchange worked with the Kilimanjaro Native Cooperative Union (KNCU) to export their coffee directly to the U.S. for the first time. Gabriel Ulomi of KNCU thanked Lutheran churches for getting involved in the project: “By drinking a cup of fairly traded coffee, you’re giving small farmers in poor countries an opportunity to plan their own futures.”