This project offers a new link between Anabaptist congregations and people in need in the developing world. We can participate in a more just relationship with our neighbors overseas through our economic choices. Listen to the difference fair trade makes:

In Nicaragua, Equal Exchange helped small farmers to organize their own cooperative federation, PRODECOOP. By participating in the Coffee Project, your congregation can help communities invest in farm improvements, reduce debt, improve nutrition, and provide leadership training for women. "It is very important for you to know that fair trade leads to better roads, better health and better lives for farmers not just in Nicaragua, but around the world," says Rosario Castellón, former director of PRODECOOP.

In India, small farmers living on a former tea plantation joined together to form Samjukta Vikas, a cooperative of 218 members. Members of the coop produce milk, as well as corn, potatoes and spices for themselves and local markets. With the help of fair trade, the farmers have been increasing incomes by reclaiming tea bushes on the plantation, and making the transition to organic agriculture.

CONACADO, the National Confederation of Dominican Cocoa Producers, was founded in 1988 to help small farmers in the Dominican Republic to gain a better price for their cocoa beans through fair trade and organic production. Your purchases help CONACADO to increase incomes, provide training in quality improvement, and support cooperative development in one of the poorest countries in the Caribbean.

In addition, for each pound of coffee, tea, cocoa, and chocolate purchased by Mennonite and Brethren in Christ congregations through the project, Equal Exchange makes a contribution to MCC U.S. programs that support and strengthen community-based cooperatives in coffee-growing regions.